Geek Software of the Week: Freespire Linux!
As I have mentioned before, I differ from some of my Linux brethren in that I love Linspire Linux as a desktop distro! Now, on the server side, I run CentOS Linux (which is the totally free from source version of Red Hat… though they are not affliated in any way.) In fact, all four of my Dr. Bill Bailey.NET company servers (which host this web site) are CentOS Linux servers. BUT, on the desktop I like Linspire. However, Linspire, sadly, is NOT free! I have been a Linspire “Insider” since it was originally conceived way back in 2001/2002. And, I still support Michael Robertson’s vision of Linspire. However, NOW there is a free version of Linspire (so to speak!)
“Freespire is a community-driven, Linux-based operating system that combines the best that free, open source software has to offer (community driven, freely distributed, open source code, etc.), but also provides users the choice of including proprietary codecs, drivers and applications as they see fit. With Freespire, the choice is yours as to what software is installed on your computer, with no limitations or restrictions placed on that choice. How you choose to maximize the performance of your computer is entirely up to you.”
I downloaded and tried the beta version of Freespire (Version 0.0.76) and it looks good! Simple install, nice look and feel, and most everything a “Joe User” would want is there! I was even able to simply and quickly connect to a file share across the network on a Windows XP system. Very nice! Check it out! The first public full release will be available in August (next month!) But, the beta is available now, here: