Linspire CEO Considers CNR for Ubuntu 92
bored2k writes "Kevin Carmony, President and CEO of Linspire, Inc., is using the Ubuntu Forums to ask for input and explain why he thinks a popular and heavily focused on usability distribution like Ubuntu needs Linspire's $20 per-year CNR service. From what he says, both him and Mark Shuttleworth (Canonical/Ubuntu's founder) like the idea. Would CNR honestly help Ubuntu grow, or is it just a scheme to cash in on it's success?"
Free (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Free (Score:4, Informative)
This does not prevent another company (Linspire) from offering optional services on top of Ubuntu. Just like any company can offer free or non-free software that can be installed on top of Ubuntu or on top of any other Linux distribution or even any other operating system.
Re:Free (Score:4, Interesting)
Impi has a deal with CodeWeavers (the commercial contributors to WINE) and other commercial Linux players; I'd be surprised if they're not also talking to Linspire.
It's an interesting dance between the FREE and commercial software worlds!
Re:Free (Score:2)
Re:SPEAK ENGLISH! (Score:1, Redundant)
Here you go [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Ubuntu, worst linux distribution name ever... (Score:1)
(not trolling, at least not deliberately)
Well, it is. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ubuntu, worst linux distribution name ever... (Score:1)
"Ubuntu" _is_ a Zulu word. Ubuntu _was_ intended as an african Linux distribution. The essential meaning of "ubuntu" is "humannes", though that is rather simplified. It extended meaning is that "a human is a human being through other human beings". But even that is too simple. It also contains respect and concern for one's family, one's neighbors and is fundemantally inclusive, in strong contrast t
Re:Ubuntu, worst linux distribution name ever... (Score:2)
Oh... so it means "Mensch" [wikipedia.org]. And yes, you see, we do have this concept in traditional western culture. You confuse the coarsening of post-modern culture with western culture, but there are still some 'traditional'
Re:Ubuntu, worst linux distribution name ever... (Score:1)
But were not exclusive to Christianity, just as serfdom, slavery, prostitution and war were not exclusive to Christianity, or Western or most cultures.
Re:Ubuntu, worst linux distribution name ever... (Score:3, Insightful)
What part of Yiddish do you consider "Western Culture" ? While there's been a minority of Jiddish-speaking people in "the West" for quite a few centuries, it's still a minority.
Or did you mean that while there's a Yiddish word that is similar in meaning to Ubuntu, and you couldn't find a word in English or another big European language, that doesn't matter, because Jesus talked a lot about how nice it'd be
Re:Ubuntu, worst linux distribution name ever... (Score:1)
wow... (Score:2)
"nice" "summary" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"nice" "summary" (Score:5, Informative)
I've been reading Mr.Linspire's post about it. It's Click N Run software installation. It's like a frontend to apt/emerge/pacman, but more polished at both ends. Because it already has the billing system, and because Linspire isn't tied to purely free software, it can do things like proprietary game installations too.
It has an extensive software repository too: it would provide *all* an average user would need, which is in fact more than any other package system can say (because of the non-free part).
Unfortunately, its advantages are *all* in its non-free nature (though I'd install it in a flash if it became fast as well as fluffy).
Re:"nice" "summary" (Score:2)
I agree, If another distro like Ubuntu should adopt this they shall only take the non-free parts of it. It would be nice to be able to pay say $40 to download and install a new game or program into
I don't no why they need distro support, Linspire could just have an installable
*all* an average user would need (Score:5, Insightful)
My impression is that it's like one-click shopping for sofware. Find software on a web browser, push a button, it gets installed, and you get billed. I guess that's ok, for someone who feels a little scared to type "emerge doom3". But that's not what I'd really like to get out of something like CNR.
First off, I like the idea of a subscription service. In these days of security issues, it's downright stupid to adopt a sales-without-service model for computers. Any computer which will be connected to a network needs some form of regular service plan. My mom's system runs "emerge sync" weekly, "glsa-check" nightly, and emails the results to me. Even if glsa-check is only tied into the portage database, and thus only does something new weekly, at least the nightly emails will nag me into taking care of it. When there's a security issue, I ssh in and fix it. When I visit, I bring her system fully up to date. That's a "policy."
I'd like to see some sort of update/security policy out of a service like CNR. In particular, something like emerge is very good about upgrading packages and identifying config files that may require updating. But it doesn't update them, it just tells you that it needs to be done. IMHO, THIS is where the real effort needs to be in a subscription service, in tweaking configuration files after update, yet not breaking the system.
Re:*all* an average user would need (Score:2)
Re:"nice" "summary" (Score:1)
Personally, I'd rather see something like GNU's AutoPackage [autopackage.org] software put into a major distro; of course, that relies on more developer support for it, but that's also a good thing (IMHO). Additionally, it would have all the benefits of a nice polished front-end, with the additional benefit of install-time linking (no need to enter DLL/RPM hell sinc
Re:"nice" "summary" (Score:1)
Re:"nice" "summary" (Score:2)
[DNR == Do Not Resuscitate]
Re:"nice" "summary" (Score:2)
Link 1 [webopedia.com]
Link 2 [interfacebus.com]
Oh wait, is that not the TLA (three-letter acronym) that the submitter intended? Should have specified then, instead of assuming that everyone know what the hell "Click-n-Run" is.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:CNR (Score:2)
Re:CNR (Score:1)
New to Ubuntu (Score:5, Interesting)
What I want to know is why Sun doesn't get together with the Ubuntu team to create a package for the new JDK 1.5. They have a binary installer for Linux, why not have a '.deb' file for Ubuntu? It's free, you just have to click-through Sun's license to get it...
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:4, Informative)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:1)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Ubuntu submarine,
We think it's pretty keen...
We all live in a yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine,
etc.
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:1)
Because Sun never gets anything together concerning JDK on Linux. Honestly, as nice as the language is, the packaging is just plain horrible. For example, have you noticed how much slower 1.5 is than 1.4, despite Sun's claims to the opposite effect?
My situation is even worse than yours: I have a pure64 system with a 64bit mozilla. Sun does provide a 64bit Java package, but without the browse
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm sure click-n-run works for you, but the notion of using a free (and Free) Operating System and then paying $20 a year to _install software_ sounds hilarious to me.
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
What's so hard about
# cd
# wget (mirror-of-your-choices)/firefox-1.5.0.tar.gz
# tar xzvf firefox-1.5.0.tar.gz
and 30 seconds of clicking to add it to the Gnome/KDE menu?
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:1)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:2)
Re:New to Ubuntu (Score:3, Informative)
Have you looked at Easy Ubuntu?
http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/ [freecontrib.org]
Not bad at all. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:1)
This is something I don't get. In distros like SuSE and Fedora Core, I've had to spend hours finding and carrying out grandiose hacks to play my legal mp3 collection. In Slackware and Arch, mp3 playback works out of the box.
Is this supposed to be a big secret? Why can the less commercial distros get away with such treasonous blasphemy in this post 9/11 world?
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:2)
mpg321 & lame (mp3 encoder) are available from universe
Doesn't look like Ubuntu is particularly worried by the mp3 patents
This is probably partly because Debian has never been particularly worried by the mp3 patents - see the (many) discussions on the issues in debian-legal [debian.org] for example.
Are they on the discs or installed by default? (Score:2)
But you say these OSes are free? Not quite, nothing in the GPL (or most other FOSS licenses) prevents you from selling something which includes the software. Take a look at cheapbytes.com, or any other company that sells pre-burned Linux distros on CDs. F
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:1)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:1)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:1)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:1)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because they can be subject to legal action at any time if they include support for mp3, wma and whatnot. A hobby distro maker might take the chance but RedHat management would be liable for suits from its shareholders if they do something illegal on purpouse.
Software patens suck but until they are gone we have to live with them. CNR makes that pretty easy for the end user.
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:1)
So, I ask how smaller distros can get away with out of the box mp3 support, even ones based in the US.
You reply that it is because they can be subject to legal action, and at least three people decide that this is an answer worthy of modding up.
You're not the only one to misunderstand me either. Maybe the treasonous blasphemy phrase is a little ambiguous, but I specifically said less commercial distros.
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:2)
What a headache the global village causes for honest lawyers trying to figure out who they can sue. :)
(part of it may also well be that no one is going to make money by suing slackware)
Re:Not bad at all. (Score:2)
And they do this already for Linspire users. If you purchased a subscription to CNR, then a legally-licensed DVD-CSS plugin to Xine is $5. I believe MP3 comes free with a purchased Linspire account. The
Good idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Look at it this way; it is optional. If you don't want it, you are in exactly the same situation as before. If you do want it, you get something extra. It is a win-win situation; you either ignore it, or benefit from it.
why can't it be both? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why can't it be both? Sheesh, you guys are so narrow minded!
I have zero personal interest in this, even though I like Ubuntu, but I can imagine many people who might find it useful.
One thing that I would be interested to see is if they can make CNR work (for its target audience) without Linspire's terrible always-run-as-root misfeature.
Re:why can't it be both? (Score:2)
Re:why can't it be both? (Score:1)
Affiliated Services with Digitally Signed Scripts (Score:3, Interesting)
However, there is no reason why Ubuntu could not host Digitally Signed Shell Scripts ( DSSS ) on their website, and by default, include a MIME setting so that web-browsers will pass the script along to a plugin that checks that it has been signed by Ubuntu before executing the shell script. The script would then perform the one click download and install of the required software. The advantage of this is that the DSSS could be linked to by any Ubuntu website, FAQ , help, page etc.
Two precondition:
1) Ubuntu should not preselect any one service over another, but include scripts to install competeing services.
2) Any Ubuntu "affiliated service" that wants a Ubuntu DSSS would be required to sign an agreement to not use it to install any badware [stopbadware.org].
Re:Affiliated Services with Digitally Signed Scrip (Score:2)
I'll pay for convenient, licensed software (Score:2, Insightful)
Hmm.. (Score:1, Insightful)
CNR is ok in Ubuntu, since the apt-tool will still be available, for the users amongst us that use Ubuntu and are very happy with it (like yours truly), CNR isn't going to be used. But for the other users who want more apps and easy of use, CNR is going to be the solution.
Personally I think Ubuntu is great as is, but adding new futures to it that make other people use Ubuntu too, is a great step forward.
$20 per year per what? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have six Ubuntu boxes at home, would I be expected to pay $120 per year or would I be able to get away with just the one CNR subscription for the household?
Re:$20 per year per what? (Score:2)
Re:$20 per year per what? (Score:2)
Re:$20 per year per what? (Score:5, Informative)
Hrmmmm (Score:5, Informative)
CNR for $20 / year for outdated software.
Or I can use Klik [atekon.de] for free, which does the same thing, is constantly up to date, and is guarenteed to never interfere with my system since all the packages are installed in theor own chroot directories.
Why doesn't Ubunto adopt Klik? Is it just not as well known?
Re:Hrmmmm (Score:3, Informative)
Linky [ubuntuforums.org].
But there's still the problem of obtaining completely legal DVD playing and such.
Yep, and we tore himi up quite a bit I think (Score:1)
KingBahamut
Forum Moderator - ubuntuforums.org
Nothing wrong with this (Score:1)
Re:Nothing wrong with this (Score:2, Insightful)
Windows User Here.... (Score:1)
Kevin Carmony here (Score:1)
Re:Kevin Carmony here (Score:1)
Also, wtf is wrong with you people? Someone reports on someone else suggesting that a company can offer a for-pay service that is usable by an Ubuntu user out of the box, not bundled in, not directly tied to the software, etc. Result? Four hundr
Suuuuure it'll help (Score:2)
I kinda get the feeling that I'm the only one who's noticed a problem with the man who stands to gain direct financial benefit from the inclusion of subscription fee-based technology in another distro being it's primary proponent. If instead, Linspire were to mount a covert campaign to infiltrate shills into the Ubuntu forums, people would onto them like white on rice.
Never (Score:1)