I recently bought a copy of the latest version of Freespire. I had trouble and needed help to dual boot with Windows XP. So I tried to join the Freespire home forum, only to be unable do anything except view a few posts and one of them said that Freespire is DEAD, and there would be no more updates. It was suggested in one of the posts that the distro PC/OS would be good for a newbie. First, does anyone know is Freespire dead? Secondly, is the PC/OS based on Debian, Xubuntu a good starting point for a newbie? I want to get out of Microsoft's grip so bad. I'm tired of being told what to do with the software that I paid so much for. I can't even move the copy from one laptop to the other without paying for a key! If anyone has any other suggestions for a newbie, please tell me. I tried to learn Ubuntu 9.04, but it was so very confusing. Thank you all for you time and one by one we will first move ahead of Apple, then Microshaft!

You might try PcLinuxOs as an alternative. The download starts out as a live cd, you can run it without installing. Once you have decided that it works for you a button is clicked and a full installation takes place. You can get it here http://www.pclinuxos.com/

PClinuxOS (as mentioned) is a pretty good distro for someone starting out in linux. Also,..."Linux Mint" is excellent as well.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/

they have a very helpful bunch of folks over at their forum (as does PClinuxOS over on their forum). Both of those linux distros have most all of the multimedia codecs already set up to go (as well as Adobe Flash).

Thank you both very much! I have downloaded PCLinuxOS and ran the live cd and I really like what I see. I think I have found a home with this one. I also have already joined their forum and I received several very warm welcomes already! For the time being, I'm going to be dual booting, but later will probably do a full install. Thanks again!

I tried PCLinux with all my heart into it, but just couldn't get Cricket Wireless broadband to work. However, the distro is excellent and their forum is among the best I've ever been a part of. Several members spent hours of their time with me to resolve my problem, but to no avail. I'll always be thankful to their community. Anyway, I tried Linux Mint Gloria on live CD and my wireless came on without a full install! So for a couple of days, I dualbooted between XP Pro and Linux Mint. I was so impressed that I put the CD back in and used my entire disc for Linux Mint. It runs great and finally after all this time, I now have a resting place in the Linux world. Thank you all for your support and efforts to help me.

Sorry about your problems with PClinuxOS,..
it's really a great distro,..but not all linux distros work with all hardware.
Glad you can use Linux Mint (Gloria)...I enjoy using that, myself,.. Linux Mint
has a terrific help forum (but you found out about that, already)...
Welcome to linux,...enjoy!