Why we wont stop using Ubuntu and chat about Internet privacy

With the issues with SNAP recently, some people have asked?  Is it time for distros based on Ubuntu to die?  The answer to that is a firm NO.  Its time for SNAP to die but from Ubuntu's snap developers it doesnt look like it is going anywhere.  We have disabled SNAP by default in our ISO refreshes.  You cant even install it and we decided to just stick with DEB's and Flatpak.  With Ubuntu moving entirely over to SNAP's will that make it difficult?  Not really.   Someone will build the debs or we will do it ourselves.  But should we change or do the Linux Mint route and look at Debian?  First, Linux Mint has always had a Debian edition, so I dont think SNAP had anything to do with it.  B, Im the person who doesnt like to throw the baby out with the bath water.  Ubuntu does a lot of things right, they do a couple of things wrong. The things they do right far outweigh what I dont like about it.  So while we did look at switching to Debian, Arch and Red Hat and while all great distributions we like Ubuntu.  If we were to look at making a change it would either be Chromium OS or Gentoo.  But to change the base because of ONE thing, SNAP, is ridiculous, asinine, and fucking stupid. 

Some other reasons people have put out there is because they work with Microsoft or business practices or Canonical's use of proprietary software.  I dont care that they use proprietary software, I dont care if they have agreements with Microsoft.  Those things are not important to me.  Besides, if you seriously want to look at it Microsoft is right now the biggest distributor of Linux.  WSL combined with Windows Azure.  Besides, most commercial Linux and Open Source companies have an agreement with Microsoft or some other group.  Red Hat, Oracle, IBM, SUSE, pick one.  Microsoft is a member of the Linux foundation and you have Microsoft employee's on the kernel team.  I dont think many users really care about Microsoft anymore.  Why?  If you look at the top Windows app Linux users have wanted for DECADE's the ONE top app.  Guess which one... Microsoft Office.  Its never been done fully but now with Edge on Linux the online suite is great for basic needs which is what most people use it for.  VS Code and Edge have been extremely popular on the Linux platform and there have been some people who use Edge and VS Code full time that I never thought I would see them ever use it to be frank.  Seriously, this argument has gotten old.  Everyone's screaming privacy, all web browsers do data collection; ALL OF THEM.  Unless you make your own browser those bits and bobs are going somewhere you cant control.  Its seriously a question of whether you want to shoot yourself in the right foot or the left foot.  If the US Government wants to get your browsing data and everything you do online, you will not stop them no matter how many computers you have with Tor, VPN's etc. etc. etc.  You want privacy on the internet?  Dont use the internet.  Its that simple.

Expanding Xandros: Xandros CommunityDesktop 2022

 When Xandros was first released in the early years of the 2000's after Xandros acquired Corel Linux they had a release called the Xandros Open Circulation which was their free to download, non-commercial use and free to use version of Xandros DesktopOS.  We have fielded calls from past Xandros customers and our users about something like that.  So we have decided to do that.

Xandros CommunityDesktop 2022 is our version of "open circulation".  Xandros CommunityDesktop 2022.  Since CommunityDesktop will be free to use and redistribute for non-commercial use there will be some caveats to that.  It will contain limited codec support and will not contain many of our OpenDesktop capabilities.  There will not be any multi-filesystem support, no remote administration capabilities, and no Virtual Machine support.  Xandros CommunityDesktop will also follow the upgrade schedule of Xandros.  While Freespire and Linspire will be upgraded to the 22.04 base in 2023, Xandros will not be upgraded to a new base until 2024 .  Xandros CommunityDesktop will be community supported only and no warranty expressed or implied will be offered.

Xandros CommunityDesktop will follow our recent strategy of using cloud apps instead of traditional desktop apps and will utilize Googles services as default.  There will be NO Office 365 release of CommunityDesktop.

Now some people will ask what does this mean for Freespire and Linspire?  Nothing at all.  Freespire and Linspire will continue to be developed and distributed for consumer desktop users.  Home users, school, gamers and freelance developers and Xandros will continue to be developed and distributed for our education, enterprise and professional customers.

Another question that many of our customers will ask; can we add Xandros CommunityDesktop to our current support contracts?  No.  Xandros CommunityDesktop will be community support only if you wish to add an additional license to your support contract you will have to purchase an extra license for Xandros OpenDesktop

First release will be available mid January 2022

To Ubuntu or NOT to Ubuntu, that is the question

 As we approach 2022 there will be a new LTS release of Ubuntu.  We have announced we will not update our base from  20.04 until Fall 2023 at the earliest.  So with that said what are our official plans for Freespire, Linspire and Xandros?

We have discussed the possibility of using Ubuntu 22.04 as our base and we have been experimenting with and building our OS's using Debian and ChromiumOS.  So we are officially announcing Ubuntu 20.04 is the END of the road for our Ubuntu base usage unless something drastic does happen.

Summer 2022 we will start releasing builds based on ChromiumOS and Debian and we will let our users decide the route we will go.  Since our OS products have moved to cloud applications we could technically use either one but we do love the feedback from our customers and users on what we are doing.  

With the Debian build we will have Google Chrome, ICE and XFCE included.  There will be little difference from our Ubuntu versions that we release now so that will be the smoothest upgrade for users.  There will be a few differences in the installer, Linspire and Xandros users will have to input a license key for verifiable purchases, if you dont have a key it will log you out after 30 minutes and tell you that you need to purchase a license key.  We feel that this helps in two ways. 1.  It lets users test on their hardware to make sure it runs as smoothly as possible. 2.  It lets users decide if they wish to purchase or not.  Freespire will not have the license key feature in its installer.

The ChromiumOS distribution will include standard ChromiumOS features along with the Linux subsystem enabled by default so you can install any local apps from the Debian repository that you want.

This brings us to Xandros.  Xandros OpenDesktop will be shipped with the new base in 2025.  Xandros will continue to get kernel and system updates and refreshed ISO's.  We will continue to ship the Standard and Office 365 releases even with the new base.

Linspire and Microsoft: Match made in heaven?

 

So there seems to be some misinformation out there spreading about Linspire, Xandros and Microsoft.  The question has been asked; Is Linspire and Xandros by extension in bed with Microsoft?  NO!!  Not at all.  There are NO agreements in place anymore with regards to Linspire, Xandros or Microsoft.  The patent protection that Linspire Inc and Bridgeways got from Microsoft has long since expired.  There are no partnerships that need to be announced at this time.

So certain people want to throw a fit, make slanderous remarks, and start unnecessary drama because we include Powershell, .NET Core and VS Code in our distributions.  NEWS FLASH!!!!  They are Open Source pieces of software.  Furthermore, the inclusion of this software was REQUESTED by customers for interoperability.  Xandros OpenDesktop 2021 Office 365 uses the web based Microsoft Office 365 and other Microsoft centric web applications.  Why?  Because customers requested it.  Xandros OpenDesktop Office 365 accounts for 90% of our enterprise and education customer sales.  A minority chooses Standard Edition which includes the Google applications.  PC/OpenSystems makes our products based on customer feedback.  No more and no less.

What information do we give to Microsoft?  Absolutely NONE.  When you update the system does it communicate with Microsoft servers?  Yes.  As with everything Debian based software is stored in a repository.  When you run an update and it communicates with Microsofts repositories and if an update is available it gets downloaded.  This is the nature of the beast when it comes to upgrading software on ANY Debian based system.  On Xandros Office 365 same thing and of course when you access Microsofts web apps a little bit of information is exchanged when you login to your Microsoft account.  The point here is very simple, customers who purchase our products know exactly what they are getting.  We don't hide it, we aren't embarrassed of it and according to our sales and subscription renewals; customers LIKE IT!!!

Now, some of the mundane trolls want to start a boycott of Linspire and Xandros.  Listen to yourselves, really listen to your silly little comments.  You want to boycott Linspire and Xandros for using  OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE!!!!  As with everything Linux you have the ability to remove any piece of software that you choose.  Are you boycotting Ubuntu?  They work with Microsoft closer than we do.  How about Red Hat and SUSE?  They work with Microsoft closer than we do.  How about Deepin and Windowsfx?  Who work as hard as they can to clone the Windows interface.  Some people like to live in the past and if you are interested in trying to keep this war with Microsoft vs Open Source alive, you are 15 years too late.  If you are interested in keeping the war alive with Michael Robertson and Linspire Inc.  You are 14 years too late.  The industry has spoken they would rather have interoperability than rhetoric, bullying and bullshit.  When it comes to IT and services the end goal is the same and you don't have to reinvent the wheel to get there.

Linspires new direction explained

 For the past year we have internally at PC/OpenSystems LLC launched a project called CLOUD9.  The aim of this project was to create an OS that utilized cloud apps in replacement of traditional desktop applications.  Some of those manifested themselves into Xandros Cloud but we wanted to bring that to all of our desktop users.  Some of the efforts were successful (Xandros Cloud Office 365 was our best seller for our education customers and some of our enterprise customers)  But we wanted to make the best Cloud centric OS that we could.

First, we created a Chromium OS build of Freespire (Which I personally liked) The problem with ChromiumOS was that it relied solely on web apps during our focus groups and user testing we found that some users still want to run some traditional desktop apps (Gimp, Krita, Video editing software, music and video players) and while ChromiumOS has Crostini but it is not enabled by default.  The other issue was it was not easy to install.  This was before Google integrated the Neverware installer.

Second, we created an Android build.  Which again I liked.  But it was still too much of a desktop OS and relied on packages being installed from the Google Play Store.

Third, what culminated in Xandros Cloud which was use our traditional base and to pre-install Google or Microsoft's services.  This was the direction we ultimately decided to go and there are a few reasons.

1. Ease of use.  Freespire, Linspire and Xandros are by far the easiest Linux distributions for the average computer user.
2. Software availability.  Not only do users have the ability to use apps from the Ubuntu repositories, native Debain/Ubuntu packages, FlatPak, Appimage and SNAPS but users do not have to rely on some obscure framework which may or may not work and that is in perpetual beta for years on end.  Apps are available to be fully installed on the system and new apps available through the software center.
3. Users wanted native speed and full availability without having to rely on container technology
4. User focus groups and beta testing.  During our testing we found that users had much more success with our traditional distributions.  We discovered that users very rarely use LibreOffice and Thunderbird the apps we found they most used were Google Chrome, Gmail and Google Office or Microsoft Office 365 (This includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, OneNote etc.)  

So, we have made several changes to Freespire, Linspire and Xandros.  Linspire and Xandros will now offer cloud apps for the tasks of office suites, calendar, e-mail, and online storage.  What will the new direction offer us?

• Refined distribution.  Uses less resources and smaller ISO images.
• It allows us to run on more Intel based Chromebooks that have reached EOL and allows users to take even more advantage of their current hardware investments.  Users and customers will be able to download an ISO and upgrade their current systems.  No new hardware purchases necessary unless that system is older than 5 years.
• More secure to attacks because of smaller attack surface.
• There will be less of a need to create custom distributions for customers because of the common base resulting in lower prices for our customers.
• No preconceived notions of apps and services customers and users want to use.  Customers and users decide for themselves
• Most state governments, federal facilities, enterprise users and educational facilities already certify Google Chrome in their environments and test their internal and public web properties on Chrome and Chromium.
• Makes us more competitive with ChromeOS and CloudReady.
• We will continue to work with Google to make sure that we stay compatible with the Admin console.

What can you expect from the new distributions: 

Freespire 7.7 will continue to be our free to download and redistribute distribution and will not be distributed with proprietary codecs.  Freespire will include, Chrome and IceSSB.  It will also include Geary mail client, games, Parole media player and Rhythmbox.  It will be delivered sans any Google or Microsoft services and users can decide what services they wish to use by default.

Linspire 10 SP 1.5 will include all of Googles services.  Docs, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Keep, YouTube, Google Maps and Weather.com.  Local apps will include Chrome, IceSSB, Video Player, Rhythmbox, Games, Shotwell and Krita.  It will include all proprietary multimedia codecs and  DVD/Blu-Ray support.  

Xandros OpenDesktop 2021 will come in two flavors.  Standard Edition with all the Google services preinstalled and Office 365 edition which will utilize Microsofts web services.  With the Office 365 edition Bing will also be the default homepage and the default search engine in Google Chrome.  Both will ship with .NET Core, Powershell and Visual Studios Code.  Local apps will include, Chrome, Video Player, Rhythmbox, games, Shotwell and Krita for image editing.  Both editions of Xandros OpenDesktop will also include all the proprietary media codecs and DVD/Blu-Ray support 

Xandros OpenServer and Xandros Terminal Services will not be affected by these changes.

We look forward to bringing you these new products and look forward to servicing our customers and users for years to come.

Why we shut the hell up and went with XFCE (Again)

With the release of Freespire 6.0.3 a lot of customers and users saw that we had yet again gone with XFCE as our user interface.  While this may have irked some people we made this change because of several factors which we will discuss here.

We already had products based on XFCE

While MATE and KDE were great there were a few reasons why we chose XFCE. 

• It is lightweight
• Its easier to customize
• It requires fewer system resources
• Its more modular

We also have products that already utilize XFCE namely Linspire Enterprise Server and Linspire Workstation.  We also eventually want to release an ARM version of Linspire and XFCE was the easiest, from our current production run, to customize and make it an exact clone of the x86_64 release.  So this would allow us to work with a singular desktop with mere graphical changes versus a lot of infrastructure change.  This also allows us to run on older Chromebooks that may have reached EOL but may not have had the resources to run KDE, Mate or even GNOME.

Development of XFCE is more stable

With Mate and KDE, we had the issue of their development cycle.  Whenever a new release of Mate or KDE was released it would require a lot more testing and rolling out new desktop features.  With XFCE development is a lot slower with new releases coming every 2 or 3 years versus every 2 to 6 months and upgrading an XFCE installation is much easier with a simple repository added and a mere system update without having to worry about broken packages and modules where some core system utility would crash and burn. 

Less Drama associated with XFCE

There seems to be a lot of drama involved with certain sides of the community.  With KDE its the issues of Kubuntu versus Canonical and KDE vs QT where that introduces uncertainty and as a company that markets sells, and develops software for fortune 500 companies and in government and education that also added a certain complexity.  With GNOME and Mate, we found ourselves patching bugs, submitting patches, and those groups rejecting the patch which made us have to basically ship it with our distributions, and when a new desktop release arrives it basically breaks everything again.  With XFCE there is little drama involved and they work well with exterior developers.

Advantages of XFCE

Once again, it's lightweight.  It works well with GTK, QT, and Web-based applications and looks less "ugly" while doing it.  You can run XFCE reasonably well within lower RAM systems.  It allows you to work with multiple classes of systems and also has great touch capabilities for touch screen systems.

All around we made this decision based on what's good for the users, our customers and our companies.  We have perhaps one of the better-looking XFCE desktops and even with our Linspire 9.0 prototypes, people are loving it.

Windows 7 End Of Life Special

As everyone knows Windows 7 has reached its End Of Life.  This leaves millions of Windows 7 systems vulnerable to malware, security exploits and bugs that will go unpatched and unfixed.  Everyone is scrambling to find a solution.  The common thread is to either upgrade to Windows 10 or find an alternative to run on older hardware that may not be Windows 10 compatible.

Enter the 'Windows 7 Refugee Program'.  This program is run by PC/OpenSystems LLC and the Linspire team where we are offering Windows 7 users who may be left out in the cold an alternative for those Windows 7 PC's.  Linspire 8.5.

Linspire 8.5 is an ideal solution for those Windows 7 users who may not be able to upgrade to Windows 10.

Linspire 8.5 offers the following features:

Familiar user interface
Easy setup and installation
KDE Plasma 5
Google Chrome 79
Ice SSB - Which allows you to turn any web app into a fully functional desktop application
Amarok Music Player
VLC Media Player
OnlyOffice desktop suite - Fully featured office suite which resembles Microsoft Office and saves files in the Microsoft Office file format.
Full multimedia Codecs - Linspire offers playback from Blu-Ray, DVD, Windows Media, Apple Quicktime and more.
Built in Anti-Virus and Firewall controls

From Today until Feb 1st we are offering Linspire 8.5 at a discounted rate.  The download Edition will be $19.99 USD.  The boxed set with a ready to use and install Live USB drive will be $30.99.  Gets yours today.

Windows 7 Refugee Program Boxed Set

1 License $30.99 USD 2 Licenses $54.99 USD 3 - 5 Licenses $399.99 USD

Windows 7 Refugee Program Digital Download

1 License $19.99 USD 2 Licenses $30.99 USD 3 - 5 Licenses $199.99 USD

Linspire CE 8.5.1 ESR (Education Special Release) Released

Today the PC/OpenSystems development team is pleased to announce the release of Linspire CE 8.5.1 ESR (Education Special Release) to our educational customers. This release contains many bug fixes and feature enhancements from our previous ESR.

Linspire CE educational Release is currently used by over 200 school systems around the United States and internationally.  Linspire CE ESR is a strong commitment to educational computing and is the number 2 Linux distribution used by schools and academic facilities.

One of our main goals with the distribution was security. One of the things that we have heard from customers in this arena were several security concerns. An example of this was being able to go into the Synaptic Package Manager and uninstall or cripple core OS functions. So Synaptic has been removed and we gave control of application installation to the Software Center. We also updated Time Keeper so any systems left on premises you can set usage times so students and faculty can only use the system during scheduled times. We also have heard from users that the Thunderbird e-mail app was no longer necessary since most e-mail work is executed using Gmail or Outlook Web interfaces so we did include the Gmail web app for users (Linspire CE Office 365 customers will receive their update later this week) We have now included the latest release of WebMin for remote access and system maintenance in the core OS.

 Some of the features we have included specific to this release are:

 Better XBox One controller support
Preliminary Nintendo Switch support for use with Presentations
Google Classroom web app now installed by default
Google Docs and Google Keep web apps installed by default
Improved Google Admin support
Improved Chromebook support for installation on EOL (End of Life) EOS (End Of Service) Chromebook models so that you can maximize your hardware investment

Core OS  Features that we have updated are:

Kernel 5.0.0-31 KDE 5.12.9
Ice 6.0.4
Google Chrome 77
KolourPaint
Kpatience
DreamChess
VLC media player
Kamerka
Boot Repair
Firewall configuration
Discover Software Center

 Current customers will have this release delivered to them.  New customers can purchase a facility license or individual licenses here

Linspire CE ESR (Education Special Release)

1 License $49.99 USD 2 Licenses $112.99 USD 3 - 10 licenses $329.99 USD 11 - 25 licenses $899.99 USD Unlimited Support License $1,299.99 USD

Install Media

LiveUSB LiveSD Card LiveMicroSD

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