Kevin La Rue is vice president of marketing for Linspire, a desktop Linux company. A self-styled start-up junkie and veteran of the consumer software industry for nearly two decades, Kevin has finally found a place that feels just right. This new column seeks to provide insights and observations on the evolving world of Linux on the desktop.
Lately, I've been feeling a little nostalgic about what I call the "golden
age" of consumer software innovation in the late '80s and early '90s. Back
then I was cutting my teeth at a medium-sized Mac software publisher called
Silicon Beach Software that had a few early successes and that also saw a
fair number of applications plied by smaller developers wanting Silicon Beach
to publish their software.
As a product manager, I recall my excitement at the number of cool software
applications that were hitting the scene, be they commercial, shareware, or
freeware. Innovation was happening everywhere around us as both big companies
and one-man shops were looking at their crystal balls trying to figure out
what the next "killer app" would be. Anyone remember PageMaker, SuperPaint,
MORE, QuickKeys, HyperCard, Morph, or Printshop? And who could forget that
adorable sage, t... (more)
Kevin La Rue is vice president of marketing for Linspire, a desktop Linux company. A self-styled start-up junkie and veteran of the consumer software industry for nearly two decades, Kevin has finally found a place that feels just right. This new column seeks 
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