[THIN] Linspire Does Away with Annual Fee for "Click 'N Run" Linux Service

This is very cool. The CNR warehouse is loaded with software that instantly 
installs in Linspire/Freespire. No cmd line tar BS. Making it FREE is a good 
move. 
  JK
   
  Linspire Does Away with Annual Fee for "Click 'N Run" Linux Service

Popular One-Click Digital Software Management System Now Free for Desktop Linux 
Users 
  


SAN DIEGO, August 30th, 2006 - Linspire, Inc., developer of the commercial 
desktop Linux operating system of the same name and Freespire, the free 
community desktop Linux operating system, announced the immediate change in 
pricing for its popular CNR ("Click 'N Run") Service from an annual 
subscription fee based offering to a completely free service. The CNR Service, 
with access to over 20,000 desktop Linux applications, has previously been 
available only with annual subscriptions, ranging from $20 to $50, but will now 
be offered as a free service for all Linspire and Freespire users. 

"For nearly five years, thousands of CNR users have paid annual subscription 
fees for the CNR Service," said Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire. "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." 

Due to success in offering premium products and services, Linspire is now able 
to make the basic CNR service available to everyone at no charge. Linspire and 
Freespire users will continue being able to use CNR to install, update and 
manage thousands of free, open source software programs with one click, but now 
there will be no charge for this service. All CNR users will still have the 
choice to purchase premium products and services, such as a DVD Player, Sun's 
StarOffice, Win4Lin Pro, CodeWeavers' CrossoverOffice, TransGaming's Cedega, as 
well as other commercial software applications including several commercial 
games. The strong revenue stream from the commercial desktop Linux software 
applications, as well as the premium "CNR Gold" service, has opened the door 
for Linspire to offer the basic CNR service at no charge to all Linspire and 
Freespire users. 

"CNR is an innovative and feature-rich system for installing, updating and 
managing software on a desktop Linux computer," stated John Cherry, OSDL 
Desktop Linux Initiative Manager. "The fact that this service is now free will 
be an incredible boost for desktop Linux adoption worldwide as it makes 
thousands of applications immediately available to desktop users." 

The price change is effective immediately for all Linspire and Freespire users. 
To get the free CNR service, Linspire and Freespire users simply use their 
email address to create a free CNR Service account. Those who purchased the 
Basic CNR Service in the past 60 days will automatically be upgraded to the CNR 
Gold Service at no charge. 

In addition to the CNR service price change, Linspire also announced today 
plans for a new, open sourced version of the CNR client that will be released 
later this year as part of Freespire 1.1. These announcements further extend 
the value of the Freespire project, allowing anyone to enjoy not only a quality 
desktop Linux experience, but also an easy-to-use, yet extremely powerful 
software management system, all at no charge. Linspire is hopeful that by 
continuing to solve the complexity of Linux software installation, it will 
attract more software developers to create applications for desktop Linux. 

About CNR ("Click 'N Run") 

CNR, with access to over 20,000 Linux software applications, makes it extremely 
easy for non-technical users to install, uninstall, update and manage Linux 
software on their desktop or laptop computers 
(http://wiki.freespire.org/index.php/CNR_Warehouse). With the CNR Service you 
can freely install thousands of Linux software titles direct from the CNR 
Warehouse (http://linspire.com/warehouse), all with just a single mouse click. 
Users also get a powerful way to manage their entire software library, with 
advanced features, such as customizable "aisles" where you can install entire 
groups of software with a single click. 

About Linspire, Inc. 

Linspire, Inc. (www.linspire.com) was founded in 2001 to bring choice into the 
operating system market. The company's flagship product, the Linspire operating 
system, is an affordable, easy-to-use Linux-based operating system for home, 
school, and business users. Linspire pioneered CNR ("Click 'N Run") Technology, 
which allows Linspire users access to thousands of software programs, each of 
which can be downloaded and installed with just one mouse click. The thousands 
of software titles available in the CNR Warehouse (www.linspire.com/cnr) 
include full office and productivity suites, games, multimedia players, photo 
management software, accounting tools, and more. 

About Freespire Freespire (www.freespire.org) is a community-driven, 
Linux-based operating system that combines the best that free, open source 
software has to offer (community driven, freely distributed, open source code, 
etc.), but also provides users the choice of including proprietary codecs, 
drivers and applications as they see fit. With Freespire, the choice is yours 
as to what software is installed on your computer, with no limitations or 
restrictions placed on that choice. How you choose to maximize the performance 
of your computer is entirely up to you. 



Jim Kenzig 
    Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services
  Provision Networks VIP
CEO The Kenzig Group
http://www.kenzig.com
Blog: http://www.techblink.com

    Terminal Services Downloads: http://www.thinhelp.com

Other related posts: