"Linspire/Freespire is real Linux, and if you are hoping to convert someone loaning them a Linspire PC might be the way to do it. If you are a regular Linux user, you don't need it, but it makes a great set of training wheels."
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Member since:2005-07-12
"Why go for it when Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse are just plainly better and are completely free."
I haven't tried OpenSuSE lately, but Ubuntu and Fedora are definitely not better in my experience.
First, Fedora is too heavy for my general usage, and I've found it to be rather buggy at times. Also, while yum is nice (along with the various GUI front ends), it's not as good as apt/synaptic, and is a major step down from Freespire's CNR (by a long shot).
Second, Ubuntu is a very nice all around desktop distro. However, in my experience it's hardware detection is less than stellar. It has failed to detect hardware, particularly video, on half the machines I've attempted it on. Also, Automatix is pretty cool, but it does take a long time, where as with Freespire all that stuff Automatix does in Ubuntu is already there, no extra time, no fuss, no muss.
Third, Freespire is 100% free - as in beer, and mostly as in speach (it does ship with proprietary drivers/codecs be default). And Freespire comes in a 100% OSS version, which is 100% free as in beer and as in speech. Please get your facts straight when talking about Freespire/Linspire.
Finally, stating that distros X, Y, and Z are "plainly better" than distro A, is completely subjective.
And I question whether or not you've even tried the latest Freespire. If you haven't, you have no basis for your subjective opinions.
In my experience and in my opinion, Freespire has been better than the distros you mentioned.
Edited 2006-09-10 19:30
Member since:2006-02-01
hird, Freespire is 100% free - as in beer, and mostly as in speach (it does ship with proprietary drivers/codecs be default). And Freespire comes in a 100% OSS version, which is 100% free as in beer and as in speech.
For all of a whole month or so now. What about the first five years?
Please get your facts straight when talking about Freespire/Linspire.
Why? Use of actual facts don't seem to be a concern for you when you're deriding other distributions.
Member since:
2006-03-15
I just don't see the point for Linspire. It isn't bad. It is just that it is useless. Why go for it when Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSuse are just plainly better and are completely free.
The original premise, to be able to run all Windows applications on it, was very promising. But when that fizzled, all they had was a pretty good, but subpar distro that costed money.