Today, the PC/OpenSystems LLC FOSS development team has released Freespire 8.0, an update which delivers much needed system enhancements and security fixes. Once again we have let users decide; they have spoken, and we have included all the most requested Google services; Calendar, Docs, and Gmail. For more traditional use cases, Freespire core has not changed at all : it’s still a full featured desktop OS, with all of the applications and resources of the Ubuntu repositories available as always. To repeat : Freespire does not incorporate any proprietary media codecs; aside from the use of Google Chrome there are no other vendor-specific software applications pre-installed at all.
Freespire 8.0 features a new stable kernel which fixes bugs / broadens hardware support. Google Chrome version 96 includes security patches and other general browser improvements. We have upgraded Xfce 4.16, X11, Samba and other system fundamentals including non-UEFI and secure boot systems..
The distribution includes :
XFCE Desktop 4.16
Kernel 5.4.0-91 LTS
Google Chrome 96
Ice SSB
Kpatience
Dreamchess
Gmail
Google Docs
Google Drive
Google Calendar
Google Translate
Google News
Kolourpaint
Video Player
Rhythmbox
Plus several other security and feature updates. In step with keeping the distribution as close as possible that we can get to the definition of free software no proprietary multimedia codecs or drivers are enabled but are available via the repositories. We provide an ISO that you can "burn" to a USB key or DVD media. To create a USB key you can use the following programs:
Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Freespire, ElementaryOS)
Unetbootin (Linux, Windows)
Balena Etcher (Linux, Mac, Windows)
Rufus (Windows)
You can download the ISO from here:
If you have bandwidth caps or would like to support Freespire you can purchase a copy here
