I wonder if any of the Disco players have been playing Entropy, a space MMO that's available on Steam Early Access now. It's not free, basic price is $20.
This thing looks kinda like Freelancer with similar camera setup, some controls and even some GUI elements, though it's very buggy on this stage and may disappoint beginning players since tutorials are not very straightforward (and buggy as well).
Strangely though, with all the new detailed graphics and cool technology behind it, it still doesn't really look more beautiful than Freelancer. But maybe that's just me.
In any case, I haven't seen many good space games lately and since I'm afraid to touch Eve that's the closest thing to Freelancer that I've seen in some time.