Linspire, previously known as LindowsOS (also Lin---s, pronounced as Lindash), is a Linux distribution based on Debian. Linspire's focus is on ease-of-use for the home, school and business markets — its distributors market it to home users more intensively than all other Unix-based or Unix-like distributions except Mac OS X.

Michael Robertson, the founder and former CEO of MP3.com functions as the CEO of Linspire, Inc.

Microsoft Corporation sued Lindows, Inc. for its use of the term "Windows", which Microsoft claimed constituted a trademark infringement. In February 2004, a judge rejected two of Microsoft's central claims. Though Microsoft lost the core of its case, and says it will appeal the decision, for uncertain reasons it also called the decision "a victory". (See Microsoft vs Lindows for more information.) Lindows was renamed Linspire to avoid further legal action by Microsoft. Because of the repeated litigation on Microsoft's part, Michael Robertson referred to the situation as "Sextuple Jeopardy," in reference to the legal concept of Double jeopardy.

Linspire, Inc had the initial goal of developing a Linux-based operating system capable of running major Windows applications as well. It based its Windows compatibility on WINE. Linspire Inc. later abandoned its initial approach in favor of making Linux applications easy to download, install and use. They achieved this using an application called CNR (click and run), a program based on Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool, providing an easy-to-use interface and a slightly modified package system for an annual fee (apt-get costs no money, but has less user-friendliness). CNR (click and run) has more than 2,000 pieces of software for download. You can browse a sample listing of all of these programs here.

Linspire, Inc sponsors many open-source projects and events, including the Gaim instant messaging client, the KDE-Apps.org and KDE-Look.org websites, and the Nvu project, which has started to develop an open-source WYSIWYG website editor (based on the Mozilla composer code) to rival FrontPage. In the past, Linspire.com has contributed over $500,000 to the WINE project and also hosted the second Debconf.

Editions

Several varieties of Linspire, known as editions, target different markets. Three main editions exist: Standard, Developer and Live

• Standard - The standard edition is intended for most consumer desktops.
• Developer - A version designed for developers, this version comes with many development tools such as text editors, compilers and libaries for developing software.
• Live - Potential users can download a no-cost LiveCD version of Linspire in ISO image format from P2P networks, or directly from Linspire and run it on their computer without installing.

See also

• List of Linux distributions
• Comparison of Linux distributions

External links

• Linspire Website
• Open Source Projects which Linspire Sponsors
• Free Linspire Live! peer-to-peer
• Linspire Live! BitTorrent Version 5.0.69
• Linspireguide A Wiki about the Linspire Operating System