Linspire announced the immediate change in pricing for its popular CNR ("Click 'N Run") Service from an annual subscription fee based offering to a completely free service. The CNR Service, with access to over 20,000 desktop Linux applications, has previously been available only with annual subscriptions, ranging from $20 to $50, but will now be offered as a free service for all Linspire and Freespire users.

"For nearly five years, thousands of CNR users have paid annual subscription fees for the CNR Service," said Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire. "We're thrilled to now be in a position to offer this excellent service to desktop Linux users absolutely free. CNR really makes using desktop Linux easy, and we want everyone to have access to this quality service."

Due to success in offering premium products and services, Linspire is now able to make the basic CNR service available to everyone at no charge. Linspire and Freespire users will continue being able to use CNR to install, update and manage thousands of free, open source software programs with one click, but now there will be no charge for this service.

All CNR users will still have the choice to purchase premium products and services, such as a DVD Player, Sun's StarOffice, Win4Lin Pro, CodeWeavers' CrossoverOffice, TransGaming's Cedega, as well as other commercial software applications including several commercial games. The strong revenue stream from the commercial desktop Linux software applications, as well as the premium "CNR Gold" service, has opened the door for Linspire to offer the basic CNR service at no charge to all Linspire and Freespire users.

"CNR is an innovative and feature-rich system for installing, updating and managing software on a desktop Linux computer," stated John Cherry, OSDL Desktop Linux Initiative Manager. "The fact that this service is now free will be an incredible boost for desktop Linux adoption worldwide as it makes thousands of applications immediately available to desktop users."

The price change is effective immediately for all Linspire and Freespire users. To get the free CNR service, Linspire and Freespire users simply use their email address to create a free CNR Service account. Those who purchased the Basic CNR Service in the past 60 days will automatically be upgraded to the CNR Gold Service at no charge.

In addition to the CNR service price change, Linspire also announced today plans for a new, open sourced version of the CNR client that will be released later this year as part of Freespire 1.1. These announcements further extend the value of the Freespire project, allowing anyone to enjoy not only a quality desktop Linux experience, but also an easy-to-use, yet extremely powerful software management system, all at no charge. Linspire is hopeful that by continuing to solve the complexity of Linux software installation, it will attract more software developers to create applications for desktop Linux.