Even though Linux journalists like SJVN try to push Linux a lot by doing anti-microsoft campaigns like these, there is always this Linux Myth with every user who wants to try Linux or uses Linux,

1) Linux is more Stable, Reliable

2) Linux is FREE, no penny being spent!

3) Linux is Virus Free!

One of my friend sent me an email recently on what he felt about using Linux -

I’ve been using Linux exclusively this year. But…. it is so boring! The only application I use is my browser. (Which incidentally crashes several times a day.) Seriously I don’t have a single useful program. I do all my coding in a vi terminal.

sidenote: The myth that linux software is more reliable is fading very fast for me. A wise friend of mine said to me many many years ago that the only reason Linux doesn’t get viruses is because IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING. I’m beginning to see his wisedom.

I need not explain more here

Thats why people still say Linux is no Vista Killer

Its well known thing that every Linux distribution has its own Community Forums, Mailing lists etc., etc.,. We should also not forget that each such forum will have their own Forum Rules and Conduct. The forums tend to see different people from different culture, different country, different mood etc., etc.,

So, what should be the main goal ?

1) Let the users discuss anything,everything (which also includes political discussions,rantings etc., etc., not related to that forum) what they want along with the distribution discussions , (or)

2) Let the users discuss only Linux and Linux related topics along with the distribution discussions, (or)

3) Only allow the discussions related to the distribution and moderate all other posts which are off-topic

Now, you can see most of the forums stick to the Rule 2 and also partly fall into Rule 1 and Rule 3 wherein they allow Rule 1 but strictly moderate.

The difficulty I see is -

1) Every user are not same and every user is not from the same place/country from where other user may be and thus starting a political discussion is not going to be in favor of all members and some members sure are going to see why such an topic is started. For example, take a post titled – “What if Mitt Romney becomes the next president of America!”. Well, to be frank, I dont know much about Mitt Romney and how would you expect me to know and also how would the thread starter would expect others (majority of users) to know and reply to his post ??

2) I have seen most of the political posts end up in BIG fight either between users Vs users or moderators Vs users. There is no point in arguing how it may lead or why it should lead, but its the same everywhere.

3) Not only political discussions, but there are other certain topics like Microsoft Bashing – Some(many??) Linux users tend to be so angry against Microsoft (yes, angry ) and just start cursing Microsoft and Microsoft technologies. It doesn’t matter whether they are using it or not , the point here is – Microsoft isn’t Open Source (or) GNU/Linux (or) Free. The ethics come into action here. This really makes other Microsoft lovers move away slowly. Well, you may ask – What Microsoft users are doing in a Linux forum – I can also ask , What Linux users have to discuss about Microsoft in a Linux forum if they just don’t like it ? – See , even here it tends into argument , lol. And when Microsoft lovers, who also love Linux (and use Linux) along with Microsoft products get into and try to tell or atleast try to be real in saying that Microsoft isn’t that bad and its their way of doing Business , that User gets the bashing and loses his/her reputation.

Whats the point here ? Does these type of discussions be needed in a Linux forum ?

My answer would be a BIG NO – Why ?

You have many other places to discuss regarding these and need not choose the Linux Discussion forums for this. People should understand that one will find great diversity in the forums and it shouldn’t be made “locale”. To be more precise, stick to Linux and Linux related topics. Of course, one has to Respect the Community, but that doesn’t mean that you should go with everything and allow users to do everything. Help the Community -A User joins the Community in the intention that he/she seeks help in Linux or Linux related or Distribution related help and not in any other areas.

Why did I post this here – Klikit Linux Community is having the same problem and me being a moderator was not able to handle the political discussions and other things. I am not an American to know all the things whats happening over there and how will I know in such discussions that the user has crossed his/her limit or insulted someone.  I found everything Greek and Latin to me and ofcourse this led to Moderators Vs Users fight – The reason is simple – Few of the Users demand that they need to be given freetalk and not moderated (not to even apply  Godwin’s Law )  – Sorry , I am not for it !

And I am also a member of many other distribution forums as well Microsoft related forums and never ever Users discuss anything unrelated and even if they do so, they would be warned that its actually off-topic to the forum and thread removed or kept under review by moderators. Well, whats wrong in that !

Linspire was once the World’s Easiest Linux Desktop Operating System

The tagline is good, but how far it stands to that is the point

With the releases of openSUSE 10.3, Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and other Linux distributions like PCLinux OS, Klikit Linux, Linux Mint etc., *spire is way down and its still going down, down into deep ….

I wouldn’t even bother to recommend *spire to any of my friends !

We have seen more falls in Linspire recently than any rise and unfortunately this has led to a miserable releases of Freespire and Linspire !

1) Ubuntu snags top Linspire staffers 

2)  Linspire executives exodus ?

3) Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony resigns 

And to add more

1) Linspire 6.0 – Two steps back 

There isn’t much hype going on at their forums too. I am sorry to tell that their forums are so tight that unless you register, you cant view most of the users’ complaints, whinnings etc.,

Oh..last but not the least – Where is Kevin now ? – You guessed it right !  He is with …….. (here) and (here)

So, Farewell *spire and Bye Bye forever !

October 4th, we saw openSUSE release their most expected 10.3 release and it has lived up to its expectations and got some good reviews around the Linux Community.

Now its time to welcome Gutsy

I am currently downloading Gutsy and soon will post about it in my blog. It will be nice to see how beautiful Gutsy is when compared to openSUSE 10.3 beauty

I was surprised to see a mail yesterday in my department mailbox

[quote=department mail]

I have put ISO images for the RC release of Ubuntu Linux 7.10 on babble (a.k.a oucs799) for anyone interested. The RC is pretty much what they plan to release, there may be some last minute updates that come out afterwards, however these will show up once it’s installed anyway.They are in the /scratch folder. Currently there is i386 desktop (this is the live CD) , i386 alternate (for upgrading or special installs) andamd64 alternate

[/quote]

The next stunning release would be

Today, when I was checking for Drivers and Downloads for my laptop, I saw Ubuntu as one of the options in the Operating Systems list

Nice to see that the magic is really working

I play with many Linux Distributions, but haven’t selected one which would stay forever with me and remain as the one distribution which I could recommend to my friends.

Though I pre-ordered Gutsy Gibbon, I downloaded the latest openSUSE 10.3. I was waiting for this release patiently as it has got really good features. I am currently enjoying the Gnome edition of 10.3 as I am a Gnome fan

After using it for some time, I would strongly recommend my friends to try openSUSE 10.3 release

I think this would stay for a long time as my other Desktop along with Vista Ultimate

I would also recommend Klikit , which is shaping up really good and getting ready for the official stable release soon

I found an interesting article by Microsoft Support on How to Remove Linux and Install Windows

Have  a read here

I am sure many would come out saying that I have violated by invoking the Godwin’s Law. The problem is, if you really see dictatorship prevailing, what would you call it ? You cant substitute another word for it.

So whats all this about ?

Everyone knows that Kevin resigned from Linspire and Steven.J.Vaughan Nichols  had interviewed on behalf of Linux Watch and was published online  before anyone had announced or posted at Freespire Forums.

Myself been with Freespire for nearly 2 years was surprised with Kevin’s resignation because he wasnt such a person who could resign just like that. He had the whole energy to fight with the Linux Community regarding Linspire’s ideas and also his Linspire Letters were creating more hype for the past few months. I went on and created a thread over at Freespire Forums under the section Linspire General Discussion asking what was happening.

Did I get any response ? Yes, the thread was deleted and few who replied to that thread were also surprised about it. Created another, heck, it was also deleted. I was frustrated. What was happening ? I knew it should be one of the cheapest act of Dr.Jones alias S3Indiana alias Ken who is the Chairperson of Freespire Forums and employed by Linspire Corporation. So, created another thread asking Ken why the threads are being deleted. Here is the screenshot of that thread (I took a screenshot because all my threads were being deleted)

(Click to enlarge)

The above thread too was deleted and it continued. So I started the discussion back at my friendliest forums  where I came to know I was not alone. Few who had replied also replied there that they were surprised to see the posts I created being deleted and no one knew whats the reason.

So, one of the person who replied sent a PM (Personal Message) to Ken asking about this and he got a reply stating that Ken is waiting for a formal announcement from Linspire but no answer for who is deleting the threads. I didnt understand because everything that had reference to Kevin as Linspire’s CEO was taken off and even the Interview was out in the web through Steven.J. Vaughan Nichols even at Desktop Linux website. I was frustrated that there was no indication given to the author that why the thread is being deleted and also the whole Linux World knew Kevin has resigned !

So, I waited for some time, and later I saw another user had posted about Kevin’s resignation and his thread was not deleted. So I was very clear about this and had the hunch it was yet another cheapest act of Ken that he doesnt wanted ME to post regarding this. That thread changed as formal announcement (Yes, Linspire Corporation has not yet given a formal bye-bye thread for Kevin ) and mine was considered to be spam.

I never got a PM from any of the moderators regarding deletion of  my threads.

So I started a thread seeking explanation from freespire/linspire moderators regarding this act. There were many who did tell that this was bad , yet our friend Ken wasnt seen in the discussion. And later when I raised my voice, Ken entered into the discussion and informed this,

Sunday night/ Monday morning 05/06 August 2007 (around midnight PDT) in what in hindsight was haste, I made a decision to quell rumors on the resignation of Kevin Carmony as the President and CEO of Linspire, Inc. Given the time (most people are asleep around that time I could not communicate the issue to get guidance, so made that decision to hopefully allow it to be handled when work began today (Monday after 0900). Anyone that privately PM’d around midnight was provided the answer:

Quote:

An official response tomorrow (Monday)…

which is all I could supply at the time. The formal response has been provided. The intention was to provide an accurate response to the article, not to cause the issues presented in this thread. My apologies…

Yea, Kevin’s resignation was kept so secret that in spite of it flooding the Internet, our friend Ken from Linspire was seeking a confirmation from Linspire. It was his sole decision and it was indeed he who deleted the threads I created.

I was seeking a proper apology and explanation on the deletion of my threads and why was the other User’s thread not deleted. No answer for that.  I started asking more and more but our friend Ken didnt post anything after this and the moderators came up with these replies,

Again, these forums are owned and run by Linspire Inc. and THEY control them (it’s the same as a Microsoft forum if it’s ran by Microsoft).Basically they have the power to delete your account (and mine) without giving ANY reason for it. Now they probably won’t because it would give them even more bad press but if they want to do it they CAN do it. (Forum access is a previlege not a right) and as long as they keep your CNR Gold membership live for the duration of your membership (lifetime if you have a lifetime membership) there is little you can do about it (I guess).

The truth is, Ken can go crazy and delete every other post if he wants to and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do but cry in your cereal over it. Don’t for a second think this is the only Linux forum on the internet that removes content as *they* see fit……..head on over to Ubuntu for a look see. Maybe these forums should come with a disclaimer when you sign up…..something to the effect of anything deemed inappropriate can be removed. Oh wait! They already do.

So, want to know what was that the other User posted ? Here you go,

Is this really true http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/18800

geez…does that look like a link to another article somewhere in the web. So here is another explanation from one of the moderator regarding deleting my thread,

I guess it’s policy of Linspire not to do these things (they don’t want people speculating to much in things so they try to keep it secret until they have an announcement on it).Is this the wrong method ? Maybe but if it’s a corporate decision (policy) there is little we can do about it.

but a blog or internet news site doesn’t make it “official” 

So how come this thread which cannot be taken according to the moderators prevailed with a link to some article over the Internet ?

And the worst, I got a PM from one of the moderators stating,

The thread has been locked (nazi reference)
Godwin’s law has been invoked.

I understand that you feel like you have been singled out for censorship. But an explanation has been given. Move on.

So, I was pushed to move on and my thread in which people were expressing their views/opinions was locked and the Moderators starting going behind our friend Ken and started bashing in any way they could. They werent ready to analyse that Ken was actually dictating everybody in the forums (one should really mingle with the forums to get that feel, without that one may feel I am ranting). The moderators who turned the blame on me were my close online friends and we are also involved with Klikit Linux. 

I was surprised how these “2 moderators” were devoted to Freespire until this incident happened. You come to know about your friends only when something disastrous happens. so I replied back this to one of those “2 moderators”

From Freespire Forum of Conduct,

6 ) If a thread is spam it will be removed.
7 ) Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity: Messages containing sexually oriented/violent/illegal dialog, images, content, or links to such will be deleted. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will also be deleted. These actions could result in a ban.
8 ) Thread Drifting/Steering: Please keep discussions on topic. Non-technical and Non-3rd party project discussions belong in the Off Topic forum.

Was my thread that I had created spam ?
Was my thread that I had created had Adult Content/Violence/Illegal Activity ?
Wast my thread that I had created Off Topic ?

Answer for yourself for what I was seeking explanation and apology. Was it for me or for the Community ? It was very clear in Ken’s act that he intended my threads to be deleted. Why he hadnt deleted the tstrike’s thread on this issue ? Was tstrike thread a formal announcement ?

Ken is dictating and I hadnt told something which was not happening(dictatorship). If mentioning that was a problem, I am sorry, but that is the truth.

Are you afraid to take action on Ken ? Why ? Becoz he is from an Organisation ? Will you be banned for that? Remember, if something happens to you and if you have valid reason, you will get thousands of people supporting you, including me !

What had to be done is/was done. And now Ken has got the good name, very good name all becoz of his co-moderators. Good work for the Community !

When I have to decide between Community and Moderation , I am sorry, I go with Community !

I dont know to whom and how I would explain all the nonsense going on the Freespire Forums and how cheap is their Chairperson Ken Jones is. Remember, no one opted for Ken Jones as Chairperson. I would be really happy to start Boycott Ken for Freespire’s benefit.

So finally, its the Power which rules and not the Community. So, before you go to Freespire Forums, be ready to be controlled by their Moderators and the worst Chairperson named Ken Jones.

If you read the Freespire Forum of Conduct, Ken should be banned or at the least be given warning for deleting my posts.

I leave it to my friends/communities for this to be taken seriously or as a rant….

Its been ups and downs for Linspire for the past one year and now the worse has come out. Linspire CEO – Kevin Carmony has resigned from Linspire on July 31st, 2007. More news here

All the posts I posted at the Freespire Forums have been deleted by their moderators and its really bad that they haven’t even sent a PM to me regarding this. Its officially announced over the Internet and also Kevin has changed his Bio in his website. From his Bio,

From 2001 to 2007, Kevin served as the President, and later as CEO, of Linspire, Inc. (formerly Lindows), “The world’s easiest desktop Linux” operating system.

Its really a bad reputation for Freespire to delete posts and not even sending a message to the author regarding that. I had created nearly 5 posts and all were deleted. Have a look here at Klikit forums about it 

Linspire needs some super power which can bring back them to the Linux World. Lets wait and watch who is the next honorable CEO of Linspire !

In Linux World, whenever a new release comes out, many, almost everyone end up installing it as a fresh copy in their machine. Though Users are provided with an Upgrade option it doesn’t work out too good. Heck, it works good for Windows Upgrade when one has to upgrade from ME to XP or XP to Vista or from any Vista edition to other Editions (like Business to Ultimate)

Simple example to quote is the upgrade process from Edgy to Feisty. Ubuntu changed the way they deal with disks with Feisty and everything is now controlled via the sata drivers (something like that ???) and drives are renamed to sd(x) instead of hd(x) and whoever upgraded , a restart would result in Grub Load failure . And to add one more to that list, from Dapper to Edgy, the upgrade process broke the Python chain and the User didnt had any other choice than re installing because many gnome apps depend on python and pygtk

This is what I hate in Ubuntu.Each of their release is way too different and it turns out to be again something from scratch and its pain in the ass for the User to upgrade to the newer version. I hope Dell comes with an Upgrade Disk for their machines.

I am sick of it. Now I just cant install/uninstall each release

I am looking for more polished/reliable distribution and have been testing few around. I think choosing Debian (where release cycle is really really long and stable) and Novell SLED 10.1 SP1 (believe me its worth having SLED, and not openSUSE)

Ofcourse this doesnt matter for Test/Development releases. They are meant to broke the system and thats why they are called Test/Development Releases

But as of now, am sick of uninstalling/installing the distro for each release

Linux Distributions should come out with good upgrade process and that really matters for Linux in the Business Market !

Here is a diagram by me which depicts what Linspire does

(Click to enlarge)

After a long wait Kevin informed us the Release in the forums ,

After several months of hard work (and patience and waiting on your part =), these three new, and very important products, will soon be released. I wanted to post an update for everyone on where things are at with each of these products and when they can expect to see them released.

Freespire 2.0

This week we will be releasing Release Candidate 1 (RC1) for Freespire 2.0. We plan on this being the final Freespire 2.0 release, provided we don’t find any major problems. (Other bugs or changes will have to wait for the next Freespire release in 6 months.) RC1 will have everything in it that the final 2.0 will have except for the CNR plugin (see my comments on CNR.com below). Once the CNR plugin is finished and added, that will become the final Freespire 2.0. The next release of Freespire will then be in about 6 months, based on the next Ubuntu release, which is due out in October.

CNR.com

The new CNR.com plugin remains the “long pole” in things. For those of you who have been following the alpha CNR site, you have seen that the site is coming along very nicely. The challenge has been with the new, open-sourced CNR plugin. It has just taken longer than we hoped it would to get it finished and working with the new CNR.com site. Needless to say, completely redoing CNR from top to bottom was no small task, but we’re just about there. We are probably still a couple of weeks away from the CNR plugin for both Freespire and Linspire being available.

Linspire 6.0 (for OEMs)

This week we plan on rolling out a new Linspire website as well as releasing Linspire 6.0. Many of you may be wondering, “Huh? How can they be releasing Linspire 6.0 without CNR or before Freespire 2.0 is released?” Let me explain. It has to do with some significant deals we have pending with OEMs. Computer manufactures have set production cycles, and we have to work with certain windows of opportunity or delay including Linspire for several months to these OEMs. Linspire 6.0 has been certified for these pending OEM deals and is quite ready for these PCs. As is the case with Freespire RC1, Linspire 6.0 will not include the CNR plugin, but it does have a CNR desktop icon which explains how to get the plugin from CNR.com once it is available.

Because this release is really more for OEMs, we will not be issuing any press releases or making a big deal about Linspire 6.0 yet. There will be very few differences between Linspire 6.0 and Freespire RC1, which brings us to…

Linspire 6.1 (for everyone else)

Once we have Linspire 6.0 available for these OEMs, we will continue making modifications, such as basing off of the final Freespire 2.0, adding the CNR plugin, updated and expanded codec support for Windows Media, etc. Linspire 6.1 will then be out a few weeks after 6.0, and this version will be the “official” Linspire “6.0″ that we will promote in press releases, scream out to the world, that you’ll want to consider using, etc.

So, if you’re running Freespire RC1 or 2.0, there will be little value in moving to Linspire 6.0, but you may want to take a look at Linspire 6.1 when it’s available, as it will have several changes from Freespire.

To help recap, here’s the basic time line:

This week – Freespire RC1 and Linspire 6.0 (for OEMs)
In a couple of weeks – Freespire 2.0 and the new CNR.com with plugin for Linspire and Freespire users
In a few weeks - Linspire 6.1 (ready for prime time for general users) and a CNR plugin for Ubuntu

Thanks everyone. I’ll be glad when all these products are released. I know it may seem like it’s been a long journey, but we made a lot of significant changes with these products (basing off of Ubuntu, separating out CNR.com, etc.). The good news is that these products will all be very current and based off the latest and greatest technology, and we now have the infrastructure in place to keep them current.

Thanks,

Kevin

Screenshots are available here.The Linspire site too has a new look now which is much more better than the earlier one .I have already started my download and would soon give a review here in my blog

As to my previous post, where Linspire announced that the current CNR Gold Members would not be able to upgrade to Linspire 6, there was a big confusion going on in their forums and also it looked like Linspire betrayed their exisinting CNR Gold customers. Today Kevin, CEO of Linspire, announced in the forums that,

Sorry about the confusion. I’ve been away from the forums for a few days as I had a lot of family staying at my house for the 4th of July weekend. I came back and read your posts. So, I went back and looked,and sure enough, we had promised upgrades to CNR Gold users, so we will honor that for existing CNR Gold members. Thanks for catching this error on my part.

We will, however, as of today, July 9th, be changing that policy and messaging for future CNR Gold subscription sales. We have to do this because there are some pretty substantial per-unit costs associated with Linspire, and we don’t make any money on Linspire otherwise. We’re are also, moving forward, trying to keep Linspire and CNR.com integrated but a bit more independent. For future CNR Gold subscriptions, they will get free “updates” between major releases but not “upgrades” to a major release. (We don’t have to re-pay our licensing for updates, but we do for upgrades.)

So, to clarify, if you are a current CNR Gold member (including lifetime or multi-year members), you will have access to Linspire 6.0 at no charge, as well as any future update/upgrades that are released during the term of any CNR Gold subscriptions that were purchased prior to today.

Thanks, and sorry again for the confusion.

Kevin

This is a good news for existing CNR Gold Customers that they neednt buy Linspire 6 and can upgrade to that with their exsiting membership. However, for future releases and if you sign up now for CNR Gold Membership, you wont be entitled for upgrades for the future releases and they have stated their reason for that.

Thanks Kevin

Here are “so far” deals with Microsoft

1) Microsoft and Novell Announce Broad Collaboration on Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support

WALTHAM, Mass.— 02 Nov 2006— Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. today announced a set of broad business and technical collaboration agreements to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft® products work better together. The two companies also announced an agreement to provide each other’s customers with patent coverage for their respective products. These agreements will be in place until at least 2012. Under this new model, customers will realize unprecedented choice and flexibility through improved interoperability and manageability between Windows® and Linux.

2) Microsoft, Xandros Broad Collaboration Agreement Extends Bridge Between Commercial Open Source and Microsoft Software

Agreement Enhances Mixed-Source Customer Choice; Features Business, Technical and IP Collaboration

3) Microsoft and Linspire Collaboration Promotes Interoperability and Customer Choice

Broad agreement will facilitate interoperability between Windows and Linux, provide intellectual property assurance

4) Mark Shuttleworth , Ubuntu – No Negotiations with Microsoft in Progress

We have declined to discuss any agreement with Microsoft under the threat of unspecified patent infringements.

5) Red Hat – Red Hat CEO says he talked patents with Microsoft

In an interview with Reuters, Szulik declined to say whether his company is now in negotiations with Microsoft over signing such a patent agreement.

“I can’t answer the question,” he said.

Its quite interesting how things have changed which started from Novell

Though Mark Shuttleworth has declined about signing deals with Microsoft, the Red Hat statement does sounds like a may be to me