Linspire frees "Click 'N Run" software service

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Aug. 30, 2006

In a surprise move, Linspire is now offering its CNR ("Click 'N Run") software service at no charge to its Linspire and Freespire Linux distribution customers. In addition, the company will soon be open-sourcing the CNR Client.

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CNR, previously a fee-based service offered at annual subscription rates of $20 for basic and $50 for premium ("Gold") access to new programs, had been the San Diego-based company main source of income.

Now, however, according to CEO Kevin Carmony, Linspire is doing well enough from selling its higher-end products and services that it can afford to offer its basic CNR service free of charge. Thus, both Linspire and Freespire users can use the extremely easy software delivery and update program for free.

"For nearly five years, thousands of CNR users have paid annual subscription fees for the CNR Service," Carmony said in a statement. "We're thrilled to now be in a position to offer this excellent service to desktop Linux users absolutely free. CNR really makes using desktop Linux easy, and we want everyone to have access to this quality service."

With the free service, Linspire and Freespire (the company's free community distribution) users will be able to install, update, and manage thousands of free, open-source software programs. The functionality will be exactly the same as Linspire customers get from their $20 basic service.

In addition, CNR users will continue to have the option of purchasing premium products and services, such as Sun's StarOffice; the Win4Lin Pro Windows virtual machine, which enables running Windows and Windows apps side-by-side with Linux; CodeWeavers's Crossover Office, for running Windows apps directly on Linux; and TransGaming's Cedega, which allows users to run popular Windows games on Linux.

There have always been, of course, other ways to add new programs to these Debian-based Linux distributions. In common with all Debian-based Linuxes, apt-get could be used to get programs. CNR's claim to fame, though, is that it makes the entire process of adding and updating programs as easy as a single mouse click in the online CNR Warehouse.

Open-source CNR

Linspire will release a new open-source CNR client in December as part of Freespire 1.1, the next release of the company's free Linux distribution. This distribution also includes, at the user's option, proprietary software such as Adobe Acrobat and ATI Graphic drivers.

The new client will not simply be the old one released under an open-source license. It's being completely reworked. The revised CNR will have a new UI (user-interface), better management of apt repositories, including local repositories and its being rewritten in C++ for the backend and Python for the UI. The new CNR will be available in a beta version sometime this fall.

Availability

This price reduction takes effect immediately for all Linspire and Freespire users, Carmony said. Those who purchased the basic CNR Service in the past 60 days will automatically be upgraded to the CNR Gold Service, which enables users to buy commercial software at a reduced rate, at no charge.

To get the free CNR service, existing Linspire or Freespire users must create a new free CNR Service account.

-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

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