Determined, marketing savvy, pushing the limits, glitzy. These are the kind of phrases that one thinks of when describing “in” companies that focus on consumers. While the types of actions that fit these labels originally made for controversy when applied to the GNU/Linux segment, Linspire plowed ahead on the new frontier of the GNU/Linux average user and is using its real world savvy to accomplish its single minded goal: desktop Linux for the rest of us. To find out more about this fascinating mover-and-shaker in the sector, OfB's Timothy R. Butler talked with Linspire's new CEO, Kevin Carmony, a few weeks ago about some of Linspire's choices and the future of GNU/Linux.
Open for Business: As the new CEO of Linspire, can we expect any changes in Linspire's direction?
Kevin Carmony: Yes and no.
Yes in that Linspire is constantly growing, learning, changing and striving to do better. I hope we're always changing and evolving. No in that as the first employee ever hired with the company, and having been the President from the beginning, my influence has always been felt heavily at Linspire. Likewise, Michael Robertson, who is still acting as Chairman, will continue to have input into the direction of the company. All of Michael's ventures are here in the same building as Linspire, so I see him often and get his input regularly.
OfB: Presuming that you are using Linspire on your own system, how
long have you been using Linspire or another GNU/Linux
distribution as your primary desktop operating system?
KC: Linspire is the only operating system I use and has been for almost three years. I have one desktop at my office, several desktops in my home, and IBM ThinkPad for when I travel, all running Linspire Five-0. When we first started this business four years ago, I tried using Linux, but it was just too hard to use, it didn't support enough hardware, and it didn't have the applications I needed. Linspire has worked hard to overcome those problems, and with our support for software such as Nvu, Lsongs, Lphoto, Firefox, and OpenOffice.org, I'm able to perform everything I need running Linux. I'm always surprised when I meet with leaders of some of the other Linux companies and see them running Windows on their notebooks. I could quit this job tomorrow and you couldn't drag me back to using Microsoft Windows.
OfB: Most of the major GNU/Linux distributions (Red Hat, Novell/
SuSE, Mandriva and Debian) have opted for an open development
model, and generally offer a completely Free/Open Source Software
variant of their distribution. Linspire seems to have gone with a
model much more like Apple's, where the core OS is Free Software,
but there are proprietary value adds that limit distribution,
and, more positively, add unique benefits. If I am a system
administrator looking to deploy a GNU/Linux distribution, why
should I choose a distribution with a per-seat cost?
KC: Linspire is a big supporter of open source and pretty much everything we do is open and we always contribute our code back to their respective projects (http://linspire.com/opensource). However, we don't answer to developers or just fans and supporters of open source, we answer to our customers. In the end, we're going to provide what they need. That's why Linspire includes proprietary support for many formats, right out of the box, without needing to install additional software. For example, Linspire works great with Java, Flash, Quick Time, Real Media, MP3, DVD, and even Windows Media, because we license, and in some cases pay for, that technology. Sure, it would be great if everyone used ogg, but it's unrealistic to expect everyone to throw away their iPods and DVD players. Until viable open source alternatives come along that the customer will embrace, Linspire will license and include support for these popular formats. “Geeks” might be able to download and install these things, but when you're going after the average computer user, which is our target market, they expect those things to just work.
I believe there is a big market that exists between the two extremes of over-priced, monopolistic software from Microsoft and free. Every other industry finds a way to get to a fair price for goods and services, software will be no different, now that Microsoft's monopoly is being challenged. After years of being taken advantage of by the Microsoft monopoly, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme where people are afraid of any license or paying any fees, but in the end the pendulum will balance to a fair price, as free markets always do.
OfB: Another point of uniqueness with Linspire is its preference
for KDE. Of the other major distributions mentioned above, most
of them rely heavily on GTK+ applications, and at least some
products Red Hat and Novell offer actually default to GNOME. Does
Linspire actively evaluate the possibility of switching desktops
between releases?
KC: We chose KDE because we felt it had the most comfortable and familiar interface for our target market. We're happy with that choice and are glad to see the momentum of development still tends to tilt slightly towards KDE. We do, however, also support and default to GTK+ applications, such as GAIM. We just want to use the best of breed as our default, and then users can pick and choose from the CNR Warehouse if they would like something different. Linspire uses themes to make it invisible to the user when he moves between KDE apps, GTK+ apps, OpenOffice.org and Mozilla. All four are built on different baselines, but to the Linspire user, they all feel very much the same.
Debian is another choice we're very happy with. When we started Linspire, everyone told us to go with an .rpm-based system, saying that Red Hat, SuSE and Mandrake were using it. Well, we looked and knew we just couldn't do everything we wanted to do using the older .rpm technology, so we made the decision to go against the conventional wisdom and went with Debian, a much more modern approach and what we needed. That was a very good choice for us.
OfB: Linspire Five-O seems to use a modified version of the classic
Mozilla suite, rather than Firefox and Thunderbird, for the
“Linspire Internet Suite.” What was the design decision behind that?
KC: We made over 200 changes to the Mozilla, with things like in-line spell checking, “Hot Words,” MailMinder, and so on. (http://linspire.com/hotwords) All of these changes have gone back and will hopefully appear in future versions of Firefox. Linspire will definitely migrate to Firefox in the future, but for now, the stable Mozilla suite baseline with our many changes provides a much better experience for our target market.
OfB: Nvu, the WYSIWYG web development tool based on Mozilla
Composer, is an interesting project your company has been working
on. How do you see it developing over the next year?
KC: Nvu is one example of a hole in the application space we're trying to help fill. Microsoft Windows users had Frontpage and Dreamweaver for WYSIWYG web authoring, but Linux didn't have a viable alternative. The Nvu project was created to fill that gap. It's become very popular and we're happy that it has progressed so nicely. It can, however, still be improved considerably, so Linspire remains heavily investing into future versions of Nvu.
OfB: Linspire's two other best known Free Software contributions
seem to be Lsongs and Lphoto. Given their similar names and
interfaces to iTunes and iPhoto, from Apple's iLife suite, should
we expect more of the features of those two applications to be
offered in the Linspire alternatives? Do you foresee perhaps
iMovie or GarageBand-like applications being offered in the
future as well?
KC: A similar application for video management is already on the drawing board, so yes.
OfB: Say I want to deploy Linspire across a whole department, and
keep it up-to-date. Is there a way of automating such a
deployment presently?
KC: Today, using User Accounts, CNR (click and run), and CNR Aisles, it's pretty easy for IT personnel to manage and keep updated desktops throughout their organization. Next month, Linspire will be announcing more details about Linspire Professional, which basically allows all of this desktop management to be done remotely. For those who use Linspire and CNR, they can imagine the ability we'll have for desktop management, given the stability and power of CNR today.
OfB: One thing noticeably missing from Linspire's product lineup is
a server OS. What does your company presently recommend for
those looking to bring not only desktops, but also servers over
to GNU/ Linux? Will this be a void you will seek to fill in the
future?
KC: Linspire's focus is 100% on the desktop. We have no aspirations of having a server product. Red Hat, Novell and others are doing a good job in that area. The Linspire is as strong of a desktop operating system today because we've remained focused there, and intend to continue with that focus. I do, however, often hear of people using Linspire on servers, because they love how easy CNR and CNR Aisles make setting up and maintaining servers. That's great, but it's not something we plan on pursuing as a company anytime soon.
OfB: Both Red Hat and Novell offer long support cycles for their
enterprise oriented solutions. Does Linspire offer long-term
support for those looking to deploy and keep the same version of
the OS on systems for several years?
KC: Yes. Our CNR technology allows for multiple warehouses, so it's easy for us to continue to offer and maintain legacy versions. That hasn't been a big deal in the past for us, but as we ready our enterprise offerings, it's certainly something we've addressed.
OfB: Now that one can buy an entire Apple computer for $499, and a
Dell system with Windows for even less, do you see it becoming
more challenging to promote GNU/Linux desktops, at least from the
cost of entry perspective?
KC: As long as Microsoft Windows is around $60 to $100 more for OEM's to include on their machines than Linspire Linux is, we'll always be more affordable. If Dell starts selling a $99 computer, that just means they could sell a Linspire Linux one for even less.
OfB: What would you say the one most important weakness of the GNU/
Linux desktop is presently, and how would you resolve it?
KC: Education. The biggest monopoly Microsoft has today isn't about technology, but rather a monopoly of the mind. For many years everyone has felt they really only had one choice for their PC operating system. We now know they have a choice. It's now just a matter of educating others to that choice. Everytime I ride on an airplane, I get asked by the person sitting next to me about my Linspire laptop. After a brief demo and explanation, they all want one. Linux is more affordable, stable, secure, and open than MS Windows, and those are all good things. We just need more and more people to find out about this choice.
OfB: How about its most important strength?
KC: Linux is wonderful on many levels, security, stability, etc., but it will probably be its affordability that will help it get more attention. However, in the end, it won't just be about cost. The low price may bring the attention, but once people try it, it will be the other benefits that they'll really fall in love with.
OfB: Where do you see Linspire, and GNU/Linux as a whole, in two
years? In five?
KC: I think desktop Linux will hit a tipping point in the next two years and become a legitimate choice for consumers and businesses. In five years, it will have been chosen by many, with probably around 10% market share.
OfB: Thank-you, Kevin.