Freespire Linux screenshots

Looks positively XP-like doesnt it? Thats because its designed to look that way. The other changes–menu bar on the top, drive icons on the left, applications in rows, with utilties in column on the right with the trash icon in the lower right–are how

Still, some of Freespires icons, like the Gaim IM client will look very familar indeed to AOL Windows users.

But, of course, if youd rather just use the Linux command-line interface, a console is only a click away.

Some of the application names may be generic–Web browser, e-mail clinet–but underneath them youll find up-to-date open-source favorites Firefox and Thunderbird.

If you want to add new applications, CNR not only makes it mindlessly simple, it gives you detailed description with user reviews of programs.

One fly in the soup for business users is that while Freespire will let you attach Windows and Samba directories to your desktop, it wont let you browse the network, no matter whether its AD, NT4 domain, or Windows workgroup, in design.