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Cherry on Linux
John Cherry is a long-time Linux advocate dedicated to facilitating the adoption of Linux in various markets. John has held positions with the OSDL and Linux Foundation.
Linspire 6.0 - good or evil?
October 15, 2007 |
Linspire has announced the availability of Linspire 6.0, the company’s first commercial release in over two years. Linspire is perhaps the most Windows-like of all the commercial desktop distributions. A release the magnitude of a Linspire 6.0 should have caused rejoicing in the streets. After all, it is the first Linspire release to be built around Ubuntu Linux and it leverages a beta version of CNR (Click N Run), a distribution service that aims to make installing Linux applications a quick, painless process.
So why are there detractors to Linspire’s re-emergence into the desktop limelight? Simple. Linspire’s primary market is consumer desktops and laptops. Consumers in this space expect to be able play commercial DVDs (which they purchased) on the DVD drive that came with their system (which they also purchased). They also expect to be able to listen to their library of mp3s and to use all the other multimedia capabilities that they have grown accustomed to. So here is the problem. Linspire pursues a two-pronged, commercial/community development path, supporting work around a free core Linux operating system and separately commercializing the software by adding support and additional proprietary components in its commercial release. Many open source purists have a real problem with this two-pronged approach.
Quite often, I am asked to help set up a desktop for a friend or family member. After convincing them that they should try an alternative to Windows, I install one of those free, easy to install distributions. But, I can’t just leave them at this point. If I did, they would be screaming all the way back to Windows. The next step is to install all the media capabilities that they will need, including the ability to play the DVDs that they own on the DVD drive that they own. Distros like Linspire will actually make my life much easier when it comes to making my friends happy with their new computers. Either the multimedia capabilities will work out of the box or they will only need to pay a small fee (for licenses) and use CNR to make their boat anchor into a multimedia PC.
In an ideal world, every media format would be open, all software would be completely free, and there would be no piracy. However, in the world we live in, Linspire is taking an approach that will meet the expectations of the average computer user. Purists will say the two-pronged approach will hinder the path to ultimate freedom and for completely open source solutions. I say that the real barrier to the use of Linux on the desktop is the lack of market share and the only way to gain market share is to meet the expectations of the average computer user. Once a critical mass of market share is attained, the goals of pure open source solutions will become much more possible.
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