Linspire and Ubuntu partnering up / CNR ported to Ubuntu...

[aysiu]

Last year, Kevin Carmony (from Linspire) visited our forums and proposed the idea of porting CNR (Click'N Run) to Ubuntu.

There were two polls about the idea:
Kevin's CNR Poll
Should Linspire Offer CNR for Ubuntu Users?

For a while, it looked as if the idea were dead.

Then, recently, Linspire announced it was making CNR open source.
And even more recently Linspire announced it would start basing itself off Ubuntu while Ubuntu announced it would include CNR with Ubuntu:
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/LinspirePartnership

The following thread is a discussion of this new announcement.

[towsonu2003]

I was worried about this, and here is the first example as a comment:

4 • Click-N-Run-a-mile (by Samovar on 2006-03-06 11:51:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
Don't you just love those commercial goons trying to muscle in on the main attraction?!
Linux & co. are as much about avoiding another criminal OS rip off and eternal leverage by the cartel. Then there's Klik by probono for Knoppix and Kanotix, plus dotpup and pupget for Puppy, amongst others. It doesn't come any easier nor cheaper.
Robertson, Linspire and Ubuntu - shame on you.

(italics mine)

Posted to distrowatch at http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060306 that published this rumor after DesktopLinux.com. For those who do not know, the rumor was spread first by the CEO of Linspire (formerly known as Lindows) at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...&highlight=cnr . There is already logo work going on at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...&highlight=cnr . Here is the poll posted by this CEO: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...&highlight=cnr .

Ubuntu was already famous for being the distro of children (Linux newbies). I thank our capitalist overlords for furthering its reputation to Ubuntu Linux, Inc.

[bjweeks]

It's not hurting is at all. It is just a app how is that ubuntu fault?

[towsonu2003]

I thank our capitalist overlords for furthering its reputation to Ubuntu Linux, Inc.

I think it is our capitalist overlords' fault, not Ubuntu (just a compilation of packages).

[bjweeks]

You mean the ones that pay for ubuntu?

[raublekick]

To be honest, I probably will never use CNR. But, it is important because it legitimizes Linux legally by putting a price on things that should cost money in certain parts of the world.

Specifically to Ubuntu, it may hurt its image. To the Linux world in general, I think it will help with people outside of the opensource world.

[purdy hate machine]

I can’t understand why Ubuntu is being targeted for CNR, if Linspire want to offer this product to the masses then make it available to all Disto’s and host it on their website as Opera do. Those who want in can download it and those who don’t can steer well clear. No more tears!

[drotter]

Maybe someone can clear something up for me. I'm not sure what this is supposed to imply.

Are there going to be software that is not in the repositories (that i can get with apt-get) that is in CNR (aside from codecs and things)? Does this imply that things I could orginally get by doing apt-get won't be available anymore?

Or is this just a fancy "face" for apt...and if yes, how is it better then synaptic?

So far the only thing that i understand is that it will probally be updated faster then the repositories meaning that I can get updates to things like firefox and OO faster.

I dont mean to hijack this thread...I just dont really understand enough to have an opinion.

[codejunkie]

I was worried about this, and here is the first example as a comment:

Posted to distrowatch at http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060306 that published this rumor after DesktopLinux.com. For those who do not know, the rumor was spread first by the CEO of Linspire (formerly known as Lindows) at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...&highlight=cnr . There is already logo work going on at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...&highlight=cnr . Here is the poll posted by this CEO: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...&highlight=cnr .

Ubuntu was already famous for being the distro of children (Linux newbies). I thank our capitalist overlords for furthering its reputation to Ubuntu Linux, Inc.

There might be some negative comments & rumors about this, but is what linspire does any different than what suse, redhat, mandrake, and other commercial distro's do, they all sell free software, they are in it for profit, but everyone hates linspire and not the other commercial distros.
There is always going to be positive and negative hype about a popular distro like Ubuntu. Remember all the hype about ubuntu being that distro with the naked people, there always going to be people that talk smack personally i say lets do the CNR thing, it will give the end users more choice, and i can't wait to read all the hype i can see the headline now Ubuntu The Distro That Got Naked And Jumped In Bed With Linspire..but ubuntu will always be a great distro no matter what the critic's say.

[Jucato]

Maybe coz Mark Shuttleworth and Kevin Carmony are friends?
Maybe coz Linspire wants Ubuntu to be a test dummy for offering CNR?
Who knows.
Will it hurt Ubuntu's image? Maybe for some, yes. Maybe for the others, no. You can't please anyone. Besides, it's not like it's going to be an official part of Ubuntu, right? Maybe it's just a hype. Again, who knows.

... but I must admit, I find the logo thing a bit too... enthusiastic... It almost feels like an Ubuntu-Linspire merger. It is a beautiful logo, though. Just without the "CNR"