Freespire 2.0 - A Gentle Review
22 August 2007Freespire is a GNU/Linux OS that provides users with not only free and open-source applications like many other distributions, but also provides the choice of including proprietary applications, drivers, codecs etc. It is a community driven project from Linspire.
Freespire 2.0 was released on 8th August 2007. You can download it from either BitTorrent or one of the mirror sites listed here. Here is a direct link from one of the HTTP mirrors. Freespire 2.0 is based on Ubuntu 7.04.
Freespire is popular for its inclusion of many audio/video codecs by default and also for including many binary drivers for a variety of Hardware. This relieves the user of the many hassles involved in downloading, configuring, installing them correctly on his GNU/Linux distributions.
Let’s look at Freespire 2.0 from the perspective of a Home User with regards to some of the applications he uses in his daily life.
Instant Messaging: You can use Pidgin. The available version is 2.0.1 - You can use this to chat with Yahoo, Google, MSN accounts and a lot of many other accounts also.
Listening to Music: Most of the GNU/Linux distributions do not include the required codecs to play mp3 due to licensing issues. You can download them separately. Freespire includes mp3 support by default. You can use its music player Lsongs to listen to your favourite music if it is availabe in mp3 format.
Playing Videos: This support is usually not available in many GNU/Linux distributions by default because of codec issues which are proprietary. But Freespire includes them by default and hence you won’t face any problem playing your favourite videos. You can use KPlayer. I have used it on avi, mp4 files and it played them well. KPlayer is based on MPlayer and would be supporting many other file formats.
Compresser: Sometimes the packages you download from the internet are compressed in .rar format. To uncompress such packages you need the unrar utility which is part of rar tools. For most GNU/Linux distributions you need to download unrar separately. With Freespire it is installed by default.
Download Manager: You have wget available by default.
Assorted List:
ffmpeg - FFmpeg is a complete solution to record, convert and stream audio and video.
lphoto - LPhoto is a free, Open Source application for GNU/Linux that allows you to manage your entire photo collection.
KTorrent - KTorrent is a BitTorrent program for KDE
kghostview - KGhostView displays and prints PostScript (.ps, .eps) and Portable Document Format (.pdf) files.
RealPlayer 10 - The music and video player from Real.
krdc - An application to connect to Windows Terminal Servers using RDP
kworldclock - An application that shows which parts of the world are currently experiencing daylight, and which parts are currently in night.
gizmo-project - Gizmo Project provides low cost international calling and free calls to users on Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live users and SIP networks.
gnupg - The GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is a free replacement for PGP
mpg321 - mpg321 is a command line mp3 player
netcat - netcat is a networking utility which reads and writes data across network connections, using the TCP/IP protocol.
ssh - An application which implements the SSH Protocol. Used to connect remote systems securely.
For programmers out there here is the mini assorted list:
gcc 4.2.1 - GNU Compiler Collection
gdb - GNU Project Debugger
python - an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, extensible programming language
Nvu - WYSIWYG HTML editor
java 6 - programming language and complete environment for application development and deployment
Ocaml - main implementation of the Caml programming language
perl - Perl is a dynamic programming language created by Larry Wall
tcl - programming language, suitable for a very wide range of uses, including web and desktop applications, networking, administration, testing and many more.
strace - strace is a system call tracer, i.e. a debugging tool which prints out a trace of all the system calls made by a another process/program
Don’t worry if your favourite software is not included by default. Freespire comes along with an excellent service called CNR (Click N Run) which you can access here.Browse to the website, select any software you desire( there are lots of them) and press the button “Install Now”. CNR client is integrated in Freespire and it immediately starts installing.After a few moments the application is ready.
As Freespire 2.0 is based on Ubuntu if you don’t want to use CNR, you can use your favourite apt- tools (apt-cache, apt-get) to install the applications that you desire.
Following is the step by step procedure to install Freespire 2.0 on your computer. Before we begin, let me tell you that there are two ways to install Freespire 2.0 on your system.
- First, when you enter the CD you can select the first option i.e. to Install Freespire
- Second, you can boot the live CD by choosing the second option and then after a while install from the Live System
Let’s begin the process of Installing.
- Burn the CD with freespire_2_0_0.iso.
- Boot Freespire CD
- Select the option “Run Freespire from CD” and press Enter
- Freespire will start loading and then a Welcome screen will be present.
- The next screen displays the License Agreement. After reading accept the license by checking “I Agree” and then press Next
- At this point you can adjust the volume settings. Once it is done, press Next to continue.
- The next screen allows you to configure settings such as Timezone, Display Resolution, Network etc. You can also add users from this screen.
- As we want to install Freespire and we don’t plan to run from Live CD, skip the settings and press Next
- Information regarding CNR free service will be displayed. Press Finish to continue
- The Live CD is now booted and the Desktop will be shown.
- Now double click the “Install Freespire” icon on the Desktop
- A Welcome screen will be displayed. Press Next
- Now you can choose the Keyboard layout. After choosing press Next
- Now it is time to select where on your harddisk you want to install. If you plan to have only Freespire on your hard disk, then choose “Take over an entire hard disk”. If you plan to run other OS along with Freespire, choose “Advanced Install”. I have selected the first option. Press Next.
- On the next screen you need to provide the Computer Name, User Name, Password. Press Next after entering the relevant values
- Your configured details will be displayed. Now press Finish.
- You will be asked to confirm before the installation process begins.
- Press the button “Yes I’m Sure”
- The installation continues. It’ll take about 10 minutes to complete the installation.
- You’ll be informed that all the necessary files have been copied. Press OK.
- The installation is complete now.
- At this point reboot your computer and boot from Hard Disk. The boot menu will be displayed. Select the first option “Freespire Ver. 2.0.0″ and then press Enter
- Freespire will boot at this point.
- The Login screen will be displayed. Enter the username and password which you configured earlier.
- The next screen will show that services are being initialized.
- A License Agreement will be displayed. After reading, select the checkbox “I Agree” and then press Next.
- A screen will show where you can adjust the volume settings. Press Next to continue.
- Now as we’ve installed Freespire on the Hard Disk let’s set the Timezone, Display Resolution.
- Press the button “Set Time Zone, Date & Time”
- Press the button “Administrator Mode…” You’ll be asked to enter the password. Press OK after entering the password.
- Enter your timezone and then press OK.
- Now press the “Set Display Resolution”
- You’ll be asked to enter the password. Enter password and then press OK.
- Select the Display Resolution and then press OK.
- Now press Next.
- The next screen shows information about CNR.com services. Press Finish.
- The configuration is now complete. You can start working with Freespire.
- The installation process was simple and good.
- Good set of everyday-use applications were included
- CNR.com integration is good
To Summarize the following good points appealed to me among many others:
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