Freespire 8.0.1 Released

Today, the PC/OpenSystems LLC FOSS development team is pleased to release Freespire 8.0.1, This update delivers needed security fixes and adds some functionality that some users have requested. This update ships with most of the requested Google services. But we have also listened to users who said they wanted a local Office suite so that they could continue their work uninterrupted in case of travel or internet outage and we have included the full LibreOffice suite. Freespire core again has not changed at all. Even though we do include LibreOffice as the default office suite it’s still a full featured desktop OS and an excellent platform to deploy any and all of your cloud applications. The way we deliver cloud applications has also changed. Zswap is also enabled to help with performance with Chromebooks and other hardware systems that have less that 4 gb of physical memory.  Dark mode is now enabled by default.  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 8.0.1 features a new stable kernel which fixes bugs / broadens hardware support. Google Chrome version 97 includes security patches and other general browser improvements. 

The distribution includes : 

• XFCE Desktop 4.16 - A very lightweight and easy to use Linux desktop environment 
• Kernel 5.4.0-94 LTS - A long term supported kernel that has been enhanced for functionality and security 
• Synaptic - Linux package manager and alternative to the Software application. We also put Synaptic back in the whisker menu per user request. 
• Google Chrome 97 - A web browser from Google uniquely engineered for privacy, security and performance. 
• Ice SSB - An application that takes any web property and makes it a desktop application 
• Kpatience - Suite of solitaire games 
• Dreamchess - A fun and entertaining game for the chess enthusiasts out there 
• Gmail - E-mail client from Google 
• Google Drive - Access your online Google drive with this application. You can download and upload files and more. Google Drive integration is not present in Thunar 
• Google Calendar - Online calendar application. 
• Google Translate - A utility to translate text to any language you wish 
• Google News - Online world wide news 
• Video Player - Video and multimedia player 
• Rhythmbox - Music player 
• LibreOffice - Dedicated office suite for word processing, spreadsheet, presentations and vector drawing 

All security and application updates until January 10, 2022. 

You can download the ISO from here.

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/8/freespire-8.iso

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/8/freespire-8.iso.md5

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/8/freespire-8.iso.sha256