Linspire and Freespire

[Gracetech]

I ran accross these linux builds the other day and was wondering what ya think of it?

Originally Posted by Gracetech

I ran accross these linux builds the other day and was wondering what ya think of it?

linspire *was* lindows till a few years back they got nailed by microsoft

i have not tried these distros but i have heard good and bad, the machines sold well in wal-mart but wal-mart pulled them due to people not knowing what to do with them as they were not windows machines

personally i run UBUNTU

[Gracetech]

Yeah i've used ubunto but wanted to try something different. It's funny but linspire and freespire are supsedly the same yet they charge for linspire. I wish adobe would start suporting linux. That would allow me to make a complete switch.

crt

[Tony Kanago]

I'm a real fan of FreeBSD for desktops, to be honest. Ubuntu, as an operating system, is nothing special. As far as community support, it's great, but take a look at the nature of Linux.

A bunch of people with varying histories editing and working on basically whatever they choose.

Versus FreeBSD, where contributors are generally trained for BSD development and have shown their talent before being allowed to be a contributer.

Hmmmm..

[blwells45]

I've tried many, many versions of linux. But, the one that "feels" right to me is Fedora. To me, an OS is a personal choice that involves a combination of what you need and what you like. Just like some like SongShow Plus and some like Easyworship. (And if I forgot your favorite worship software, please forgive me.)

As far as the linspire/freespire being paid/free, linspire includes proprietary codecs and drivers that don't come with other distros "out of the box."

[Gracetech]

While i'm pickin' yall's brains about linux. A friend of mine told me to go with a debian build. He said i would be much happier with it. Ok so not knowing the difference i just smile and nod and go make a post on CMN. So enlighten me. Is there a big difference in the builds(load question)? What might make debian build so unique?

crt

[kbob]

one of the contributors to debian recently left in a bit of a huff, due to the free for all nature of the discussion boards. Ubuntu seems to have a bit more disciplined approach-but hey, I'm still stuck with windows-our vertical market software for our industry is essentially entirely windows based, from our report writing /database managing software to our research programs, even mls locally requires only ie 6 and nothing else-not even ie 7 works with it!

Sigh...and no, wine et al doesn't work with any of them either.

[[Admin] PHugger]

Ubuntu is Debian base. Ubuntu has some serious financial backing from a DotCom millionaire - South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. You may recall he was one of our early space tourists and the first African to visit space. I found this intersting tidbit........

'In the Ubuntu project, Shuttleworth is often referred to with the tongue-in-cheek title Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life.'

Tim really needs to step it up now!




PCH

[blwells45]

Tony is definately the expert on this and I will defer to his extreme knowledge in espousing the differences between the various linux flavours.

If someone were to ask me about linux, my opinion (and that is just that, an opinion) would be to advise towards a Red Hat derivative. Simply, because that's what <b>I</b> like and am comfortable with and if I had to help them, I would be most knowledgable about what I use. There are others here who would agree with your friend RE a debian build or derivative.

[[Director] Joseph B]

Originally Posted by blwells45

I've tried many, many versions of linux. But, the one that "feels" right to me is Fedora. To me, an OS is a personal choice that involves a combination of what you need and what you like. Just like some like SongShow Plus and some like Easyworship. (And if I forgot your favorite worship software, please forgive me.)

As far as the linspire/freespire being paid/free, linspire includes proprietary codecs and drivers that don't come with other distros "out of the box."

You did forget my favorite, but there are so many right now you probably couldn't list them all.

[voyager529]

This thread is starting to fork a bit, but here's my 1/2 cent.

First off, Tony is my *nix expert. if I ever have a question regarding the topic, he's the one I go to. I'm simply a mere mortal that has a few disc images on my server and dual-boot my laptop when I'm feeling adventurous. my only regret is that I didn't meet him until *after* I took a Linux class (the professor taught more about Roman coins than about Linux in the class :-/. but I got to hold a denarius!).
That being said, I personally am partial to Xandros. Especially if you're making the switch from Windows, I've found Xandros, while distinctly Linux under the hood, feels alot like Windows 2000. It *is* Debian-based, and it does alot of stuff that many other Linux distros just don't do effectively - the 'duh' stuff like auto-mounting USB drives, including a decent help system (I learned more from reading that help file than I did in my Linux class!), a great boot manager, an intelligently laid out and intuitive control panel, and about the best attempt at a simple driver installation system for plug-n-pray hardware that I've seen. Like Linspire, they have an online 'software depot' where you can get third party apps quick and simple.
Xandros also has multiple versions - a freeware one you get using Bittorrent (or can download direct for $10), a home version, a business version, and a server version. www.xandros.com.


Best of luck!


Joey