Posted by Migo on Aug 10th, 2007
Freespire, the free branch of Linspire, Inc. has released its second version. This distribution includes proprietary codecs, drivers, and applications with the operating system itself. Not to worry, kids, these are legally licensed so you’re not going to go to jail over them.
The list of things it offers, as far as most linux flavors go, is fairly impressive. Things like support for Windows Media formats, QuickTime, RealPlayer, MP3 support, and drivers for both ATI and Nvidia.
Having not given this distribution a thorough test drive, I can’t give a review on it. However, Freespire proclaims itself “powerful enough for the most sophisticated Linux user or developer, yet easy enough for someone completely new to Linux”. This is one of the distributions that the community has said has the easiest time helping someone make the jump from Windows as it is laid out in a similar fashion.
It is based off of Ubuntu 7.04 , which is another distribution that has been deemed easy-to-use. So, it uses the same apt-get command for software updates/installation/etc. as any Debian-based distribution. It also has a package manager called CNR (Click-N-Run) which allows you to download or purchase programs like Crossover, Parallels Workstation, and TransGaming’s Cedega for all you WoW fans out there, in addition to a lot of open source software.
If you’re interested in seeing what Freespire looks like before you think about installing it, you can check out a screenshot tour here.
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