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Xandros Buys Linspire

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mmforum	Xandros Buys Linspire	Lead	[-]
Posts: 51 (07/02/08 06:35:49) Administrator Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : linspire, xandros, aquire This week Xandros Inc. is buying Linspire. Xandros has done more than any company to put Linux in front of users by powering the innovative eee PC so I'm excited to see the Linspire, Freespire and CNR technology go to a worthy competitor. Linux is going through some healthy and necessary consolidation which will give resulting companies greater assets and size to deliver on larger initiatives so Linux can touch more people. Read the entire article here: http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=267
kevincarmony	Where's the cash?	#1	[-]
Posts: 1 (07/02/08 10:57:45) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Michael, Why didn't you have a shareholders meeting with the 100 other shareholders before selling Linspire? Are you going to have a shareholders meeting and answer the questions posed here? http://kevincarmony.blogspot.com/2008/07/michael-robertson-wheres-cash.html Kevin Carmony Last Edited By: kevincarmony 07/02/08 11:17:30. Edited 2 times.
muddybulldog		#2	[-]
Posts: 1 (07/02/08 13:04:04) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Don't worry Kevin, I'm sure that Michael will make sure that everyone involved get's screwed as has consistently happened over the years to everyone else who has supported Linspire. The outcome should have been obvious by looking at the way Linspire treated it's customers (and to be blunt, you not immune from this criticism). There were thousands of us who may not have held shares but contributed fiscally by becoming Insider's and Lifetimers. Do you realize that someone who coughed up the money required to maintain their status over the years paid significantly more (and gained nothing relevant) than if they had just paid for Linspire full retail versions and CNR Gold the whole time. I admit I drank the Kool-Aid. I ignored the early controversy around "Lindows" and the unrealistic goals that were set hoping that it was merely a rookie mistake and that the adjusted goals for Linspire were real and sincere. You talked the talk, but gave us jack. Linspire was supposed to be polished and simple, the everyman's Linux. For years Linspire took supporters money and made empty promises over and over again while making no relevant innovations. Linspre 6 is barely discernable from 5 or 4 and only seems barely more modern and polished than 3. CNR has been half a technology for years and the fact that Linspire has managed to survive this long in the face of real innovation and community spirit like that coming out of Canonical is a miracle. I don't know what Xandros status is but I doubt they're in much better shape. Xandros hasn't had a point release (the EEEPC remix doesn't count) in over a year and a half or a full release in over two years. They're surviving on their OEM contracts and everytime one seems has the potential to be fruitful Allen & Co. stomp in and crushes it (RE: EEEPC). Nothing personal Kevin, but I hope you get hurt along with the rest of your shareholders. You've #%%!@@ your supporters at every turn, glad to see you share some of the pain. You reap what you sow.
DeanC		#3	[-]
Posts: 1 (07/02/08 14:24:07) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Well, this is an ignominious end to what I admit I had hoped might have been the Linux distro that cracked into the mainstream market, I guess it was not to be. Too much time and money wasted fighting in court over "Lindows" (probably the stupidest name ever for a distro), rather than improving the system and innovating with better applications. Linux will always be crippled by its fragmentation, the thing that makes development a nightmare, but its problems always seem to push it to new strengths, too. At least he picked the right fight, Linux needs to penetrate the consumer desktop controlled by Microsoft and Apple, in order to gain any real recognition. I've known so many persons who've used computers for years, yet never heard of it. Most Linux aficionados are far more interested in fighting with each other. As for the business model, frankly, it was stupid. People are not interested in subscription software, and that's essentially what Linspire and CNR were. Hopefully, if rumors are true, Microsoft will go to this same model and shoot themselves in the foot too. If you're going to charge for something that can be obtained for free elsewhere, you need some compelling enhancements to make it worth buying. Pretty icons and a CNR warehouse full of more free software isn't going to cut it. The lack of any innovation was telling, considering the supposed investment in this project, but might have had something to do with the overly commercial approach and appropriation of well-known open source products, which served to largely alienate the open source and Linux communities at large. As for the financial side of it, I don't know, I'm not an insider, (no pun intended), but given that screwing your investors and employees seems to be the standard modus operandi for American business, nothing would surprise me. I'm not sure what Xandros intends with all this...for a company that is supposedly in the desktop Linux business, that don't seem to have much to offer these days, except for patent infringement insurance from Microsoft. What's with that, anyway? Isn't that only throwing more fuel on the fire regarding the FUD Microsoft would like to spread about Linux? Shame on Linspire and Xandros for that.

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