OldTechBloke Review of Freespire

Today I was sent a video that Old Tech Bloke did on Freespire:

What are my thoughts?  Not bad. I thought he gave Freespire a pretty good going over.  There are a few things he did bring up that I do want to clarify and at least one point that he didn't bring up but was in the comments.

1.  How did the acquisition of Bridgeways Linux properties come about? and being based on Ubuntu

Back in 2016 we were contacted by a friend of mine who worked for Bridgeways and was told they were leaving the IT industry.  I was interested in their Linux properties specifically the old Corel Linux codebase and being a former user of Corel Linux, it had some unique properties to it that I wanted to see if we could utilize.  As it turned out there really wasn't.  All the new file-managers, Nautilus, Caja, and Thunar all pretty much filled that gap with easy networking and file management.  We were actually thinking of dropping everything that we had with PC/OS and Black Lab Linux and go with OpenSUSE (Some of our beta testers still have the OpenSUSE build).  But we decided to stick with Ubuntu.  So yes, LIKE A LOT OF DISTRIBUTIONS out there we decided to base our releases on Ubuntu. Most distributions these days are based on other distributions and that's the beauty of the Linux world AND by extension the BSD world.

2.  Is Freespire, Linspire and Xandros now a money grab?

He didn't bring this up but from some of the comments alluded to this and the answer is NO.  Back in 2006 when we started making Linux distributions, we wanted something long term.  What the LTS turned out to be.  Before 2006 we actually started supporting Linux company wise in 2002, we were supporting Red Hat Linux and when Red Hat decided to go the RHEL route a lot of people were stuck with Fedora and Fedora had no support whatsoever.  So, we were one of the few companies that supported Fedora for customers and offering the level of support these customers were used to getting from Red Hat before the switch over to pure RHEL.  So, in 2006 we started making our own Linux distribution.  We started out with Gentoo and while yes it was great and fun for us, we were hosting our own server to where people had to download and compile everything, we wanted something a lot easier that customers could just download and install while also being fast and simple.  Ubuntu met our criteria.  So, we started doing an Ubuntu based distribution.  The first one that we released was in 2007 and as stated we wanted something long term.  At the time Ubuntu releases were exactly 6 months apart.  We have always worked in the desktop Linux space so making an argument to paying customers that you had to update every 6 months was a non-starter, so we were supporting Ubuntu's releases a lot longer than they were.  So, when you purchase a support license from us, you are not buying Linux.  You are paying for the support option for that software while we pay the licensing costs for some of the proprietary codecs and code that we include in the supported releases.  We are an operating system company.  We also do custom BSD builds for customers and we have been in business for over 20 years in the state of North Carolina.  If people want to consider it a grift, it's probably the worst and longest grift in the history of grifts.

3.  Our unique selling points and Google Integration

It's all about the base.  We aim to offer a stable, long-term option for customers and users.  We thoroughly test and prototype before we ship.  When Canonical released 20.04, it was 2021 before we shipped the 20.04 LTS codebase in our products.  The Google integration as well is a strong selling point for us.  It is known that we see Chrome OS as our main competitor to our market.  Education customers and enterprise customers make up a broad percentage of our customer base, over 80%, over 260 different school systems, education facilities, government and businesses.  We started working on the web centric focus back in 2019 because our customers told us they like the idea of Chrome OS, but they also wanted the flexibility of installing traditional desktop applications.  Crostini really wasn't a thing at the time we started, and our business customers wanted a native Linux environment for development and running inhouse apps.  Crostini is container technology and it's not really that great right now.  I myself have run into several issues with Crostini.  Now he does say that anyone can take Xubuntu and do what we do and go with it.  But that's the point.  We do it so they don't have to.  If people don't want to purchase the support options Linspire or Xandros OpenDesktop offers. If they don't need the support Freespire and Xandros CommunityDesktop are free to use, free to distribute and free to install on as many systems as they like. 

4.  Why Freespire, Linspire and Xandros?

When we first started shipping Linux distributions, I always said I wanted to have a free distribution for users.  Something that was free to use, free to distribute and that users could put on as many machines that they liked.  Why dont we ship the codecs with Freespire but kept the option to download them in Ubiquity?  We wanted to stay as close to the FSF definition of free software as we could and make the distribution usable.  But we also wanted to keep the option in there so if that's what users wanted, they could still get them.  We believe it's the users' machine and they should be able to do with it what they want.  With the supported release, Linspire, it does ship with all the multimedia codecs, Steam, Wine, multiple filesystem support i.e. XFS, JFS full ZFS and comes with 12 months of support.  Xandros being an enterprise offering has more in terms of enterprise features and comes with 5 years of support and other support options.  So, it's all about the users and what they want.  We are a services-based company.  We make distributions, Linux or BSD, for other people so we do what our customers tell us to do and what their needs are.  We don't just make distributions for ourselves based on our own needs or wants.  If that was the case, I would probably be still using Gentoo full time.

5.  Basics and oversimplified

That is by design.  I hate it when things get overly complex.  Customers and users don't feel overwhelmed and everything's neat and tidy.  If you have any ideas to where you think we could do better don't hesitate to write me or the support staff and we will consider it.  Now this may sound a little bit like being an asshole but its not.  The Linux community is not our target audience.  We do have customers who are very active with the Linux community and we love them too.  But our target audience is the consumer market. We will soon start shipping systems with Linspire and Xandros OpenDesktop preinstalled.  We already do for certain customers.  We want to introduce Linux to as many people as we can who may not have considered Linux as a viable desktop alternative before.  Thats another reason why you see a very basic and simple touch to our marketing and to customer approach.  We have been successful with that so far.  Now if those users start to explore other options and want to experiment with other distributions that is perfectly fine.

So, to OldTechBloke, sorry man I don't know your real name, I want to personally thank you for the review.  Much appreciated.  The entire team has watched the video.  Thank you very much.  The high order bit is this.  I love Linux.  I have loved Linux since 1994 (UNIX since 1989) and even if PC/OpenSystems LLC went out of business tomorrow I'd still love Linux and would probably go work with a Linux company or start another one the day after.  

Thanks everyone.

Linus Tech Tips and Linux and best distribution for Newbies

 

So, a few days ago someone sent me some video links to Linus Tech Tips and his Linux series.  I watched them and while a few parts of it were cringeworthy the problem here is that Linus's criticisms were legitimate.  

There is no ONE perfect Operating System in the world.  Whether it's Windows, Solaris, MacOS, any flavor of Linux or Unix there is not a one size fits all offering out there.  Now, I'm used to Linux and I have used Linux for decades at this point, so I am used to it and every single-issue Linus had I have an answer for it, but we have to look at this from his perspective.  All the common problems Linus had I have heard them before.  I work inside the desktop Linux market.  I have had to deal with how-to-do-task-x a lot to the point I sometimes find myself repeating a lot.  Do I think Linus was trolling?  No.  I think some of the other YouTubers and some of the commenters are the ones guilty of trolling.  I tell people this a lot; Linux is not Windows.  It is different.  Everything from startup to package install is different.  There are some use cases where Windows serves a lot better than Linux.  There are some cases where Linux serves a lot better than Windows.  Quick question, how many of you that criticized his series reached out with solutions?  Judging from the comments and video responses not many and THAT is one of the main problems with the Linux community and why companies like ours and others exist.  People don't want to be called stupid because they are trying to learn something new.  They don't want to be called TROLLS just because they have legitimate issues with using Linux.  Hell, some people just will not like Linux and will go back to Windows or macOS.  Ask any Linux distributor.  It's happened to all of us at one point or another where a customer has called us and said "Look, I'm moving back to Windows because of X Y or Z" and that's fine.  Once again there is NOT a one size fits all distribution out there.  One of the issues I had with the series was that they read one of those stupid fucking articles of "Best Distribution <insert year here>" Those types of articles do a great disservice to the Linux community and Linux adoption in general.  Why?  Because EVERY Linux distribution is the best.  These distributors do a lot of hard work making these distributions.  Some are better than others, yes but those articles are goddamn insulting to every single distributor out there and yes that includes Red Hat, SUSE, Oracle etc. etc.  Once again, its personal preference.  Title it "Best Linux distribution(s) I have tried <insert year here>"

As for Linus and Luke.  Hey if they want to stay on Windows that's great.  Windows 11 is a fine OS.  I tried it, I liked it.  For me, my entire workflow is on Linux so while I dabble with Windows 11 for my Windows programming, Star Trek Fleet Command and Star Trek Online games (Two titles I can't use on Linux) but I digress, if Linus and Luke want to stay on Windows then that is perfectly fine.  There is a lot to like.  If they want to go to Linux there are plenty of resources out there for them to use and there is a lot to like about Linux.  I watched the series, I didn't have many complaints about it, and I even took notes to see if some of the gripes they had I can fix in my own distributions no matter how cringeworthy I thought some of the complaints were.

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

Linspire, Freespire and Xandros: Frequently asked questions 2021

 Today what we are going to be tackling are some frequently asked questions that me and our support team get.  So we have compiled a list of them and here we go.

ADVISORY:  SOME COARSE LANGUAGE IS USED

Why another distribution?  Why not just add on to one of the many distributions out there?

When we first started out we did that and it was less than am optimal solution.  Having our own distribution means we control the upgrade cycle, we can test and release on our own time table without getting that dreaded 3 am call that something broke during distro X upgrade and "we need it fixed now."  That's one of the reasons why we created, market and deploy our own distribution.

Why did you shift the focus to cloud only apps in the distribution?

Michael Robertson, like him or hate him, had that idea back in 2005.  He knew that cloud based apps were going to be a big deal.  The problem Michael had in terms of web apps is that he was 15 years ahead of his time.  There were other problems too but that's not for me to speak on.  What we do is we listen to our customers, we survey our customers on the good and the bad and one thing our customers have told us is that when they received the distribution they stripped a lot of the applications out.  The default office suite for most of our customers is Google Docs.  They don't use Thunderbird they use the Gmail web interface.  They use Spotify and YouTube TV.  So we decided there was no time like the present to go ahead and make the leap and for the few that still use traditional desktop applications they can install whatever they like.

Why Google and Microsoft web apps?

Very simple, customers asked for it.  That's what they are using.  Now lets go ahead and dispel a little rumor out there WE GET ZERO DOLLARS FROM MICROSOFT OR GOOGLE.  They do not pay us in any way nor do we transmit any customer data to them and we do not share sales data to them.  The only transmission to Microsoft that is made is to check the repositories for updates to PowerShell and .NET Core; both of which are open source technologies.  More importantly we hide NOTHING!!! Customers know what they are getting when they purchase Linspire or Xandros and they know when they sign into Google or Microsoft's web apps and whats being  transmitted. For customers who DO NOT want to use Google or Microsoft services we do offer a release that has none of it and users can decide what services they wish to use.  If people get a hold of us and say "Hey I don't want to use Microsoft or Googles services."  OK, we have them covered.  Once again, not unreasonable about it and we do have many of our customers and users that ask for Googles services and that's why we include them in Linspire.

Dr. Roy Schestowitz who writes for Techrights says you are in bed with Microsoft and has called for a boycott of Linspire and Xandros..

Number 1, once again we have ZERO agreements with Microsoft.  They don't pay us.  We have not signed any kind of agreement with Microsoft nor does Microsoft have any access to customer data.  Linspire Inc., Xandros and Bridgeways agreements with Microsoft have ALL expired. The ONLY time Microsoft see's data from the customer is when he/she/they uses their services of their own volition and they know what they are doing.  Same goes for Google.  It is also worth pointing out PC/OpenSystems LLC is a member of the OIN (Open Invention Network) Number 2, I don't care what he thinks because his is not a customer of mine and he is more interested in fighting a battle that he is over a decade too late in fighting.  I haven't seen much of a boycott BTW.  I haven't read any of his "articles" or rants although yes I have heard about them.  The thing is if you were to try and take an FSF "blessed" distribution and market it and distribute it it would fail and it would fail BADLY.  To be successful today you need to either sell hardware OR come preinstalled on hardware.  The only time we sell boxed software is to the few people who are interested in it because they read some random news article on it or someone talked shit and they want to see what the fuss is about, those who want to re-purpose old hardware and  repeat customers.  People who have bought hardware from us.  Now, people don't care about codecs and they don't care about free software.  They want to turn the computer on and it just work.  They want to be able to go to Walmart and Staples buy a network adapter, printer or whatever and it just work and be supported.  They don't care what companies open source their drivers and 3/4 of them don't know what a codec is.  But this guy has beef with me?  Why?  I'm a small fish in the Linux pond,  You want to fight the good fight go talk to Google about ChromeOS. But wait, oh that's right he doesn't have an issue with ChromeOS even though they ship proprietary software and do indeed have active agreements with Microsoft.  But he wants to criticize us for including OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE because he doesn't like where it came from.  Yeah, whatever and I'm sure he will come up with some kind of cheeky response I wont read or care about.

What are the main differences between you and Linspire Inc. considering there doesn't seem to be many differences between you and Michael Robertson?

Oh there are indeed many differences between myself and Michael Robertson.  There is so much more to business than just building great products and making money.  You have to build something beyond yourself and the product.  You have to build trust.  Our customers trust us.  Over 14 years in business we have a 98% retention rate of customers.  Some of them have been with us since 2007.  Money is secondary.  Whether I had one customer or NONE I care about our product and yes I know I'm overbearing when it comes to the work I do and the course of my company.  I have no issues expressing my dissatisfaction at someones lack of effort.  Michael Robertson had a lot of problems.  Some were self inflicted.  Some may even be mental.  Some stem from his leadership style which comes from that many decades old management technique which entails the whole "Do as I say and don't ask any fucking questions"   Don't take that as me digging on Michael.  I'm not.  I wish him the best of luck when it comes to his businesses.  Two things my people will tell you is I shoot them straight and I'm not unnecessarily cruel.  Customer and employee both, I don't hold back.  If we are in trouble they need to know.  We almost died, figuratively, during the Pandemic and we are still struggling to come back from it.  That's the problem when 80% of your business involves face to face contact with customers.  Yes some of the guys had to go part time or be laid off.  We were finally recently able to bring some of them back and ALL of them when I reached out came back.  That's what it takes.  To be a good leader you have to be half hard ass and half compassionate, don't lie to them and shoot your people straight.  If they like you, respect you and trust you they will walk across a field of broken glass barefoot for you; if you are a douchebag who lies, cheats and try to relegate them to the hamster wheel the overwhelming response will be "Fuck that guy!!" 

How many people work on Linspire and Freespire?  What do you work on?

Collectively 15 people work on Linspire and Freespire.  I barely touch Freespire.  We have another guy  who is the lead developer on Freespire and he has his own team of people.  I mostly work on Linspire, Xandros and on the hardware side of things.  We have regular meetings where we talk about whats going on.   I do get asked a lot about the social media aspects of it.  I don't run the twitter feeds so if you have a question send it to me personally.  If you DM the Twitter accounts it will most likely be ignored.  Just send it to my e-mail or DM my personal Twitter account.

Do you think desktop Linux is dead?

I hope not <laughs>  I really don't.  When you look at things like Roku's, Chromebooks, Android tablets, Fire Tablets, Firesticks and WebOS smart TV's all of those devices use Linux at the heart.  The "Year of the Linux desktop" arrived in 2015; it just wasn't in the form we thought it was going to be.  Now, if you are asking desktop distributions I think those hopes are pretty much done.  Even with us, all of our customers don't just run Xandros or Linspire.  They run Chromebooks, Macs, Windows or a few other Linux distributions in combination with Linspire or Xandros.  Linux distributors and companies missed several opportunities.  When we had the switch from Windows ME to Windows XP we had a chance to breakthrough and we even had a few user friendly distributions then.  Corel Linux is the first one that comes to mind.  Didn't happen.  XP to Vista, plenty of opportunities because Vista was delayed.  Didn't happen.  Windows 7 to Windows 10.  Didn't happen.  Windows 10 to Windows 11.  Will not happen.  I tend to look at "desktop" Linux like I did "desktop" UNIX.  Companies and users will use a variety of the different flavors and distributions.  You will have some companies like System76 who pump out some bad ass hardware configurations that are Linux only and you will see some mainstream PC makers who will use Linux as a secondary OS but will we see a specific distribution pop up and wrestle Microsoft and Apple to the ground? Is Mint, Ubuntu, Freespire, Fedora, OpenSUSE or MXLinux going to put those guys in a John Cena type armbar until we start hearing bones snap?  No.  But if you look at reality and put the overzealous arguments aside what you have are good companies like Amazon, Google and Roku who came up with damn good services, damn good interfaces and damn good hardware and have been successful. Really; consumer Linux has been very successful and I think consumer services and devices like that are where you are going to see continued success.

Whats the oldest system you still see in deployment?

Windows NT 3.51.  We have one client who runs their inventory software on it and the damn thing works like a charm.

Why don't you call it GNU/Linux?

Because its not necessary.  The GNU Project did not invent Linux.  Linus Torvalds did.  The GNU Project has many opportunities to release their own distro and call it GNU/Linux. When I buy a car or in my case, TRUCK, and I add my bed liner, cold air intake, aftermarket radiators, oil filters and other customization its not then called ROBERTO/Ford is it?  No. I use Dewalt drills and screwdrivers and other tools when I build a bookshelf.  Does it become a DEWALT/Ikea at that point?  No.  Its a fucking ridiculous argument in my opinion but people can call it what they like.  I don't care and I'm sure no one cares about my opinion on it anyway. (Except for the person that asked that is)

Are you guys still moving to Debian?

We are going to let our users decide what we move to.  We will have a build based on ChromiumOS one on Debian and one on Ubuntu 22.04 and the users can decide which one we go to.  But yes, so far Debian seems to be the most popular choice but I have to tell ya.  I have used the ChromiumOS based release and I like that one.  I like it A LOT.

Why do you guys charge so much for Linspire?

Actually we are priced pretty competitively with the other competitors especially with our download edition.  If you look at SUSE, Red Hat and Oracle we match up pretty nicely.  With ChromeOS who is our main competitor in the cloud OS stage, we are EXTREMELY competitive.

Why should I pay for Linux when I can get it for free?

You aren't paying us for Linux you are paying for the different support options and/or install media.  Secondly, we are in the Linux market but we are not targeting the Linux community per say.  Our target is the consumer.  People who have been on Mac, ChromeOS and Windows and want a choice.  They don't want to upgrade because of some stupid TPM requirement and/or some halfassed container technology that is in beta FOREVER and since Apple is moving to the M1 chip, people will need an OS for their old x86 Macs and not have to spend all day on forums trying to figure the shit out.  We are under no illusion that the distro hoppers or the free or die crowd are going to open their wallets.  Its not going to happen.  We are far more interested in the people who want more or less the same experience they get on Windows, MacOS and ChromeOS and want to buy it.  But for those of you that do like to distro hop; stop on by.

Will you ever stop Linspire?

Not planning to.  If something happened such as health issues I would consider it.  if I got an offer from a company that I felt could take the products to the next level, I would consider it.  2 companies have offered to buy us out but we are not for sale.

So that's it guys.  We will be releasing Xandros OpenDesktop MR1  and Xandros OpenServer 2022 mid January and  Linspire 11 December 27th.  

Thanks again.

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.