In the official 1.0 release of gNewSense, proprietary firmware and fonts have been removed, and access to the non-free Ubuntu repositories has been eliminated. The distribution also includes completely new artwork and includes developer-oriented packages like Emacs and the GCC compiler in the default installation. The developers have also elected to eschew integration with Launchpad, a proprietary development management tool used by Ubuntu.
Not everyone seems to have the enthusiasm that FSF shows, specially ubantu community. But I think it is a good move. Ubuntu is a good desktop distribution and I have not installed it, (I have downloaded it to check out the features and I liked them) because non free software integration. Same goes for Freespire/linspire or Lindows as it was known before the company caved up to Microsoft and changed the name to Linspire/Freespire. The problem is that they carry non free software. But these are done to make the lives of average Linux users. You can load these distributions on any pc or notebook without much hassle, less hassle than XP ;). Anyway I don't want this dirty patent filled software infecting Linux, providing the likes of M$, SCO to come charging when they feel challenged.
I admire the efforts of Ubuntu and Freespire communities and they do serve certain market segment.
But we do need organizations like FSF to keep checks and balances of OSS and provide products like gNewSense.
Now I have a ubuntu distribution that I like. gNewSense!
I got this news first at ARS Technica.
Links;
gNewSense
FSF
Ubuntu
ARS T
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