Shuttle turned a lot of heads with the announcement of its $199 Linux PC at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. Now Linspire is looking to tempt retail customers with its own version of the sub-$200 PC.
(Credit:
Sears.com)
Starting Thursday, Linspire, maker of Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux configurations, and PC maker Mirus Innovations will sell its Mirus Linux PC on Sears.com for $199. But there is a catch: a $100 mail-in rebate is required. Otherwise the full price as of this writing is $284.99. (Sears is offering a $15 discount through Saturday.)
In comparing Linspire's version of the low-cost PC with Shuttle's, they're quite similar. Both come with an Intel Celeron processor, 1GB of memory, and an 80GB hard drive. But the Mirus PC also has some helpful bonuses Shuttle doesn't offer: an optical drive, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and a 15-in-1 memory card reader. And, of course, it comes with the Freespire 2.0 operating system, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution.
Formerly called Lindows, Linspire is based on the Debian distribution of Linux and accompanying software. It's never made much headway in the marketplace compared with rivals such as Red Hat, Novell's Suse, and more recently, Ubuntu.
Who says nothing in life is free?
Linspire announced Wednesday it has released Freespire 2.0, its latest, free version of the Linux operating system for desktops.
But there's one twist. This version of the open-source software throws the possibility of adding proprietary software, drivers and codecs from other vendors in the mix.
Think of it like adding sugar-free Splenda to your morning coffee, only to find there's actually a dash of sugar in the powdery substance to make it taste better.
Linspire is using Ubuntu 7.04 as its baseline and offering software from six categories, some of which will include proprietary software.
"Freespire 2.0 picks up where Ubuntu leaves off by adding proprietary software, drivers and codecs, to make for a more complete turn-key solution for mainstream desktop computing," Larry Kettler, Linspire's chief executive, said a statement.
In addition, Freespire 2.0 includes a Click-n-Run (CNR) plug-in for the upcoming CNR Service. The CNR Service is designed to give people access thousands of open-source applications with one click.
The CNR Service will also let people access legally licensed DVD playback software, Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, Parallels Workstation, Win4Lin, CodeWeaver's Crossover Office, TransGaming's Cedega, commercial games and others.
Other software inside Freespire 2.0 include KDE, which is designed to improve the interface for both Mac and Windows users. The proprietary software that can be added includes Java, Flash and Acrobat.
Maybe Linspire will next find a way to cook up a real sugar-substitute.
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