I was looking for an inexpensive laptop to replace my toshiba A15-S157 (stupid me, damaged the screen!) I have heard that Walmart is selling laptops with Linspire for under $500. I thought that that would be excellent, but I can't find the deal on their website, or in the store.

So, my two questions are:

Has anyone used Linspire before? Do you find that you like it? Also let me know if you know anything about the CNR service.

The second question is: Where do I find this $500 laptop? I can find articles talking about it (general info), but nothing about where to buy it.

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks

Hi Terry. It seems that alot of people are interested in this $498 laptop as Wal*Mart seems to be out of stock...

As for linspire, I have never used it to be honest. The things that I have heard (rightly or wrongly) make it seem like a real "dumbed-down" flavor of linux which isn't as bad as it sounds.

For instance, I think that Linspire runs in root mode all the time. This will make *nix purists howl with rage, but the new user will enjoy being able to do things without having to become the super user all the time.

Obviously with any full-on Linux migration, make sure that you can really live with a non-microsoft O/S. I believe that Linspire runs Openoffice which is actually becoming quite good and stable. It can open/save to all Office formats now with only one or two import problems.

The only reason that I would caution you, is that if you find that you can't do what you need with Linux (Linspire) then you are going to pay more in licensing fees for Microsoft than you are paying for the laptop. If you buy a laptop with Microsoft pre-loaded you may pay a little more now, but save in the long run. Dell ussually has laptops starting at about $700.00 or less with XP Home and Microsoft Works.

Doesn't Linspire use CrossOver Office? If so, then many of the Windows programs should work reasonably well under Linux.

I too haven't used Linspire, but from what I understand it's one of the best Linux distros for Windows converts (on par w/ Xandros). You pay extra for having the CNR software database, but if you don't want to mess w/ finding and installing all 15000+ Linux programs, it's not a bad deal.

BTW, here's the link to the WalMart deal from the Linspire web site: http://www.linspire.com/homelink5. WalMart is currently sold out.

Is Linspire the old Lindows?

Yes. MS filed enough lawsuits they decided it was easier to rename than fight. MS felt that "Lindows" would confuse users, thinking it was a different version of Windows. (Heh, it is different. This one works. ;-) )

I actually found out that Linspire was offering their Linspire Live CD for free through bittorrent download when you enter a coupon code. So I downloaded it. I only had a couple minutes to look at it, but so far I am impressed. Some friends of mine are also in the market for a new computer, and I would almost feel confident recomending the Linspire systems (but I have not looked at it enough to give a confident recomendation).

I think that linspire is doing a great job making a very user friendly Linux system. One thing that could be appealing to many is that many softwares are free, but when you purchase something, such as antivirus, they say it only takes one click to install (from their webpage). To top it off, they will keep a record of all software you purchased, and give you a lifetime liicense for the product. Which means that if something were to happen and you needed to reinstall, you can do so without the hassel that most people face (like on windows programs purchased in download form) when needing to reinstall programs.

I did also notice that they don't have many games available that are actually interesting. So it wouldn't be best for a teenage boy ;-) But if you are using it for office type use it looks good.

I am going to put the CD in next week and mess with it some more and see what else I can learn about the linspire OS.

Hey Terry. I would love it if you would post back with your thoughts on this once you play around with it. All of my views of Linspire is based on hearsay. I would really be interested to know if it comes with crossover office. I didn't think it did....

I'd stay from Linspire/Lindows
Really

Other distros are extremely easy to use, and don't do dumb things like default you to the root user.

I think the key point in this thread is that it's obvious Linspire is trying to entice the "regular" Windows user over with it's OS.

Giving the user "root" priviledges is nothing to be concerned about since Windows has been doing it forever until they came up with Win NT/2000/XP. Am I right?

root protects the operating system from user error.
A mistake won't damage the OS.
A bug in software won't overwrite system files that it shouldn't
A virus won't infect system binaries - as it won't have permission to write to them.

When you run as root, a mistake can make the OS completely unbootable.
A bug in software can trash a system.
A virus can write to system binaries.

It's a bad idea to run as root, and it is possible to have an easy to use friendly operating system that does not run the user as root.

Fedora has something called console helper that allows certain programs to be run as root without the user being root, as long as they are logged in at the system console and not remotely. Sudo allows certain users to run certain programs as root, with or without root privileges. pam_console allows the person directly logged in to have ownership of certain devices (like the sound card for example) without needing to be root. Hal will mount removable media such that the console user has permission to write to it.

Making the user have root by default is a lazy way to do things - and it is very dangerous.