What is Freespire by Kevin Carmony
From Freespire
From the original What is Freespire? post.
No product is right for everyone. No toothpaste, no car, no particular food, and no Linux distribution. So, I think it would be helpful to be very clear about what Freespire IS and IS NOT, then each of you can decide for yourself if it's something you want to be involved with.
What Freespire IS
- Free to download, use and redistribute.
- Free to choose NOT to use, download and redistribute. There are no guns pointed at anyone's head to use it.
- Comes with a mix of open source software and proprietary software.
- Free to obtain the source code, modify it, rebrand it, remove or license the 3rd party pieces, and redistribute it anyway you like.
- KDE based (not GNOME).
- Freespire is based on the Ubuntu distro, and syncs releases with Ubuntu every six months.
- Comes on one CD with a core set of default applications, and these can then be supplemented with apt-get, CNR, etc.
- Intentionally has a "windows" look and feel, to be comfortable to the 95% of the world that runs MS Windows.
- Is designed to be very easy to use, even to someone completely unfamiliar with Linux.
- Funded by Linspire to serve as a test bed for the Linspire OS, which is intended for OEMs.
- Is influenced by the community, but directed by Linspire, the Vision Statement and the Leadership Board.
- Because Freespire was made available to assist with Linspire development, it can change at anytime, in efforts to better fit its intended purpose. (There are, however, certainly no plans for it to go away.)
- Because it can change at times, this could cause for delays in releases, or periods of rebuilding.
If the above items don't fit for what you're looking for in a desktop Linux OS, then Freespire isn't right for you. If someone tries to make it out to be something it's not, they'll only be frustrated. This is the very reason why there exist dozens of Linux distributions, because everyone has their own objectives in what works for them.
If you like to compile your own Kernel, there's Gentoo. If you like Crossover bolted in, there's Xandros. If you like a 100% OSS distro, there are Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, and many others. If you want commercial support, there are products from Novell and Red Hat. etc...
If you were under a different impression, I apologize that you thought it was something else, but I hope this will help you know what it is and is not, so you can move on, rather than stay here and try to make it into something it's not. That's only frustrating for you, and annoying to those for whom Freespire is a good fit.
If you're going to flame me, fine, this is the place to do it, all I ask is that if you do, afterwards, please move on to happier pastures, so those of us here who are supportive of the above list can stay focused on that work.
Freespire is a great project FOR SOME, but it's not for everyone. I wish this forum could be for those who support the above items, rather than those who don't like the list and feel compelled to complain incessantly. I find myself coming to the forums less often, because there are a handful (the vocal minority) who seemingly have nothing better to do than stir things up here. If this is the most interesting thing you have to do with you life, I feel very sorry for you. We're talking about a FREE OS for a COMPUTER. This isn't about your family, your God, your country, or anything even remotely that important. It's a piece of software that is free to use or not.
I hope those of you who like what you see here, will continue to be involved in the forums, and those who don't, the world is a big and wonderful place, you should check it out.
