In the long, twisted saga of commercial Linux distributions no one has fallen so far or so fast as the folks at Linspire. Originally called Lindows (get it?) the company was set to offer a usable Linux install for “the rest of us.” Now that dream ends in failure as the founder Michael Robertson sold off the entire company to Xandros, another failing desktop Linux company. Former Linspire employee Kevin Carmony writes:
To me, this looks like Michael, the “captain” of the Linspire ship, sees the boat sinking, so he casually tells the passengers on the ship that he’s just going on a quick supply run, jumps on the only life boat with any cash and valuables, paddles off to safety, and leaves everyone else behind to sink. Pathetic. I left Linspire with millions in their bank account and a plan, Robertson and Kettler seem to have destroyed it all in ten months.
When folks try to spin gold out of straw – the straw in this case being Linux distributions that are essentially free for the taking – you’re sure to get a lot of skeeze with your good intentions. Sadly, that’s what we’re seeing here.
Reading the guy’s comments, it’s all about him feeling ripped off because he bought stock in the company and is not sure what he’s going to get paid.
I was amazed that someone was willing to do Lindows/Linspire with competition from Red Hat, Novell, Canonical, Xandros and others and surprised that they made a go of it as long as they did.