I have had the opp to test / play with a Freeride. Personally I would not buy one. I would not want somebody searching for me with the Freeride. It updates very slowly, making recovery very tough and slow (not a good thing in a high stress, time critical thing like an avy).
With the above being said, the Freeride is good for something. If you need to outfit children with a low cost beacon, this is a good unit for that. When I say children, I mean young children that prob aren't going to be of much use in a rescue scenario.
The Freeride is better than nothing, but I would save up a few more dollars and get a Tracker DTS, or even a couple more dollars and wait for the Tracker 2 (hopefully this will be out in a week or two at this point).
This is just my opinion.