| Ubuntu snags top Linspire staffers |
Sep. 27, 2007
Linspire, the troubled Linux distribution vendor, has recently lost a top executive and a lead developer to the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu, has hired former Linspire staffers Randy Linnell and Brian Thomason.
Prior to joining Canonical, Linnell was Linspire's VP of business development. Linnell is credited with having made the commercial software deals that brought legal proprietary software to Linspire. This has included DVD players, multimedia codecs, and drivers. In addition, he arranged for proprietary programs, such as the desktop virtualization program Parallels Workstation for Linux, to be offered to Linspire and Freespire users through Linspire's Click 'N Run (CNR) system.
Thomson was the lead engineer in charge of Linspire's CNR Warehouse. The new CNR is meant to make it simple for users to find, download, and install Linux applications from a combined wiki and file repository. The multi-Linux distribution CNR is still in alpha development at this time.
This news comes on the heels of Linspire losing its long-time CEO Kevin Carmony in late July. The San Diego-based company has also lost other executives in recent weeks, including its CFO and controller.
Despite this, Linspire was able to launch its controversial Freespire 2.0 Linux distribution, the Linux distribution that embraces proprietary software, on Aug. 8. Freespire 2.0 and its commercial brother, Linspire 6.0, use Ubuntu 7.04 as their base distribution.
Canonical is not ready to say what its new ex-Linspire employees will be doing for Ubuntu. A Canonical spokesperson did say that, "We are very pleased to have added the experience and intensity of both Randy and Brian -- they both bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in areas that will be well received at Canonical."
Linspire CEO Larry Kettler, said that both employees had left, but added that "Linspire staff is heads down and working their rumps off. We will be announcing the beta of CNR soon and new mature, not alpha, products in the near future."
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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