DesktopLinux: Freespire: Great Idea? Awful Idea? | Linux Today

DesktopLinux: Freespire: Great Idea? Awful Idea?

Written By
SJV
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
May 5, 2006

“It’s a simple idea. Take the Linspire Debian-based Linux
distribution and bundle it with every proprietary driver and
program that’s available for Linux. Ta-da, an instant Linux that’s
compatible with far more hardware and applications.

“The problem, of course, is that by combining proprietary
software with Linux, you’re also legitimatizing the use of
proprietary programs with open-source. To paraphrase Pamela Jones,
editor of Groklaw, Linspire’s mangling of the language of Free
Software can only pervert and confuse the open-source community and
audience…”

Complete
Story

SJV

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

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