Linuxman's Ratings Guide
Required User Level: Beginner/Intermediate
Installation: fully graphical and pretty much automatic. Option to run as a live CD from boot
Support:Excellent - forums & online documentation.
No. of CD's or DVD's: 1
Media: CD-R

The First Complete Stable Release. Introducing Freespire 1.0

Freespire comes with many advantages over standard linux version, the main selling points being support for proprietary codecs and Linspires famous CNR (Click'N'Run) software warehouse. Freespire is based on the excellent commercial product Linspire Five-O, so you can expect the same excellent hardware detection and easy installation. Just like it's commercial brother Freespire can run in Live mode which enables you to try before installing. This is a great feature and the way all good linux distro's seem to be going. Rather than listen to me babble on about this great OS, I've taken some text from Freespires website which explains things much more clearly.

Reprinted courtesy of Freespires website, All trademarks/copyrights are the property of their respective owners:

This is the first stable release of Freespire 1.0 to be made available publicly to the Freespire community. Freespire 1.0 (and subsequently Freespire release) will have largely been created by Linspire, but these will serve nicely as the "launching off spot" for future versions of Freespire, which will then start including community involvement for Freespire 1.1. Please read the Release Notes for changes made since the last Beta release.

What can I expect to see in Freespire:

• Freedom of choice, with a mix of FOSS (free open source software) and 3rd-part, legally licensed, proprietary software.
• Multimedia support of MP3, Windows Media, QuickTime, Real, Java, Flash, etc. You should be able to use all of these files, right out of the box, without doing anything: http://linspire.com/filetypes
• Plug-N-Play hardware support from nVidia, ATI, Intel, and many others, right out of the box, without installing anything.
• A top-priority emphasis on ease of use
• Emphasis on fit n finish and polish
• Lack of bugs (if you find 'em, we want to know) Of course, with our first releases there WILL be bugs, but we want to start squashing them completely. (What I mean by this one, is I have noticed Linspire/Freespire tends to fix tiny things that other distros just work around, put up with, ignore, etc. Even though it may take time, we want to squash the tiniest of bug that could trip up a user.)
• Provides free access to the entire Freespire open source application pool using CNR or apt-get.
• Offers optional use of the Linspire CNR (click and run) Service, along with Aisles, Update Notification, etc. The CNR Client is open source.
• *CNR Warehouse with tons of FOSS as well as dozens of commercial, proprietary applications, all found in the same place, most for free, and some available for purchase, all with one click.
• Freespire Live CD is included. Just like as is the case with Linspire, you can either run live from the CD or install Freespire from your hard drive. This can be a great way to test your computer's compatibility with Freespire before actually installing it.
• New and different applications that you may have never seen before, such as Lsongs, Lphoto, Nvu, Gizmo, etc.
• Different versions of applications you have seen before. For example, we make hundreds of changes, enhancements and improvements to Firefox and Thunderbird, so many we can't call it "Firefox" anymore. (Trademark law, and as mandated by Mozilla, prohibits us from calling it "Firefox" because we've changed it so much. Please don't yell at us and say we're trying to re-brand or take all the credit from Firefox. We're just playing by trademark law.) The fact that we change these programs is a good thing, as you'll more than likely come to appreciate and enjoy the bug fixes and enhancements we make to these programs.
• Security in how Freespire deals with logging in and its built-in firewall.
• What we think is one heck of a free desktop Linux distribution, and remember, this is only the BEGINNING!

• Users will have the ability to use CNR or apt-get to install software from the CNR Warehouse (or other Debian repositories).
• The CNR Warehouse and the CNR Client will use standard .deb packaging for all free, open source software. (Only certain 3rd-party,proprietary commercial applications might at times use an encrypted .deb file, as per the copyright holder/vendor's specification.)
• During install, by default, an Admin account (a user account with full access rights, "pseudo-root") is created. Logging in as root is still possible, but is not the default and must be intentionally set up after installation is completed. (Visit Creating a Root Login Account to learn more.) Additional user and admin accounts may be added or removed at anytime, each with varying access rights assigned manually.
• As with Linspire, when you boot the Freespire CD, you will be given the option to either run the OS "live" from the CD, or to install it to a partition on the hard drive. However, a new third option has been added for Freespire, allowing the user to add to or modify the partitions on their hard drive before installing the Freespire OS.
• The Freespire default web browser and email client will be based on Firefox and Thunderbird, respectively, not Mozilla. However, both of these programs will still include the advanced features and many improvements Linspire makes to enhance these programs, such as misc. bug fixes, in-line spell checking, "hot words," MailMinder, etc. The term "Linspire Internet Suite" will not be used, but rather the simple generic terms "Web Browser, Powered by Firefox" and "Email, Powered by Thunderbird."
• A new kcontrol module will be included for easily changing the default browser.
• New "Freespire" wallpapers, icons, themes and other branding in the OS will be included.
• Basic developer tools and packages will be included in the OS by default. (Additional developer tools can be added with CNR or apt-get.)
• Autorun will be removed for .exe files, Amorok, CDs, etc.
• Most of the tutorials will not be installed by default but may be added via CNR or apt.
• The VirusSafe and SurfSafe icons will be removed from the system tray unless installed by the user with CNR.
• The Start-up Wizard content will be updated
• The Lassist software suite will be removed from the OS but can be added using CNR.
• A new graphical networking debugging tool will be included.
• Misc. minor changes and bug fixes.