GNewSense, the Present and the Future

You would think that a GNU/Linux distribution dedicated to shipping only free software would be uncontroversial. After all, isn’t free software what GNU/Linux is all about? Yet, when the latest version of GNewSense was announced recently, Slashdot readers were divided in their reactions.

Some thought the distribution would have too limited appeal, and argued that what was needed was a distribution so popular that hardware and software vendors would have to support it. Others suggested that GNewSense had two uses: As an indicator of what the free software community has done so far, and as a summary of what still needs to be done before the goal of a completely free operating system is realized.

GNewSense began at a conference in Tunis in 2005 when Paul O’Malley heard Mark Shuttleworth and Richard Stallman talking about the possibility of a politically free version of Ubuntu, whose various incarnations include proprietary wireless drivers and access to non-free video drivers. O’Malley raised the idea on chat channels, and the project began in June 2006 when Brian Brazil joined the project.

Read more at Detamation