CNR® is a one-click digital software delivery service for desktop Linux applications, libraries and packages.
With the CNR® Service you can install over 20,000 Linux software applications and packages directly from the CNR® Warehouse - all with just a single click.

So today i tried out the CNR technology that linspire is so proud off in ubuntu. The steps are rather easy. For ubuntu 7.10 you can check this link. There seems to be only one problem if you follow the instruction which is the signature key for the sources are not found. But just ignore it and continue with the installation.

After you had finish the installation. Close firefox and ALT+F2 then type cnr. It will initialize and synchronize with the server. Which takes will take about 5 mins.
Once initialized open your browser and goto http://www.cnr.com/
Your now ready to install any software you want by clicking Install Now, its that easy and its called Click N Run…..

Advantage:
* Browser based, with review and thumbnail and star rating, good for our new linux user
* Good for commercial softwares
* Good for mouse based people
* You can see a lot of free software graphically, advance user knows which are free anyway
* Will help ubuntu a lot in the future (i think)
* A bit addictive if you want to try many software

Downside:
* Sudo apt-get install is still faster
* You have to run the thing(cnr client) all the time so the concept would work
* The ajax used in the site sucks big time, no indicator if there is a page loading, left navigation is broken, when you click on subcategory it will load the whole list instead of the subcategory list.
* Update manager and CNR update is different so you have to update both. (CNR can be auto update)
* No separation of which desktop it belongs if a software is gnome only or kde only or what
* Some product are shown on the list that is not available on your distribution
* Everything will be run as root which i think is not safe
* Software makers can misuse the site to make their software have a higher rank/higher star that might lead to misinformation on the new user of this technology
* If the site is hacked then everyone that uses this technology is hacked (IF)

The technology is new and therefore there are still a lot of stuff that it needs to be great product but i see this as a helpful technology to make people switch to linux. Imagine the loyalist linux user telling their friends “Well, i just use my browser and click install on what i want and i dont see wizards with doubleclick or i dont even drag it to some folder”. But for the advance user i think they will still go with the terminal based of installation.