日前，开源业界有名的两家软件企业Linspire和Canonical公司共同签署了一份合作计划，该计划内容包括，在以后的发行版中， Linspire公司的Linspire/Freespire产品将基于Canonical公司的Ubuntu Linux发行版；而Canonical公司的Ubuntu Linux也将使用Linspire公司提供的CNR升级系统。两家公司都相信，通过这样的合作两者都将受益，在微软独占的桌面操作系统市场将为Linux挣得一份市场份额。
Linspire公司的CEO Kevin Carmony认为，通过这次技术合作，Linux桌面将得到有效的推广和统一。他还认为，目前的Linux依然面临着不少的问题和挑战，特别是目前Windows独霸桌面操作系统市场令他担忧，但是，Linspire公司有信心在为用户提供差异化选择的同时，尽量使得用户感觉不到其中的差异。
Linspire公司的产品基础将从Debian变更为Ubuntu，而且最新的基于Ubuntu的Freespire 2.0 rc版本即将发布，最终Freespire 2.0也将随着Ubuntu 7.04正式版的发布而发布，预定日期是在4月中旬。
在谈到合作伙伴Cononical的时候，Carmony大家赞赏，他认为，Ubuntu的母公司Cononical是一家非常成功的开源软件公司，他们为开源软件业界和社区做了大量的贡献，和Cononical公司合作，会使得Linspire的产品更上一个台阶。
在签署协议的同时，Ubuntu的创始人Shuttleworth也对合作发布了看法，他认为，两家开源软件公司联手，就是为了合作共赢，自由软件发展的基础就是共享和合作，现在两家公司就是这么做的，这样做可以更有效的利用现有的两家公司的资源来为开源软件的发展和创新做贡献。
通过和Linspire CNR服务的整合，Ubuntu用户将可以享受简单的一路next式的软件安装和升级服务，而以前的Ubuntu自有的升级服务方式同样保留，目前通过CNR提供的升级服务的软件产品大概有超过20000个。Linspire公司的CNR软件升级服务目前刚刚向其他Linux开放，Ubuntu是第一个受到支持Linux 发行版。
Ubuntu创始人在谈到的CNR服务的时候说，他一直以来在为Ubuntu的商业化软件升级服务感到不满意，现在和Linspire公司合作，利用他们的CNR服务，非常适合目前Ubuntu的发展需要，大大节省了我们的工作量。
到四月份的时候，Ubuntu的用户就可以通过访问www.cnr.com来搜索他们要升级的软件产品了，可以通过产品名字关键字或者功能关键字。
This partnership will see Linspire base Linspire/Freespire on Ubuntu, while Canonical will in turn use Linspire's CNR commercial software e-commerce technology. Both companies believe that they will benefit in this partnership by promoting the adoption of Linux in the Microsoft dominated desktop market.
"This technology partnership goes a long way in advancing and unifying the Linux desktop," said Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire. "Linux faces many challenges as it competes in a world historically dominated by Microsoft Windows, so there is plenty of work to go around and we're pleased to be able to offer differentiation and choice, while redUCing fragmentation."
Linspire will move from Debian to Ubuntu as the base for its desktop operating system. Early releases of Freespire 2.0 based on Ubuntu are eXPected soon, with the final release expected to follow the official release of Ubuntu 7.04 in April.
"Ubuntu is the most successful community-based Linux project to date," said Carmony. "They have done a fantastic job with the development community and creating tools for utilising their technology. It made a tremendous amount of sense to partner with Canonical and begin basing our desktop Linux offerings on Ubuntu."
"The very nature of Free Software development is based on sharing and collaboration," commented Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu. "The less time, energy and resources Canonical and Linspire spend duplicating efforts, the more time we'll all have for unique improvements and innovation."
Through the incorporation of Linspire's CNR service, Ubuntu users will continue to have the same repository and installation options as before, but will have Access over 20 000 desktop Linux products, packages and libraries, all with a single mouse click. Linspire recently announced plans to make their CNR technology available for other Linux distributions. Ubuntu will be the first distro to be supported.
"For some time, we've been planning enhancements to Ubuntu's commercial software management, and it was only natural to take advantage of Linspire's new, open CNR technology rather than duplicating that work," continued Shuttleworth.
In April Ubuntu users will be able to use www.cnr.com, to search for applications under a variety of tags such as title and function. An open-sourced plugin for each supported distribution is then used to add the one-click installation functionality. In the future, Canonical plans to integrate ASPects of the CNR technology so the purchase of commercial software is straightforward for desktop users.
Linspire and Ubuntu first started casual discussions about ways to work together a few years back, but started more formal discussions on ways to work together over the past year.
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