Now, in an SEC filing, the bar has been lowered somewhat, and the maximum Robertson can expect is $39.6 million - 18% less.

Sales last year were $2.1 million, though, up from just $63,131 the previous year, and the company has now settled its long-running dispute with Microsoft over its name. So the stage is set, even at the new price range of just $7 - $9.

The terms of the (worldwide) settlement  with Microsoft were that Robertson's company would stop using the name "Lindows" and instead to transition to the name "Linspire." In his official announcement of July 29, Robertson said: "We are pleased to resolve this litigation on terms that make business sense for all parties. Over the next few months Lindows will cease using the term Lindows and transition to Linspire globally as our company name and primary identifier for our operating system product."

In his accompanying blog he expressed this somewhat more informally.

"We thought it was a smart business decision at this time," he wrote, "so we're investing the time to change our Web site, building signs, and corporate documents. Upcoming upgrades of our software will be rebranded entirely as Linspire. We'll do our best to minimize the impact to users, but this change will trickle down to all versions and all languages including English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian. It will NOT change how our products function or overall appearance. But future versions will have a 5 letter change from "Lindows" to "Linspire." While we're waiting for the new business cards, we hope you'll change your bookmarks and other web links to Linspire."

"Links to Lindows.com will continue to work," Robertson continued, "but it would be helpful if everyone would switch them over. Ideally, in the near future, Linspire will beat Lindows in a googlefight."

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