Some days ago pc-opensystems developers gave disclosed by posting on the official Freespire website, the release of the new version of Freespire 6.0 which arrives practically almost 4 months after its previous launch. This new version highlights the updates of some of the components of the system, such as the Linux Kernel that comes in version 5.3.0-28, the Mate desktop in version 1.20 and several other components.
For those unfamiliar with Freespire, you should know that this is a 64 bit Linux OPEN based operating system, freely available and aimed at open source users and developers who want a free, quality open operating system.
It has all the apps users will need for media consumption and development tools for those who want to tinker with the system and implement their own custom software and kernels.
Una of the main characteristics by Freespire es it is a distribution without binary drivers or multimedia codecs included, Besides that focuses on offering strictly free applications.
Freespire is the free spin-off of Linspire, which is known to have an eventful history. It wasn't until early 2018 that Linspire version 7.0 returned from the sinking after almost ten years, at the same time that Freespire version 3.0 was released, subsequently Freespire 4.0 followed in August 2018, Linspire 8.0 in January 2019 and Freespire 5.0 in October 2019.
What's new in Freespire 6.0?
This new version of Freespire 6.0 continues on the basis of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (which still continues to receive updates and will be supported until 2023), although with the company's own graphic design as well (which has been preserved), in order to provide a pleasant appearance that stands out from other distributions.
In the release of this new version, the developers share:
Our users enjoy a multitude of different desktops - for this version, we will release the MATE desktop first, KDE is coming next, stay tuned. With Windows 7 at the end of its useful life, many people have PCs that may not be optimal for Windows 10; Now is a good time to migrate to one of the most recognized desktop Linux distributions, which is optimized only for this type of PC.
As such, in the ad they simply report that the new version includes the following changes:
MATE 1.20
This version basically provides support for HiDPI displays with dynamic detection and scaling, in addition to which framework is now compatible from this version with DRI3 and XPresent, also the significant enhancements made to environment themes as well as the work to improve the compatibility of the environment tools with GTK3 +.
Kernel 5.3.0-28
With the update to this version of the Linux Kernel distribution compatibility with various hardware devices is improved, since all the support supported by the Linux Kernel 5.3.0-28 benefits the distribution.
An example is the support for the new AMD Radeon RX5700 Series, support for Turing TU116, improved support for RISC-V as well as support for new compression systems and file systems. For example, UBIFS, NFS, VirtIO-PMEM, Ceph, Btrfs and XFS, F2FS with native support for SWAP, LZ4 compression for EROFS, new features in EXT4, etc.
Of the other changes that stand out, in this new version, are the inclusion of the new packages:
- Chromium
- Abiword
- Gnumeric
- Ice SSB
- passwords
- Shotwell
- Software Center
- Synaptic Package Manager
Download
No more for those interested in being able to install or test this distribution Linux either on their computers or in a virtual machine, they should know that Freespire requires an x86_64 bit processor, 4GB of RAM, and at least a 20GB hard drive to run a basic productivity environment.
For optimal performance, at least 6 to 8 GB of RAM is recommended for users who want to run emulation software or CAD software.
You can get the system image from the link below.
mate 1.20? but if mate goes for 1.24, mate 1.20 was launched 2 years ago.
I thought the same, since even the Kernel 5.4 was released at the end of last year (speaking of a version that will have long support) and well not to mention Linux 5.5.
The truth does not surprise me since the distribution (other than Rolling Release) that includes the latest components is rare.
The only thing I can think of is that they have been working the base since last year and that is why it comes with those versions.
And what does it matter, do you suffer from versionitis or, honestly, it's going great.