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Linspire Customized

One of the many things that separates Linux from bloated operating systems like Windows is its modular design. Have you ever noticed just how many different distributions there are? Or how easy it seems for people to roll out a new distro customized with the packages and set up that they prefer? Its Linux's module design that makes this possible. Even if systems like Windows were not proprietary and closed, it wouldn't be so easy to roll out your own version of the operating system with just the libraries you want, just the software you want in place with your preferences already set; it's not as easy as defining or excluding some packages; it's not as easy as reworking some lines of code here or there. This doesn't marginalize the intense work that goes into the development of some of the Linux distributions; many of the developers have labored long and hard to customize their desktop, but it doesn't mean that someone with knowledge about Linux's internals couldn't pick up one of these distros and in a few days have a slightly altered version of the desktop with a few of his or her favorite packages in place. This is the idea behind Linspire's new move to offer customized desktops of their Linspire operating system to customers.

Linspire Offers Customized Desktop

Linspire, developer of the Linspire operating system and the community-driven Freespire system, is now offering customized desktops of their operating system to the company's partners. "With desktop Linux, more and more partners are asking for customisation so they can take control of the OS," said Larry Kettler, president and chief executive at Linspire. This seems like the next logical step in the progression of selling Linux. By offering customized desktops, Linux developers can offer something to their customers that Microsoft and Apple cannot.

What about the competition?

Microsoft's best attempt at choice has always been to offer editions of their operating system, each more expensive than the last with slightly more features than the last; none of these editions are custom-tailored to meet the needs of any business; it's highly questionable that any company could just install one of these editions of Windows onto an employee's computer without any additional tailoring; it's usually more accurate that additional hours must be spent to then install all of the software that the company needs on each computer, set up the networking manually, create Windows shares, set up user accounts, etc. With a customized desktop, a company could ideally pop in a Linux install disc into a PC and after a few minutes have a perfectly ready PC with all the software and packages that company needs on an individual computer to get an employee up and running, cutting down the IT woes considerably.

Don't expect services like this to ever hit the home front. It's also highly unlikely that all of the major distros are going to offer a service like this in the future. Linspire might have more leverage to accomplish goals like this, because it isn't one of the heavy contenders in Linux (at least not yet); and so, the company can focus on individual business and meeting those business' needs, rather than broadly try to appeal to the whole world, like the Ubuntu operating system does.

What's this mean for Linux?

In the least, it's becoming more and more clear to business and individuals what exactly the advantages of a Linux-based operating system are, and what exactly the disadvantages of a closed, proprietary system are. Even if a company or individual does not want to employ a company to create a customized desktop to meet their needs, Linux is open and so the option always exists for one to take it upon his or herself to tailor a distribution of Linux any way they want. It's simple freedoms like these that make Linux the better choice.

"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better," Albert Camus.

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