Linspire, Inc., which has a commercial Linux distro of the same name, has decided to release a free Linux distro, named Freespire. According to the Press Release, we’ll see the first beta of Freespire in August.
Kevin Carmony said the Freespire project has six major goals:
1) Provide users freedom of choice by making available a “free marketplace” for all Linux software, including proprietary, open source, free and commercial products, plus provide easy access to this marketplace with open sourced tools such as CNR and apt-get. When necessary for the user experience, include proprietary software as an option in the core distribution, which will always be available for download at no cost;
2) Offer a very easy-to-use, yet powerful, Linux distribution;
3) Provide exceptional “fit and finish” with a professional and polished operating system;
4) Create a Linux that can expand more broadly to the masses;
5) Create an active community of developers and users; and
6) Include worldwide language support. A more detailed discussion on the Freespire mission can be found at www.freespire.org/about/vision.