Linspire Vs. Windows. Are you looking to get away from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Products?

Are you looking to get away from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Products? Than Linspire (a Linux based operating system) is one of the ways to go. In this article we will cover our experience with Linspire and trying to get out from underneath Microsofts thumb.

First we downloaded Linspire from their website paying a small fee of $19.95 with a coupon they offered through Google. The download is about 700 Megs. If you have a dial-up connection or high-speed light you may just want to buy the retail box version for around $59.95. When the download was finished we eagerly burnt it to CD and picked one computer for the install. Ah my laptop perfect specimen for this new operating system. We put the CD in and it booted from the laptop drive right into the install menu which also has the option to run from CD. Can this be true, we can just run the operating system from CD? We selected to run from the CD option, it took about 2-3 minutes and presto we were looking at a full working version of this new OS. It was amazing the menus, the Launch button all very similar to Windows, but it was not Windows. This is exactly what we wanted and more. So we decided to go ahead and do the hard drive install as the boot from CD option is more of a demo mode to try the software. We booted the laptop again into the Linspire install menu this time we selected install to hard drive. I stand up to walk away from my laptop which usually takes about 30-40 minutes to load windows completely. The Linspire install screen reads Your installation will complete in 13 minutes. What 13 Minutes? It must be calculating the time wrong, so I give it the benefit of doubt. Thirteen Minutes later I am cruising around in Linspire with all my drivers installed for my devices, it found every one. Now it is time to start installing the programs I work with on a daily basis, but wait Linspire has installed everything from DVD and CD burning software to an office suite that is compatible to Microsoft Office. To load this much into a windows box it would have taken me the better part of 2 hours. Linspire did it all off of one install in 13 minutes. I am sold, Goodbye Microsoft.

Over the next couple of days the family notices my Linspire computer and wants it put on their computers. No problem I will purchase this amazing operating system for the other computers. Then I start to read over my agreement for Linspire and it tells me that I may install it on all of the computers that my family owns. Wow, I picked myself up off the floor and waited a minute to clear my head. I am so used of Microsoft wanting me to buy more copies of something I already own, it never occurred to me that I could just install the software because I had bought it already. So I load up 2 other computers exactly the same install time as my laptop and I did not have to install one driver. We were all surfing the net and doing our basic daily routines for around twenty dollars.

Now it was time to add some new software to my system, games and other applications to make my life easier. Linspire comes with a program called CNR (Click-N-Run). When you create an account, CNR connects to their servers and will download and install software with one mouse click. This feature is an extra $19.95 a year for the regular service and has the same policy Linspire does as to which computers you can use it on. You get access to over 2,000 FREE applications everything from games to financial software. There are still a handful of applications and games you may want to buy and with a Gold membership you get a nice discount on those. As for anti-virus software you do not have to have it (Linux the operating system Linspire was developed from is not as prone to viruses) although it is recommended so you do not pass viruses through your Linspire computer to Windows computers which we all know get infected far to often.

A week later and our Linspire computers are running great no hick-ups everything is smooth and quick no waiting like in Windows. Than the bomb drops, we wanted to play Diablo 2 and Swat 4 on our Linspire computers. We start to look into how to load the games heres the part where Microsoft gets you. Most games require Microsoft DirectX to play and Linspire has no DirectX support. In short the only way to get the games running is to install a software package that will simulate a Windows environment in Linspire. The other down side is that in order to get the games working you will need to fine tune and tweak the software to get the games running properly. So unless you are a tech. or programmer you are not going to enjoy getting your games to work.

Another problem we noticed is that networking support between a Windows Computer and a Linspire computer is not at all that easy, and is very difficult if the Windows computer is loaded on a NTFS file system.

If you are looking for a nice cheap operating system for home use and do not have a network or play a lot of games, than Linspire is your alternative to Windows. Otherwise stay with your Windows computer for now.

Linspire offers a money back guarantee which we are not asking for, because we want to see this Operating System grow. So we all can get out from underneath Microsofts thumb should we so choose.

This piece was written by Lorne Deeks, an IT Professional with GITC. http://www.gitc.caBambi Blog34291
Allegra Blog34486