Freespire Talk

[sb73542]

The most important thing is that Freespire provides free, LEGAL multimedia software of all sorts. On other distros, such as Ubuntu, you can install extra software to work with the same media formats, but in the USA, it's technically illegal.

I'm waiting for the next major release of Linspire (2.0 ?), which will include updated KDE and kernel. I think it will be quite a nice OS.

[Adamant1988]

I expect that Linspire (6.0) will be a lot better off than 5.1 is.

Linspire has always had a lot going for it, amazing hardware detection, CNR, legal multimedia playback of all forms (although DVD you have to buy).

But foss people are always going to hate linspire on moral and ethical grounds... it 'charges for free software', it includes non-free software, etc. the list goes on.

Personally, Linspire is my next favorite distro behind Ubuntu. As a user, I just want a system that works for me.

Freespire's role in all of this is to help make Linspire more bleeding edge, and with less bugs et cetera. and I think that freespire is supposedly going to help speed up the development of Linspire as well... Time will tell.

[rattlerviper]

The most important thing is that Freespire provides free, LEGAL multimedia software of all sorts. On other distros, such as Ubuntu, you can install extra software to work with the same media formats, but in the USA, it's technically illegal.

I'm waiting for the next major release of Linspire (2.0 ?), which will include updated KDE and kernel. I think it will be quite a nice OS.

Would it be possible legally to add thier repositories to Ubuntu, and apt-get the required codecs? I know that it is possible to add thier repositories , just asking if that would mean someones codecs were legal if they were downloaded through the "legal" scource?

As for the DVD playback you have the choice of CNR gold membership@ $49.95+ 9.95 for the player, or $19.95 for the CNR membership plus $49.95 for the player. That's pretty exspensive for "free".

[kripkenstein]

I just tried out Freespire in VMWare, so I don't know about hardware recognition, all of that stuff always works inside virtualization. Otherwise, I would never use such a distro - too much catering to Windows users.

But, I guess it isn't intended for normal Linux users. What it might be, is an actual possibility for people to switch away from Windows to. I wouldn't use Freespire, but I would be very happy to see them advertise and sell lots of cheap Windows-free PCs with it.

[darthchaosofrspw]

I expect that Linspire (6.0) will be a lot better off than 5.1 is.

If I understand it correctly, the first full edition of Freespire (1.0) will still be based on the Marlin build (Marlin = Linspire Five-0), while Freespire 1.1 will be based on the Skipjack build (Skipjack = Linspire 6.0).

[rattlerviper]

If I understand it correctly, the first full edition of Freespire (1.0) will still be based on the Marlin build (Marlin = Linspire Five-0), while Freespire 1.1 will be based on the Skipjack build (Skipjack = Linspire 6.0).

Don't get upset at me if I am wrong, but I saw it somewhere over there on the freespire site that Linspire 6.0 was to be based on the Freespire 1.1 release. I just can't find it right now to post it here . Maybe I shall be able to find it sometime tonight.

[paullinux]

Tried it and it looks good. But still commercial minded (CNR...) But it's beta. It's boot up was a bit strange and I guess not intended. It took a long time to finally get to the desktop. I dumped it however... It boots first before grub. So I couldn't get to my other (Ubuntu) distro's. The only way to get it dissapear is to delete the partition - on which Freespire was installed - completely...

[rattlerviper]

Hmmm, I did not have that problem. On my Pc it played well with Ubuntu. Did you use The first Beta, or .76? From what I have read over there they are having a lot more problems with .76 than they had with the first one

[sb73542]

Would it be possible legally to add thier repositories to Ubuntu, and apt-get the required codecs? I know that it is possible to add thier repositories , just asking if that would mean someones codecs were legal if they were downloaded through the "legal" scource?

Yup, I was wondering the same thing. It would appear to me that this is very possibly a legal solution for Debian/Ubuntu users, but I'm no lawyer.

[rattlerviper]

Yup, I was wondering the same thing. It would appear to me that this is very possibly a legal solution for Debian/Ubuntu users, but I'm no lawyer.

Just remember you can't apt-get install the DVD player that has the codecs since they are charging for it. If you are intrested in getting the DVD codecs for free through a scource that has them legally I would check out DreamLinux. It too is based on Debian, an they have a codec installed in the DVD player by default Just not sure if that would make it legal on Ubuntu or not I guess in the long run I'll have 2 do more searching to find out. I guess if you want too make sure your legal you could hook up a REAL dvd player to your computer>