PC/Opensystems Enterprise announced today the general availability of the Linspire 8.7 distribution, featuring the lightweight MATE desktop environment and an Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS base.

The Linspire 8.7 release comes four months after Linspire 8.5 and brings updated components from Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, such as the Linux 5.3 HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernel to support newer hardware components.

It features the MATE 1.20.1 desktop environment, which provides a lightweight, yet powerful interface designed to resemble the look and feel of the Windows 7 operating system, in an attempt to persuade more Windows users to switch to Linux.

“Linspire 8.7 uses the MATE desktop to offer a more traditional desktop experience for Windows 7 and Windows 10 users. Spartan but very full-featured, MATE offers a path forward for Windows 7 users whose systems may be unable to run Windows 10 effectively / efficiently,” said Roberto J. Dohnert.

Included in Linspire 8.7, there are a lot of popular apps, such as the Rhythmbox music player, VLC media player, OnlyOffice office suite, Google Chrome web browser, Skype VoIP and chat client, and even the Microsoft Powershell task automation and configuration management framework.

The distribution also comes preloaded with a full set of multimedia codecs, the Chrome web application framework for running Web Apps, remote administration capabilities, Samba file and printing sharing services, and the Ice SSB tool for adding and removing Chromium site-specific browsers.

A Software Center app is installed as well if you want to add more apps. For existing Linspire users, this release brings much-needed security patches and software updates that they can install using the built-in package management system.

The bigger brother of Freespire, Linspire is a consumer distribution designed to offer a complete and secure operating environment for everyone. However, Linspire costs money, so you’ll have to pay $29.99 USD for the Linspire Download Edition or $39.99 USD for Linspire Boxed Sets (live USB stick).

Last updated 7 months ago