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Thread ID: 61388 2005-09-03 04:56:00 Linspire being offered for free (limited time) Jen (38) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
385758 2005-09-03 10:34:00 Yeah Jen whats you tracker?

mines tracker.linspire.com

I got 34 Seeders, 14 uploaders and I aint downloading taff :(

GRR slap me silly and call me stupid... Its working now

Chill mayof meant the actual link to the .torrent file, not the tracker? e.g Chill cant be bothered going through the hassle of signing up, and would rather a torrent file that he can get without mucking-around.
ILikeLinux (1669)
385759 2005-09-03 10:41:00 The actual torrent file is here:

linspire_5.0.59.torrent

If posting this is illegal, can a Mod please delete this thread.
somebody (208)
385760 2005-09-03 11:32:00 Yeah, I was after the torrent, somebody PM'd me the link

Unsure about the legalities of keeping it up here, so I will remove it (No hard feelings somebody, thanks for posting it :) ).

ILL: I think he was commenting on how there may have been two trackers due to the speed differences, not trying to post the link to it
Chilling_Silence (9)
385761 2005-09-03 22:19:00 Yeah, I was after the torrent, somebody PM'd me the link


.... no I didn't.....
somebody (208)
385762 2005-09-03 22:22:00 .... no I didn't.....He meant somebody as in someone else, not somebody ;) Jen (38)
385763 2005-09-03 22:30:00 OK, well I fired up Linspire this morning so thought I would post some screenshots of what it looks like. When you boot from the CD you get the options of installing/upgrading, running Linspire directly from CD (LiveCD) or Advanced.

I used this on a P3 933 MHz with 512MB of RAM and a 52x speed CD drive.

I was only using the LiveCD, but I should imagine the full install will look the same. First thing I noticed that is took ages to load (longer than other LiveCD's) but it correctly set my screen resolution to 1280x1024 and detected all my hardware and even set the correct timezone and date. It even loaded a nvidia driver for my graphic card. One small glitch was that two duplicate Konqueror windows opened automatically when the desktop loaded.

Some screenshots of the desktop:
Default desktop (imagef1.x10hosting.com)
Minimalistic but easy to navigate menu (imagef1.x10hosting.com)

You can see it is designed to make the change over from Windows to Linux smooth as possible by using familiar terms and folders such as:
My Computer (imagef1.x10hosting.com)
My Documents (imagef1.x10hosting.com)
Control Center (imagef1.x10hosting.com)

I use ethernet to connect to my router with a static IP, but Linspire had setup up the network connection using DHCP (imagef1.x10hosting.com). Only took a second to enter in my settings and I had full internet access. Linspire uses a email/internet browser program called "Linspire Internet Suite" which is a customised version of Mozilla.

Linspire uses CNR (click and run) as a software delivery service. Basically it is a one stop shop (yes, not all software packages are free) where you just click on what you want and it will be installed for you. Here is a screenshot of some of the Action Games (imagef1.x10hosting.com) available.

Linspire is a commercial distribution so they provide support. It has a diagnostic report wizard which is used to create a report on what software or hardware issue you require help with which is then sent off to support.

Evidence of this being a Linux OS is well hidden from the user, and I see the LiveCD default user account is a root (Administrator) account. Really hope they don't do this by default with a full install version, but I suspect they do in order to make it more "user friendly". In any case, it is easy to create a general user account like you do in Windows for everyday use.

As it is being offered for free for the next few days, it is certainly worth downloading the ISO (~647 MB) and seeing what it is all about. However, if this is your first look at a Linux OS remember this is a commercial OS which has been setup to be familiar to Window users (like Xandros does). Most standard (free) Linux distros look/act quite different to this. :)
Jen (38)
385764 2005-09-04 02:38:00 I still haven't managed to get through on the servers?

how long did you guys try for, or is there a trick to getting on the servers that i am missing?
Morgenmuffel (187)
385765 2005-09-04 02:42:00 I found I could only get through if I kept retrying at very close intervals - eg clicking the link again and again. somebody (208)
385766 2005-09-04 02:45:00 ...Linspire is a commercial distribution so they provide support. ...RedHat is commercial and provide support. Mandriva are commercial and provide service. Etc... To paying customers.

If you get a free download, I wouldn't expect much support. ;) Commercial Linux companies make their money by selling support.
Graham L (2)
385767 2005-09-04 03:32:00 The joys of the likes of PF1 & LUG Mailing lists :) Chilling_Silence (9)
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