Freespire 8.2 Beta

Admin
Administrator

Posts: 142

Freespire 8.2 Beta Feb 12, 2022 22:05:25 GMT

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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2022 22:05:25 GMT

Today the Freespire team has released a new beta for testing on what will become 8.2. Due to user feedback this beta is exploring a change to the KDE Plasma desktop. THIS DOES NOT MEAN PLASMA WILL BECOME THE NEW DESKTOP this is just experimental to see how it performs and on user engagement. If you would like to see Plasma as the new default desktop comment down below. If you dont want to see it as the default desktop and want us to stay GNOME let us know below as well. Some of the changes we have made

Obviously, Plasma 5.18.8
Falkon Web Browser as the default browser
Thunderbird 91
LibreOffice 7.3.0.3
kernel 5.13.0-28 for more modern hardware
Koulourpaint
Flatpak instead of SNAPS
Timeshift for the ability to roll your system back in case of failure
Shotwell for photo management, while we would love to use a KDE equivalent there are just no native KDE alternatives that dont depend on 396 other packages
Balena Etcher for flashing ISO images to USB drives
Users have asked us repeatedly to make the multimedia codecs available for Freespire and now we have built in full CODEC support

Several other fixes and security updates

We look forward to your feedback.

Thank you

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WE DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BUILD FOR PRODUCTION USE
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distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/beta/freespire-82-desktop-amd64.iso
distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/beta/freespire-82-desktop-amd64.md5

Last Edit: Feb 12, 2022 22:17:43 GMT by Admin

bert
Guest

Freespire 8.2 Beta Feb 13, 2022 3:49:23 GMT

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Post by bert on Feb 13, 2022 3:49:23 GMT

I'm not a fan of it ,kde is not something i've ever liked.
Though it does have a fan club.

I prefer a nice clean desktop with a start button in the bottom left and a program list expanding up and menus out to the right.
I know that sounds a bit like windows

but hey ,i'm an old pc user .

I'm also not into all these recent desktops with giant icons that look like zoomed-out smartphone screens or something.

The linux desktop gui has been fiddled with for the last 20 years .

The stuff that really needs fixing is under the hood ,those simple things like working wifi when i plug my dongle in.

I know manufacturers get blamed for some of that but your average joe doesn't care ,
they just want stuff to work or a quick solution that doesn't involve finding lines of code from a website that you need to input and hoping it matches the same version as that thing called a kernel.
Rant over

Anyway this is ok if you like the desktop ,it has a lot of the good stuff from Linspire running underneath and seems stable.

Admin
Administrator

Posts: 142

Freespire 8.2 Beta Feb 13, 2022 19:36:34 GMT

Quote

Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2022 19:36:34 GMT

So you are a fan of something like Mate?

Feb 13, 2022 3:49:23 GMT bert said:

I'm not a fan of it ,kde is not something i've ever liked.
Though it does have a fan club.

I prefer a nice clean desktop with a start button in the bottom left and a program list expanding up and menus out to the right.
I know that sounds a bit like windows

but hey ,i'm an old pc user .

I'm also not into all these recent desktops with giant icons that look like zoomed-out smartphone screens or something.

The linux desktop gui has been fiddled with for the last 20 years .

The stuff that really needs fixing is under the hood ,those simple things like working wifi when i plug my dongle in.

I know manufacturers get blamed for some of that but your average joe doesn't care ,
they just want stuff to work or a quick solution that doesn't involve finding lines of code from a website that you need to input and hoping it matches the same version as that thing called a kernel.
Rant over

Anyway this is ok if you like the desktop ,it has a lot of the good stuff from Linspire running underneath and seems stable.

tlmiller76
New Member

Posts: 2

Freespire 8.2 Beta Feb 20, 2022 19:24:02 GMT

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Post by tlmiller76 on Feb 20, 2022 19:24:02 GMT

Didn't manage to grab the Beta before it was removed, but I'd be interested in that. Doubly with the changes Gnome is making with GTK4, I find Gnome to be less and less to my liking (and I never preferred it to begin with) with every release.

My current systems

bert
Guest

Freespire 8.2 Beta Feb 22, 2022 2:42:28 GMT

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Post by bert on Feb 22, 2022 2:42:28 GMT

Feb 13, 2022 19:36:34 GMT Admin said:

So you are a fan of something like Mate?

Feb 13, 2022 3:49:23 GMT bert said:

Actually ,i might have been been a bit premature with some of my ranting :)You can do some pretty cool editing that i didn't realise was available and there's some Global Themes you can download via the settings screen ,pretty cool.I really like the start 'Launch' button task bar area on this ,one of the nicest i've seen in a while ,good design.

Admin Administrator Posts: 142	Freespire 8.2 Beta Feb 24, 2022 6:51:05 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Admin on Feb 24, 2022 6:51:05 GMT distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/8/freespire-82-desktop-amd64.iso distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/8/freespire-82-desktop-amd64.iso.md5 The beta cycle had already finished. But here go the links to the final build.
	Last Edit: Feb 24, 2022 6:51:39 GMT by Admin

qwertius
New Member

Posts: 2

Freespire 8.2 Beta Mar 1, 2022 1:35:40 GMT

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Post by qwertius on Mar 1, 2022 1:35:40 GMT

I have to echo the same opinion.

I am not a fan of KDE - my preference is Gnome - the way you guys set it up is so functional.

Other than that - I like Cinnamon as well as Budgie

I have had some recent experience with Openbox & Cutefish.

The latter - looks very interesting - but has some way to go before it really becomes a contender.

I would really hate to lose Gnome & I hope that never happens.

Prime Suspect
Guest

Freespire 8.2 Beta Mar 3, 2022 19:15:42 GMT

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Post by Prime Suspect on Mar 3, 2022 19:15:42 GMT

I appreciate everyone has their favorite DE. I work with Linux and KDE is by far the best environment for my needs. I think moving from Gnome was a smart move.
I'd like to share a review of the latest KDE release from a highly respected source .."It's the most consistent, visually pleasing, ergonomically efficient, and customizable UI for the classic desktop, hands down. Nothing comes even close, inside and outside the Linux world. Now, there's a new version, 5.24, and its existence is very important."
www.dedoimedo.com/computers/plasma-5-24-review.html

Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2022 22:05:25 GMT

Post by bert on Feb 13, 2022 3:49:23 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 13, 2022 19:36:34 GMT

Post by tlmiller76 on Feb 20, 2022 19:24:02 GMT

Post by bert on Feb 22, 2022 2:42:28 GMT

Post by Admin on Feb 24, 2022 6:51:05 GMT

Post by qwertius on Mar 1, 2022 1:35:40 GMT

Post by Prime Suspect on Mar 3, 2022 19:15:42 GMT

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