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FEATURE | DESCRIPTION |
KEY FEATURES | 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. Current stable version is Freespire 2.0 (build 2.0.8) Initial version was Freespire 1.0 (build 1.0.13) providing both an OSS version and full version with proprietary codecs included |
Supported architectures | i386 |
Minimal hardware requirements | Hardware requirements : 800MHz processor (1Ghz recommended) | 128 MB of RAM (256 MB or higher recommended for best performance) [Note: with shared video 128 MB of RAM will result in a less than optimum experience, 256 MB is the minimum in those cases. Using emulators (Crossover Office, Win4Lin, etc.) is RAM intensive, so minimum recommended is 512 MB | Hard drive with 4 GB free space | SVGA or higher resolution and monitor (3-D graphics accelerator card for some games, screen savers, etc.) | CD-ROM or DVD drive, Keyboard & Mouse (must support booting from the CD or DVD drive. Most modern computers can do this.) | Compatible sound card and speakers or headphones | Compatible 56 Kbps hardware modem, cable modem, or DSL modem | Ethernet card for Internet/LAN connectivity |
Software freedom status | Freespire 2.0 has one version. Freespire 1.0: Two versions: one including all the codecs required and another completely OSS version with no proprietary software included. |
INSTALLATION | |
Installer - overall | (7) Quick install with minimal user action required |
Package selection | (0) Not available using .iso image |
Predefined package groups | (0) Not available using .iso image |
Expert mode install | (5) Advanced install to a previously created partition |
Graphical installer | (7) Informative during relatively short installation |
Installer speed | (8) Installs in 10 minutes on modern hardware |
CONFIGURATION | |
Graphical system management | (8) Based on KDE Control Center including other options: Network Control Panel, improved Component Chooser (Default Application Selector), access to complete system Information and partition Volume Manager all available in the Control Center. Some tools like User Manager and Programs to Autostart run outside the Control Center |
Console-based system management | (6) Standard Debian features / ubuntu repositories |
PACKAGE SYSTEM | |
Number of packages | (8) Over 30,00 packages at CNR.com supporting Freespire 2.0 with the Legacy CNR Warehouse (Freespire repository) for Freespire 1.0 providing access to open source and commercial packages |
Package management, automatic dependency resolving | (8) .deb based system using dpkg with full apt features providing automatic dependency resolution |
Graphical package management tools | (9) CNR.com for Freespire 2.0 & Legacy CNR for Freespire 1.0; one-click install — can't be easier than that |
PERFORMANCE | |
System boot-up speed | (7) Initial release boot speed is acceptable (boots in 60 seconds); significantly improved from previous versions |
System responsiveness | (3) No special optimizations for desktops |
STABILITY/SECURITY | |
Popularity | (6) DistroWatch in the top 20's for last 12 months Freespire launched April 2006; first stable (version 1.0) released 08 August 2006; latest stable (version 2.0) released 30 November 2007. |
Security focus | (7) Freepire uses standard Debian/ubuntu conventions for creating an Admin/sudo account with additional user accounts during start-up wizard. |
Stability and maturity | (7) Freespire is the development branch for the stable Linspire distribution initially publicly released in November 2002, currently pre-installed by hundreds of OEM's. As for being the development release, the stability is more bleeding edge than in the commercial product — Linspire. |
INTERNATIONALIZATION | |
Does the installer support multiple languages? | (0) Supports US English only, internationalized via IRMA |
Is the system localized after installation? | (0) No, English only. |
Is manual system localization easy? | (7) Install internationalized packages via CNR (for those languages translated via IRMA all core packages are translated) |
APPLICATIONS/NETWORK | |
Support for restricted formats | (8) Commercial codecs included in the .iso install: MP3, Windows Media, QuickTime, Java, Flash, Real, ATI drivers, nVidia drivers, proprietary WiFi drivers, fonts, and so on. OSS version available with no proprietary codes pre-installed. |
Sagem DSL modem support | (6) Same as in Debian |
Alcatel DSL modem support | (6) Same as in Debian |
ISDN support | (6) Same as in Debian |
Wireless support | (8) Excellent out-of-the-box wireless support |
General editing info
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Discussion
If you would like to discuss the current state of the description or have some ideas or are not sure about the validity of some information, please use the comments form on the bottom. Thanks you for your participation.
OK, I made some corrections in the description (see the changelog) and finally added Freespire to the comparisons: http://polishlinux.org/choose/comparison/?distro1=Xandros&distro2=Freespire
If you have further updates, feel free to edit this page and it will be transferred to the vortal as soon as it gets moderated.
Good to hear!
Reviewing the comparisons http://polishlinux.org/choose/comparison/?distro1=Xandros&distro2=Freespire
Under TECHNICAL INFO > Software freedom status (not available on this wiki page) Freespire should display: Two (2) versions: one including all the codecs required (see below) and another completely OSS version with no proprietary software included.
Might I inquire where some of the values came from? For example:
There is no easier out-of-the-box install than a takeover using Freespire. It takes under 10 minutes requiring minimal user interaction (name of the computer and user account). [Note advanced install has no limitations to install on any available partition].
Regarding packages there are very few that compare to the Fresspire repository (especially including the availability of a number of commercial products).
Regarding support for restricted formats (not a very defined category) there is no other with as many licensed codecs available including all the multi-media codecs.
I wouldn't want to modify the content possibly having a biased result…
The "Software freedom status" has been recently added and is not yet covered in my migration script (wiki->vortal). I will sonn add it here so that everyone could edit this column as well.
I added the column and filled it with what you wrote about the OSS version.
As of 23 May @ 1400 GMT Software freedom status not being displayed in the compare output table…
I'm sorry for that. I added a Jira task: http://jira.jakilinux.org:8080/browse/PL-30 — hopefully I will do that. It takes so long because I found some error in the migration script that works wrong for Freespire. I'm currently trying to fix it.
OK, eventually updated! Sorry that it took so long. New updated will be more automatic since I fixed the migration script.
Also, a new site for Freespire on PolishLinux.org is available, accessible from distro overview page: http://polishlinux.org/linux/ — the Freespire site is http://polishlinux.org/linux/freespire/ and it also requires some retouch (see descriptions of other distros from the overview page).
Request update to compare with new Freespire 2.0 data…
Appears resolved…
What's the process to get changes to pages promulgated throughout the site???
We're kind of in stall mode and looking for people to take over the site. If you are interested, let us know at gro.xunilhsilop|xunilhsilop#gro.xunilhsilop|xunilhsilop
Freespire project is no longer active (since summer 2008)…