gNewSense Linux 2.2 Review

By Jim on June 1st, 2009

Linux has, in some ways, always been a bit politicized in the sense that there are true believers among Linux users and developers that all software should be truly free. When I say free, I mean free as in free to use and share with others without any restrictions on that usage or sharing. gNewSense Linux is a distribution that is strongly devoted to those ideals.

Based on Ubuntu (but without any of its non-free software), gNewSense Linux is geared toward those who want a truly free Linux distribution. Or as the developers say in their FAQ:

We started this project to provide an Ubuntu based free software distribution without non-free binary blobs in the kernel.

Neither Debian nor Ubuntu are fully free. Ubuntu installs non-free software by default. Debian provides non-free software through its repositories and includes non-free kernel drivers. We’re also the first distribution to remove GLX^, which Debian has ignored for years.

As you can tell from the quotes above the developers take free software quite seriously. But they aren’t without humor altogether as they explain later in the FAQ on why they chose the name “gNewSense”:

The name originated as Gnusiance as a reference to RMS’s GPG key, but was later changed to gNewSense by bbrazil and ompaul to also capture the New Sense of the distribution and as a pun on GNU.

So this tells you where the developers are coming from and what the real purpose is for gNewSense Linux. It’s all about creating a truly free Linux distribution.

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