| Sears offers cheap pre-installed Freespire Linux PCs |
Jan. 17, 2008
 The mainstreaming of Linux-based PCs has taken another major step forward. Sears, via its Web store, is now offering a low-priced minitower PC that comes with pre-installed Freespire 2.0 Linux.
Like many of the new wave of Linux-powered PCs, the Mirus Intel Celeron D 420 has a rock-bottom price for a reasonably powered desktop PC -- $199 after rebate.
The Mirus Innovations system, which comes with an Intel Celeron 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of memory, 80GB hard drive, a CD-RW drive, a memory card reader, a keyboard, a mouse and speakers, retails for $299, minus the $100 mail-in rebate. The system is also currently on sale for $284.99 for an additional savings of $15, so after the rebate, that would put you back $184.99.
Freespire 2.0, Linspire's community-based Linux, is built on top of Ubuntu 7.10. Unlike GNOME-based Ubuntu, though, Freespire uses a KDE interface.
This Linux also includes every legal proprietary codec and program it can possible include, such as Windows Media, MP3, Real and QuickTime codices, ATI, Nvidia, Wi-Fi and WinModem drivers, and one-click access to legally licensed DVD playback software, games, Sun Microsystems' StarOffice, Win4Lin, CodeWeavers' Crossover Office, TransGaming's Cedega, and dozens of other commercial products. It offers the greatest range of proprietary software of any Linux.
For better, if you're a pragmatist, or worse, if you're a free software idealist, Freespire is the best Linux around for working with proprietary hardware and software. Thus, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the Mirus system also includes an internal WinModem, which the company claims it can use. Based on my experiences with Freespire and WinModems on other systems, it's a safe assumption that it will work.
Larry Kettler, Linspire CEO and president, said in a statement, "Our system builders have been forging new ground in the low-end Linux PC market for over five years now. This latest system from Mirus Innovations is the most robust hardware and software configuration, and offers the best value for under $200 to date."
Linspire may have a point there. Everex's gPC TC2502 is the closest competitor to the Mirus Intel Celeron D 420. The gPC has a slightly slower processor, a 1.5GHz Via Technologies C7-D processor, versus the 1.6MHz Intel Celeron used in the Mirus model, and less memory, 512MB versus 1GB.
Freespire also has the advantage of using what seems to be living up to its promise of being the easiest way ever to install and update Linux software: the Web-based CNR (Click'N'Run) system. The CNR beta, which is currently available for Freespire 2.0, Linspire 6.0, and Ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10, lets users look through a wiki-style catalog of programs. Once a user finds an application he or she likes, all it takes is one click to download and install the program.
CNR is still a work in progress. Still, according to Linspire, more than 250,000 programs have been successfully downloaded and installed. "Early usage numbers clearly show CNR.com is solving a problem," Kettler said in a statement. "Finding, learning and one-click installing of software applications saves desktop Linux users time [and] money and eliminates a lot of frustration for the non-technical user."
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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