Customer Reviews
Do not but this product from Amazon or anyone else except Linspire! 
2005-09-26
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!
Why are you paying for free software?? 
2005-08-17
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.
The easiest Linux system I've ever used 
2005-08-06
I read some of the negative reviews by other people here but decided to try it out for myself. I was really glad that I did! These guys must be Linux geeks or Ph.D. students who like running complicated Linux versions. I tried Mandriva and Xandros and Fedora Core and I have to say that they were a nightmare to try to setup.
I popped the Linspire CD into the drive. It installed in about 10 minutes and detected all of my hardware without any trouble. Within about 5 minutes I was up and surfing the web! My broadband Cox cable connection was detected automatically and set itself up. I decided to check out the CNR Warehouse Membership to see if I would be interested.
You can sign up for a free test drive of the software at Linspire's web site and it doesn't cost a dime. After I did the free trial I decided to go with their "full trial" of Click and Run. I gave them my credit card info and they gave me like 15 days to check it out with no obligation. In the end, I decided to sign up for the $20 a year Click and Run Warehouse Membership. They offer two different levels depending on what you want:
1. A $49.95 / yr. plan
2. A $19.95 / yr. plan
The $20 a year plan was perfect for me! I was able to browse for programs that I wanted by category (Audio & MP3, Business & Finance, etc..) and click a button and it installed with no hassles, no questions, no troubles at all. It tried installing programs with Mandriva and Fedora but it was ridiculous. I kept getting errors and it kept failing. I tried to figure out what was going wrong but, I gave up after awhile.
Linux is hard. No matter what these nerds say it's not as easy as they make it sound. I've never been able to just install something on Linux or get it to work correctly -- until I tried Linspire. I recommend this version of Linux to anyone who is looking to get away from Billy Boy and MicroSuck. I recommend that you try other versions of Linux first. Then.... try Linspire. Test out the Click and Run Warehouse and you will see what I mean! I am more than willing to pay someone to help make Linux easier for me to use. I am running Linspire on all 3 of the computers in my house now and I can share files and programs between all of them without any problems.
Thank you to Linspire for finally making a version of Linux for the rest of us!
Fits the bill without the Bill 2005-08-01
I managed to install Linspire 5.0 on an old Sony laptop and a 2.4 gig P4 desktop. Both installs were quick and easy. Although some complain that this version of Linspire doesn't come with a lot of software it DOES come with the apps you are most likely to actually need.
If you're like me and spend a huge amount of time on the internet, send tons of Email, work with digital images, listen to music, and write papers with a word processor, then Linspire will work just fine.
The install comes with plenty of help files and there is the online forums for additional help if you need it. Personally I haven't had the need. Everything has worked just fine.
If your a serious computer geek then you might prefer a different version of linux. But if you want it to just work then Linspire is great and Big Bill from Redmond hill didn't get a dime.
If you have money to spend 2005-07-30
Easy to use Linux with tons of tutorials, nice till you discover that you just installed the basics and to get more you need to open your wallet. Better off with a fancy LInux like Suse 9.3 or Mandriva or if money matters something like Ubuntu or Kubuntu or even Federa Core is you are not too much on the Internet. Their click and run technology is a good idea, except that most software they propose can already be downloaded for free from the Internet.
It's called Freespire Now! 
2008-04-25
Recently I had the opportunity to try Freespire. Just to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything, I went ahead and installed it to the hard drive of a Lenovo Y410 where the Windows OS had gone south.
As to the good points:
Installation was a breeze. Put the disk in and tell it to install. Took about 20 minutes total, give or take.
Slick interface. Really nice main page with bright colors and a minimum of fussiness. Very close to a Windows interface. Fact is, it's the Ubuntu Linux desktop with some enhancements. Ubuntu is a great OS if you haven't used it before.
Prefer the KDE desktop over the Gnome? Tough. You get what they load which is great for the uninitiated but not so great if you prefer a choice. This is both good and bad. If you have no experience with Linux then you go for the Windows-like Gnome interface; however, most newbies don't know this.
It detected my USB printer and camera and downloaded drivers for both. Windows never did this right.
It quickly found wireless hotspots, and it even detected my Ethernet connection without hesitating.
Instead of a gaggle of included apps, it offers something called CNR (Click And Run) which is an online website via Freespire where you can check out apps before downloading them. No only do you get in-depth descriptions of the apps but you also get customer reviews.
It's quicker than Windows once booted but is no quicker than Windows to boot. This is common among Linux systems. All operating systems do a system check upon booting so get used to it.
Mainly all of the apps, like OpenOffice are merely free clones of equivalent Windows based programs. This is good because one interfaces with the other without too many problems. You even get a free clone of Adobe Acrobat which costs close to $400 for Windows.
Virus problems? What virus problems? Very few are written for Linux so that worry is not something you have to fret over.
Freespire is based upon the Ubuntu release which means you get a steady OS and periodic free updates.
Now for the bad:
I got my distro from a Linux magazine that includes disks, but if you want to buy a disk it will set you back some bucks. Fact is, you can contact Ubuntu and they'll send you a disk for free or you can go to the Freespire website and they'll allow you to download the distro for free but you'll have to burn an ISO disk to run it. Amazon's price is not bad at all.
The Firefox browser included is dreadfully slow because the DNS check has been enabled (supposed to offer greater security against phishing and bad websites, but it's awfully poky). I had to do a quick Net check to find out how to disable the DNS (enter about:config in the URL area and scroll down and disable DNS). This is common to all new Linux distros that use Firefox and is not indicative of a Freespire problem.
Typical of Linux, there is still no standard for sound cards. The Linux Standard Architecture would not recognize my Soundblaster card and I had a devil of time getting it to work. I finally installed a USB sound device which it recognized right off the mark, but this required I use headphones. My onboard speaker system never worked. I had the same problems with Mandriva and Suse.
Unless you download a special app, you can forget playing DVDs. Due to copyright constraints it ain't happening anytime soon. Secondary apps do exist to play DVDs but there is no guarantee that they will work with Suse completely. Once I did get the DVD to work the playback was horribly choppy and erratic.
Although the CNR system is slick and rather nice, it does have its drawbacks. The parent company is on shaky financial ground and some of the apps on the CNR website are woefully out of date or, worse yet, placed in the wrong categories. I found an educational app in the games section where it most definitely didn't belong. In addition, the version of OpenOffice at the CNR is an older version than the one you get on the disk. Ditto for the Linux Instant Messenger called Pidgin. It was originally called GAIM but the name was changed because of AIM complaints. If you download GAIM it won't work but if you download Pidgin it will. They are the same program, though.
While it may seem the bad points outweigh the good, it's a matter of perspective. Linux always has had some bug issues but so does Windows or Apple OS. Linux suffers because it's an free OS (most can be downloaded for free but they do charge to mail you disks) and the Big Boys don't like the Free Guy knocking on their doors.
Fact is, Freespire is a slick OS that merits mention and is third behind my choices of Mandriva and Suse (one and two, respectively).
linspire desktop 2007-01-14
It was easy to install,had a few problems with drivers,but were sorted easily,this is a excelent program,and the CNR was the best,no endless patches and updates to load , like other systems
Linspire 2007-01-05
The is a great software it has the look of windows and security of linux but lilk any linux you can use this as a server i took one of my old pc's that needed new hard drives well i found out it had EIDE drived so i got a new MOBO and 4 750 drives giveing me 3T Then put linspire on snd i have new server on my home network one nice thing about cnr witch stands for click and run is it gives me acces to all sorts of software the best feature of linux to me is that both a windows or mac cac access it since i have them both but that is somthing that can be done with all linux OS.
Best Distro Hands Down 2006-10-31
A lot of people have complained about various features that Linspire offers. The most common being the use of the CNR client. What these people seem to not understand or in their bias against Linspire just plain omit is that there are two versions of the CNR membership.
CNR Basic and CNR Gold.
The second review on here "Why are you paying for free software??" fails to mention the reason this is a pay service. Yes you could use apt-get to install debian packages but CNR goes through the trouble of making sure each package has no dependency issues. While most current users of Linux don't mind a little trouble shooting must users of computers want something that just works.
At the time his review was written Basic was $20a year. It is now free, it is better than apt get in the sense that it is graphical, as in no command line a scary land similar to dos prompt for all the newbies and converts.
CNR offers an aisle system so all the programs you want can be organized and set to install with a single click instead of manually doing each one.
Best of all that so called horrible cost of $50 for CNR Gold well it isn't that bad at all. For one thing you get an unlimitted number of aisles. Two you get discounts on every click and buy program, because like it or not even in debian not every program is free. Believe me, I know. In just the last 4 months my CNR Gold membership has given me over a $80 savings subtract that 50 and I still saved 30. Think of your membership like one for Costco or Sams Club.
It just drives me crazy when people bash this service, it is a time saver and a headache saver. And I am not just some newbie. I have been using Linux for over 5 years now. I started with Redhat 8, I own a copy of Suse 10 and I have been with Linspire ever since they launched Linspire 4.5.
Linspire? Use Ubuntu instead. 
2006-01-25
Linspire takes a free (as in beer and as in speech) Linux distribution known as Debian, and then charges for the "service" of downloading software from a repository that is about 1/7th the size of the Debian repositories. If you wish ease of use, and adhere to the Debian ideal, get yourself a free-of-charge copy of Ubuntu courtesy of http://shipit.ubuntu.com, and then access the Ubuntu and Debian archives WITHOUT having to subscribe to anything.
