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Lindows Company
Michael Robertson had announced the beginning of an ambitious project in August 2001. He was a CEO at MP3.com before. The operating system LindowsOS shall unite many advantages of Linux and Windows after the first completion. Programs of both Windows and Linux can be installed and executed easily. LindowsOS is a derivative of the Xandros distribution which based on Debian GNU/Linux, makes the execution of Windows programs by the smooth integration of the Wine project easily possible. One of broader advantages is the installation simply held, there are only less user details needed to install LindowsOS. With an agreement with WAL-MART Lindows has found a sales partner who offers a cheap PC system with preinstalled LindowsOS.
LindowsOS
Lindows merged the stability of a Linux derivative with the usability and characteristics which one would rather assign to a Windows operating system. LindowsOS goes one step further. With the procedure named Click-N-Run programs or upgrades can be installed with one single mouse click. The costs for the software subscription amount are EUR 99 for 12 months. Registered users could choose at the beginning from more than 1,000 applications, in meanwhile this number has increased to over 2,400 programs in the year 2006. No licence is needed for the private use on several PCs.- zero Mayntenance
- containing plug-and-play abilities for USB 1.0, USB 2.0 devices
- improved driver software support particularly for multimedia devices
- blocks Advertisements and Spam from the Internet
In the legal controversy about the word similarity of the name Lindows to Microsoft Windows the opponents agreed about the renaming of Lindows in Linspire. The software product, logos as well as the website from Lindows was switched over to the changed naming in the period from April to the end of October 2004. In response Microsoft assured the payment of 20 million dollars and a time limited use of Windows Media components the distribution Linspire. For this Linspire put down the counter legal suit against the word mark for Windows.
To the innovations of Linspire 5.0 of 2005/16/03 belongs the Kernel 2.6.10, KDE 3.3, X-Server 6.8.2, the Reiser4 file system and improved support for Notebooks with Intel Centrino and AMD PowerNow technology. The new user interface and the extended CNR technology have flowed into this version with more than 1,200 improvements altogether.
Linspire announced the publication of a Linspire based pure open source distribution named Freespire on 2006/24/04. The project is supported by the Community. The first Freespire version was available for download in August 2006.
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| LindowsOS Preview - Desktop | LindowsOS Preview - Browser, Lotus Notes and Microsoft Word 2000 | LindowsOS Preview - desktop menu and Microsoft Office 2000 program | 4.5 - Lindows installation screen |
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| 4.5 - selection of the destination partition | 4.5 - view of the Desktop | 4.5 - program selection | 4.5 - Overview about system settings |
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| 4.5 - file manager | 4.5 - Playing a video file of a FAT32 partition | 4.5 - Preview for graphic files | 4.5 - Playing an audio file in the OGG format with XMMS |
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| 4.5 - Quit of Lindows (switch off, warm start, cold start) | 4.5 - Mozilla internet browser - version | 4.5 - Mozilla internet browser with online website | 4.5 - Internet connection for downloads of Click-N-Run software |
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| 4.5 - Click-N-Run software for the selection of the category | 4.5 - Click-N-Run Software for the program selection | 5.0 - Linspire, boot menu | 5.0 - boot screen |
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| 5.0 - Loading up screen for desktop | 5.0 - view of the KDE desktop | 5.0 - CNR service for programs | 5.0 - Internet browser 1 |
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| 5.0 - Internet browser 2 | 5.0 - Konqueror file manager and shell | 5.0 - Linspire control center | 5.0 - options for shut down |
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| 5.0 - Menu for program selection |
Date - Version
2002 Sept. - LindowsOS 2.02002 Nov. - LindowsOS 3.02003 June - LindowsOS 4.02003 Dec. - LindowsOS 4.52005 March - Linspire 5.0 (in english)2005 June - Linspire 5.0 (in german)2006 Aug. - Freespire 1.0