I was looking at the home page of this site earlier today and I saw an ad for Xandros advertising it as the ‘King of the Linux Desktop.’ I figured I’d check out what it was claiming and I went to Xandros’ home page to see their claims.

Xandros is very similar to Linspire but, as Gary will tell you in his review of Linspire, Linspire is really not a useful version of Linux. It fails to truly add much to Linux other than branding many open source applications as their own.

Xandros seems to suck less than Linspire. It has an intuitive interface and it attempts to provide an experience as similar to Windows as possible. Mad Penguin has this to say:

Xandros 2.0 Deluxe falls in a special category of distros reserved for the would-be Windows convert. It keeps close company with its cousin LindowsOS [Linspire], and with features such as seamless Windows networking, CD burning/file manager integration, directory/printer sharing, and easy software updates makes it stand head and shoulders above the rest. After reviewing other Windows-like distros such as LindowsOS [Linspire], I believe Xandros has done a much better job.

Of course, both Xandros and Linspire cost actual money to buy. This is acceptable for pieces of software like CodeWeavers Crossover Office which develops a useful application and uses it’s revenue to add to the development of Wine, which helps everyone. With Xandros and Linspire however there’s no indirect aid to the Linux community - just people spending money for Linux.

It’s because of the rather mediocre performance of Linspire and Xandros (compared to many other distributions) that I would suggest to everyone who’s trying to convert from Windows to try either Ubuntu or Kubuntu. They are the same operating system with only the graphical interface changed. Specifically, I’d recommend Kubuntu for new users (it’s prettier).

Jem Matzam at NewsForge reviewed the newest release of the Linspire distribution. At version 5.0 it’s come a long way, but Jem points out some flaws that will cause most Linux users to punch their computer in frustration.

Linspire Five-0 is a mildly improved edition of Debian-based Linspire. The interface and desktop are a little prettier than they were, CNR (Linspire’s Click N Run “software warehouse”) has a few more entries, and hardware support has gotten better. From a technical standpoint, there isn’t much wrong with Linspire 5.0 — it works well and as expected.
NewsForge

Linspire has tried to be the entry point for new Linux users coming from Windows. If a person is so new to Linux that they don’t miss the Gimp or the advanced features that all other distributions offer, then they’ll probably be very satisfied with Linspire. Linspire has software limits much like many apple products. The photo manager, for example, is designed to do manage photos in a basic way and burn them straight to a CD if a user presses the ‘burn to cd’ button.

Linspire is great for beginners, that’s about it.

Linspire Inc (formerly Lindows - they got sued) has released a free version of their otherwise closed-source operating system. It’s only the LiveCD but it’s enough for a tase of what Linspire has to offer.

Linspire was one of the first corporations to begin aggressively taking normal users from Windows and offering them a Linux flavor that wouldn’t make them do anything hacker-like. The package manager that ships with Linspire is called ‘Click-N-Run’ and it does exactly what it promises. It appears to be binary packages that can be browsed and downloaded from the Linspire server and immediately installed. The abstraction that the CNR interface provides is an essential component of any entry-level linux distro in my opinion. If you can’t install the program that you need, the rest of the computer has no use to you.

Version 5.0 of the Linspire LiveCD can be downloaded (for free, legally) via bittorrent at the following link: Linspire LiveCD 5.0

From LXer quoting Michael Robertson, CEO of Linspire Inc.:

“For more than a year, we’ve analyzed and studied the user experience to create a Linux product suitable for the mass market,” said Michael Robertson, CEO of Linspire, Inc. “Linspire Five-0 is so easy to use, it finally makes Linux practical for anyone – from a Fortune 500 executive to a kid researching a school essay.”

Linspire is an excellent distribution of Linux for the very beginning Linux user. With an approach to hiding the less refined parts of the Linux system similar to Apple’s approach, Linspire gives users full hardware support, a clean GUI (it runs KDE), and straightforward access to programs.

Linspire became famous originally because it sought to directly steal users from Microsoft Windows. Using the company name “Lindows” it offered a user experience comparable to Windows XP but done entirely with Linux applications. It supports a LiveCD and a hard drive install.

While this site talks much of the difficulties of Linux, there is a new trend that has drastically reduced the pains of trying Linux for the first time. Live CD’s are disks that you put into your drive when the computer is off. When you start your computer you’ll find that you’re looking at and interacting with Linux. When you take the disk out and restart your computer you’re looking at Windows (or whatever) again.

Some common Live CD’s are Knoppix, Linspire (formerly Lindows), Gentoo, and several others. Some of the distributions, like Mepis Linux offer the ability to install straight to your hard drive from the Live CD. This is useful if you want to try it out at first, but then want to make the switch.

For those who are thinking of starting work with Linux, go for it. Yes, it’s hard, but you don’t have to master it to get started. Even if you don’t know the command line or what a shell is or even what this KDE and Gnome business is all about you can start using Powerpoint for Linux and writing emails on Linux immediately. So get yourself a Live CD and take a risk free tour of Linux.