Linspire

To be very clear and probably a little blunt, Linspire's main distinguisher is CNR. At some stage last year, Matt Hartly even advised the company the have the entire business just centrered around CNR and rely on others, as it typically has (Debian or Ubuntu), to produce the GNU/Linux distribution. Linspire adds customisation, proprietary bits and CNR to make what we know as Linspire (or Freespire, which isn't as free as the same implies). It's pretty much the same with Xandros.

It's unsurprising to find that Linspire's presence is pretty much tied to CNR. Those two are now inseparable. Over at Linux.com you'll find this article about Linspire using its 'bread and butter', CNR which is now free software, to approach Mint and Ubuntu. They all share the same codebase, but only Linspire will have great trouble with the GPLv3, due to its foolish deal with Microsoft.

Linspire, the San Diego, Calif.-based Linux distributor, is continuing to build up its CNR (Click-N-Run) software installation system with partnerships with Ubuntu parent Canonical and the Ubuntu-based Linux Mint distribution. Linspire recently announced that its beta CNR service now supports the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron release and Linux Mint versions 4.0 and 5.

Here is a new review of CNR.

CNR or Click and Run is a free one-click software delivery service designed to standardize the process and eliminate the complexity of finding, installing and managing Linux software for the most popular desktop Linux distributions according to the Linspire folks.

[...]

CNR achieves what it strives to be, easy installation of programs, especially for newbies. What is great about CNR is that it integrates with the distro’s package manager and thus make making life much easier unlike other projects like Autopackage. However it is not as easy and great to use like Add/Remove in Ubuntu and is not as vast as the official Ubuntu repositories and many programs are not available but is not far behind. It is still in the beta-development phase so I expect more innovations in the future. And as I said before, it is great for purchasing and installing proprietary programs.

However most users of Ubuntu do not need CNR as such but it is good to have options as well.

Another non-announcement comes from Linspire about Cedega in CNR:

Cedega enables Linux gamers to play Windows titles on their Linux OS. Triple-A video games such as Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Battlefield 2142, World of WarCraft, Madden 2007, Civilization IV and many more, can be played on Linux using Cedega. This allows an easy, out-of-the-box gaming experience.

As we pointed out last week, eWeek doesn't miss a beat when it comes to Xandros or Linspire. Almost immediately Henry Kingman covered this non-story. Bear in mind that Desktop Linux is owned by the bankrupt Ziff Davis, which hardly publishes anything these days, especially after SJVN changed directions (he publishes in Computer World, Linux.com, CIO.com, his personal Web site and IEEE) and Rick Lehrbaum made a career change.

Anyway, from the article:

CNR can also be used to install "over 900 free and commercial software games," Linspire claims, in genres that span from classic arcade games, to action games, adventure games, puzzles, and boardgames.

In other words, that press release could brag about hundreds of other games. So, is it an article or a commercial? It's hard to tell. Maybe somewhere in-between. On the brighter side of things, Linspire seems to be a source of inspiration to some.

Version 2.0 of the software will offer the iPhone SDK and the App store, which is similar to Linspire's online store CNR.com which allows you to install software directly from the web, and can be used both by iPhone and iTouch users.

Xandros

Last week we saw Xandros and Viyya Technologies getting together and this week it's an obscure (and probably small) company from India that says it joined hands with Xandros.

IIRA Technologies pioneer in the field of open source join hands with Xandros Inc. for basic OS and mail servers. After working on varied Open Source platform for long 8(eight) years, we found Xandros is most scalable, user friendly and network savvy. Xandros is the only OS having facility to communicate with almost all of the applications irrespective of platforms whether proprietary or open source.

The only other noteworthy news from Xandros (other than Asutek's Eee PC coverage) would be Commtouch and Scalix collaborating on E-mail security technologies.

Commtouch and Scalix Collaboration Brings Real Time Messaging Security to Linux-based E-mail Servers -- New Scalix Release Incorporates Commtouch Anti-Spam and Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Protection Technologies

Here is the press release.

Scalix, a Linux e-mail, calendaring and messaging company and Commtouch€® (NASDAQ:CTCH) today announced the signing of an OEM licensing agreement to bring real time Scalix AntiSpam and Scalix ZeroHour AntiVirus protection to the Scalix messaging platform.

It would only be fair to admit that I resent Xandros and Linspire. With Novell it's a more complicated relationship because I used to love the company and even advocated its products. Then came the deal with Microsoft. It felt like a divorce, or at least a cruel betrayal. Even Groklaw seems to maintain its love-hate relationship with Novell. ⬆