Linspire Five.0 CNR Edition Description:

Linspire Five.0 CNR Edition review:
4 stars (Do not but this product from Amazon or anyone else except Linspire!) - The product is great and loads in about 20 min. (except for the CNR activation). It is simpler to use than the latest versions of Windows.



If you buy this product from Linspire, it seems that the activation of CNR is automatic. If you buy it from anyone else you will think you are trying to activate a MICROSOFT PRODUCT OR WORSE. Then after I jumped through all of the hoops, I get this email from the Linspire Team: "It's been several days since you've signed up, and we've noticed that you haven't yet purchased the CNR Service."



A good product - just don't buy it from here!
3 stars (3 stars because it has bash, the rest I don't like) - As far as linux goes I would not recommend this distro.

reason 1- It is to dumbed down to be all that good,It is harder to work with then suse or mandrake.

reason 2- It was ok for them to call themselves lindows to upset microsoft but now they are mad because a distro out there is called freespire. come on people get a life, that is what linux has been about sharing the code for the better of everyone.

reason 3- They charge for what most other distros offer for free to me they are too close to microsoft.



now for the positive notes.

1 bash is still the login shell and that alone offers a lot of power.

2 kde is still a great desktop to work with.

3 the most important thing it is still linux so that is still better than M$ or apple.

But if you are really looking for a easy to use linux distro without all the hassel, of cost get mandriva or suse, even debian and it's

many followers is a better chioce.

As for linspire I am glade they are trying to make an easy to use

desktop to challange Microcrap,but they are going about it the wrong way.
2 stars (Why are you paying for free software??) - Linspire had a great idea: to bring Linux to the masses who are tired of the OS from Redmond. Great...that'll work. But the way in which Linspire has tried to achieve this is sadly lacking.



I used a prior version and Linspire hasn't changed the way they run the business. Though the set up may take around 10 minutes, the Click-n-Run warehouse is where I have a beef.



Click-n-Run is, essentially, a "warehouse" where all of the programs a person would want are right there waiting for you. But as any user of Debian (the distro that Linspire is based on) will tell you, you can apt-get to a repository and get these programs for free.



So why would anyone want to pay for a nice interface to get programs that for all intents and purposes are F-R-E-E?



This distro is good for newbies who need a lot of hand holding though as they learn about F/OSS software, they will be a little disppointed that they spent a lot of money when they did not need to.



For the complete neophyte, Linspire has a place as an introduction and the CNR warehouse may be necessary. But it is a shame to pay the price of admission when these programs are already on the net for free.



Buy this if you are really "new and have no clue" but as soon as you get your "Linux legs" underneath of you, get a real distro like Debian or Slackware or their easier counterparts, Ubuntu and Arch Linux.