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Has anyone here used Linspire or Lindows? and if u did what did u think about it?

JAM SIKO

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Short context and where this fits: the original question from drew several hands-on replies (for example , , and ) describing install, hardware and networking frustrations. Linspire began life as "Lindows" and changed its public name after a trademark settlement with Microsoft in mid‑2004; that legal settlement is the clearest marker in the distro's early history. (Microsoft press release). (news.microsoft.com)

What Linspire actually was (short, technical sketch): it was a Debian‑family desktop distribution that emphasized an easy GUI for finding and installing apps and a polished out‑of‑the‑box desktop experience. Some releases shipped a LiveCD so the system could be tested before installation, and contemporary reviews called out both convenience features and a few nonstandard desktop defaults worth knowing about. (Linux.com review, Linspire overview). (linux.com)

Concise, practical checklist (diagnose vs. work around): boot the installer in Live mode to test hardware without touching disks; confirm kernel and module messages with uname -r and dmesg; inspect whether firmware/driver packages exist in upstream Debian archives; if internet sharing is needed, enable IP forwarding and use simple NAT rules. Example commands:

uname -r
dmesg | grep -i pcmcia
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

For long‑term use consider whether a maintained, community edition or Freespire‑style derivative meets the same goals without proprietary tradeoffs. (Linspire/Freespire history). (en.wikipedia.org)

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Member Avatar for linux-tech

Tried it, took it off my system within 24 hours
Linspire tries, but it doesn't even come close to performing fully as I expected it to. Problems had varied from kernel issues to pcmcia cards not being read properly to it just not installing on my laptop for whatever reason.

If you're after a system with a decent GUI, try mandrake or suse, both are great in that respect :)

Member Avatar for alc6379

I'd have to agree with Linux-tech on this one: I used to be anti-Lindows just on principle, but IMHO there are better, more free alternatives, like Mandriva, Suse, or Fedora.

Member Avatar for kccomputerdr

i have used linspire & it is pretty kewl looking & is pretty good if you like getting ripped off. If only CNR did not have a yearly contract it'd be worth it.

the one thing that drew me away was there was no easy way to share your internet connection. I like Mandriva for home networking & sharing internet connections. Far far better & free!! I have gotten many of the software that linspire wants you to pay for to work with Mandriva, ex: limewire, opera, netscape, penguin command, java, Flash etc...

Member Avatar for alex_extreme

I tried Linspire a while back, and I thought it was appaling. They are almost as bas as M$, making you pay for software, that on all other distros is free. OK, I would maybe use it if you didn't have to pay, and it was a freely downloadable system, but quite frankly, why pay to get Linspire when there are other perfectly good distros around, available for free? I would much rather use Ubuntu, which I use as my main OS.

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