Linspire Chairman Frustrated By Futility Of Desktop Linux, Rebuts Carmony

Michael Robertson says Microsoft's imposing lead in the desktop market
means Linux should look to next-gen devices for growth.

By Charles Babcock,  InformationWeek July 3, 2008 URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208802569

Michael Robertson, chairman of Linspire, said the assets of his company
were sold to Xandros after "years of frustration in trying to achieve
the goal of desktop Linux."

Robertson couldn't disclose the terms of the deal with Xandros, a rival
Linux distributor, but said Linspire's Click'N'Run download technology
would fit in well with Xandros' own bid to establish Linux on end-user
machines. To date, its biggest success has been on the Asus Eee PC, a
small notebook with long battery life and a low price tag from Taiwanese
laptop maker Asustek Computer. It comes with either Xandros Linux or
Windows XP.

"Trying to compete with Microsoft on the desktop has been a futile
effort. What the last 20 years has shown is that the Microsoft ecosystem
goes far beyond Windows" into thousands of drivers for PC devices and
applications to run on end-user machines. For Linux to match that may
be impossible, he said.

But next-generation devices, including the Asus Eee PC, smartphones,
and other mobile devices may yet prove a lucrative end-user market for
Linux. "Linux has to look at new markets," he said.

Robertson also addressed former Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony's call for a
stockholders meeting after the sale to consider distribution of Linspire
assets. Many Linspire employees bought stock in the company through
stock options, Robertson said. Carmony claims there are still 100 such
stockholders in existence. Robertson said Linspire assets resulting
from the sale will be divided among stockholders, as with any other
company sale.

But he also warned that Linspire's preferred stockholders were at the
head of the line, having provided the money that financed the startup
of Linspire. Carmony and other purchasers are not holders of preferred
Linspire stock, he said. He had no comment on why Carmony left the
company July 31, 2007, other than to note he had "resigned abruptly."

Carmony has called for a stockholders meeting, but Robertson said Delaware
law, under which Linspire was chartered, only requires a majority of the
stockholders to approve the sale, not a public meeting on the sale or a
higher-than-majority vote in favor of selling. No stockholders meeting
is in the works, he said.

Linspire once went by the name Lindows and has existed as a company for
six to seven years. Its 10-person engineering staff is still located
in Linspire's former San Diego offices and will remain there as part of
Xandros, said Robertson.