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Indiana Schools test desktop Linux machines
Linspire, Inc. has
announced a test of Linux-based desktop systems by the
Indiana school system.
"Linspire, Inc. and Wintergreen
Systems announced today that Indiana high schools are currently testing
desktop Linux machines in school systems across the state as part of a plan to
provide every public high school student with a computer. If successful, the
plan, called the Indiana Access Program, will provide each high school student
in the state with an individual desktop Linux computer for instructional use
in each classroom they visit during the day -- meaning a potential 300,000
Linux machines could be deployed over coming years."
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Maybe it's just my day to be grumpy Posted Aug 4, 2005 20:17 UTC (Thu) by cpm (guest, #3554) [Link] which would be a shame, as I've tried hard lately to not post when grumpy,
But,
Why does linspire get all this press?
I've stayed well clear of all linspire discussions (flame wars) and
I've just reread part of their licensing at
I just don't see a whole lot of the linux "spirit" in
Meaning, that a roll out of Linspire != a roll out of Linux.
Maybe it's just my day to be grumpy Posted Aug 4, 2005 21:21 UTC (Thu) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] This is Linux Weekly News and Linspire is a Linux distribution. It's also a general purpose OS, unlike embedded Linux found e.g. in routers. Schools buying Linux based routers would not be news for LWN. But schools getting Linspire is news because the students will be able to explore the OS even if they are not permitted to copy it.
Linspire is after the windows market Posted Aug 4, 2005 22:16 UTC (Thu) by davidw (subscriber, #947) [Link] Linspire doesn't care about getting some percentage of the existing Linux user base. They're going after that huge chunk of people who have never used Linux, and looking at things in that light... I wish them well, although I harbor hopes that once those people get roped in, they realize a few things about the freedom behind free software.
Linspire is after the windows market Posted Aug 5, 2005 1:45 UTC (Fri) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] But as the first poster points out, Linspire users don't get afree system. There's an EULA attached, and there is a large effort involved to avail oneself of the free-ness of those individual components which are Free Software. Linspire *is* after the Windows market -- the market of people who don't understand or don't care about software freedom.
Linspire is after the windows market Posted Aug 5, 2005 5:57 UTC (Fri) by davidw (subscriber, #947) [Link] Sure, they don't get a free system, but think about it. Once you're on Linspire, how hard is it going to be move to Ubuntu or Suse or whatever? The big jump is from Windows to Linux, and once they've done that, then we can worry about sorting out the details.
Linspire is after the windows market Posted Aug 5, 2005 6:03 UTC (Fri) by daniel (subscriber, #3181) [Link] "But as the first poster points out, Linspire users don't get afree system. There's an EULA attached, and there is a large effort involved to avail oneself of the free-ness of those individual components which are Free Software."
If you find a GPL violation please let us know. Otherwise, general carping is nothing more than that.
Regards,
Daniel
Spirit of Free Software, not letter of licence. Posted Aug 5, 2005 7:51 UTC (Fri) by xoddam (subscriber, #2322) [Link] I'm not even looking; I'm not for a minute concernedthat Linspire is violating its legal obligations under the numerous copyright licences it's using. I am saddened (more than bothered) that Linspire doesn't promote freedom as part of the advantage of an operating system based on Free Software. As far as I'm concerned, that's the most important advantage. Many businesses have been successful selling Free Software which they develop themselves; much of Linspire's development is not free, and there are numerous sublicenced components which are not even close to being Free Software. Linspire isn't really part of the Free Software movement, it's just a system vendor which happens to sublicence most of its components from people who are.
Spirit of Free Software, not letter of licence. Posted Aug 5, 2005 14:54 UTC (Fri) by cventers (subscriber, #31465) [Link] I haven't looked at the Linspire EULA, but to all the naysayers, I mustremind that the company behind Linspire has donated a lot of money to the OSS community - projects including nice things like Reiser4. Check out the Open Source section at http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_license.php They may not be 'totally free', but a company that targets novice computer users to increase Linux desktop penetration while contributing money back into OSS doesn't seem like an evil being to me.
Linspire is OK Posted Aug 5, 2005 10:00 UTC (Fri) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link] Michael Robertson knew how to generate press. It's good that the new guy is working out.
I wouldn't use Linspire myself, but I would give Linspire or Xandros to someone else who was interested in Linux. My old flatmate used AOL. I could have hooked her computer up with Linspire and connected it to AOL. That would have been a good thing I think.
I think Linspire does contribute open source software as well. Didn't they hire a firefox developer or something?
Indiana Schools test desktop Linux machines Posted Aug 7, 2005 11:08 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Hopefully it works out.
Not a big fan of Linspire myself, but I don't have any objections to people using it. It's based on Debian and is probably as stable, and if your more of a advanced user I expect that you can use apt-get and such instead of the normal service that linspire provides for updates and such.
One thing that I think will be important for Linspire to prove itself is how well it's able to lock down the machines against agressive students (some, I expect with hacking asperations and basic understanding of scripts and Linux) and other badness.
One of the major flaws in Windows is that many programs require administrative access to the machines in order to function properly. It makes it very difficult to lock the machines against threats like spyware, viruses, and whatnot. This is a huge problem with windows design, but if you do only use non-privilaged accounts and the improvements with SP2 in Windows XP the security is much much better.
Linux can still do better.. and if everything 'just works' and 'just stays working' that's a huge improvement in cost effectiveness over windows and will go a long way to proving Linux's usefullness as a desktop system.
infrastructure would be very important for the success.. user management, file management (and related network resources), security updates/upgrades, newer functionalities and bugfixes.. All this can be automated well in Linux over Windows. The lower the adminstration overhead the more attractive it's going to be for more orginizations exploring Linux on a cost-effectiveness basis.
In the US these are mostly unknown variables when it comes to large Linux desktop install bases. With Windows you have AD and that's a very attractive solution because it's something most people are familar with and has a proven track record..
Hopefully it works out.
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