>> VectorLinux vs Freespire Linux >>
I'm not fond of arguments over what's the "best" distro or even what's the best operating system. These tend to be religious wars. Given that Linux users have such different hardware, different ideas of what they want their computers to do, different levels of geekiness, different preferences with regard to desktop environments and window managers, different willingness to spend money, and different attitudes about ideological purity, how could there possibly be a "best" distro?
It doesn't seem to me that a contest between VectorLinux Standard and Freespire makes a lot of sense. I acknowledge that I haven't tried Freespire, but I'm familiar with Lindows/Linspire and as far as I know, Freespire continues the tradition. VL Standard (and SOHO, too) has a very different philosophy behind the distro. VL aims for speed, stability, flexibility, and a solid foundation on which to build. Ease of use is important but doesn't override the other goals. Freespire aims for ease of use above all else--Freespire believes Linux should be at least as easy to use as Windows. Freespire is designed to shield users from the inner workings of Linux. A goal is that a user will never need to use a command line. I doubt any VectorLinux user could avoid the command line for long--and I think VL users like it that way.
I don't like contests and shootouts, but I do like straightforward comparisons. What is the installation like? What are possible pros and cons of each type? What are desktop choices? What programs are installed? How does a user install additional software? What basic hardware is needed for good performance? And so forth.
I'm not sure comparisons like this are all that useful to the first-time Linux user, though. I think you need to install a distro and use it for a while to get some sense of what running Linux is like. Are there things you don't like about it? Then look for a distro that does things differently. That's the real difference between Linux and the other major operating systems. Linux gives us abundant choices.
--GrannyGeek