Distributions

Free Software Foundation approved distributions

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) recently announced an update to their list of free Linux distributions, as defined by the GNU Guidelines for Free System Distributions.

According to the guidelines all "software, documentation, fonts, and other useful works" must be licensed under one of these free licenses. Trademarks must be packaged separately so that they are easy to remove by anyone wishing to create a derivative distribution. Red Hat and the Fedora project are good examples of conforming to the trademark requirements. Potentially patented software is allowed, however.

Everything in a distribution's repositories must conform to the guidelines. Separating some works into a non-free repository, as Debian does, is not sufficient. So far, Fedora conforms to these guidelines, but it fails to make the list by its inclusion of non-free firmware.

Unfortunately this last requirement makes these free distributions unusable by many users. The standard Linux kernel contains many of these blobs in order to function on some common hardware. Users that install one of these totally free distributions may find that their graphics card no longer works, or their wireless internet connection fails, or some other part of their system becomes totally unusable. Building a usable and completely free system is still a pipe dream for many users.

Some users will find that their hardware and software needs are met by these criteria. For those interested in building blob free kernels, Brian Brazil, Jeff Moe, and Alexandre Oliva have developed a series of scripts to remove blobs from a vanilla kernel.

For those users we will take a look at the current list of free distributions. These distributions are all actively maintained, another requirement stated in the guidelines. You'll find them all on the LWN Distribution list, along with many other (less free) distributions.

We will begin with the FSF's own proof of concept project, gNewSense. gNewSense is based on Debian and Ubuntu. As required all trademarks have been stripped away, blobs have been removed from the kernel and the project does not host any non-free repositories. gNewSense 2.3 is the latest, recently released, version.

No less than three distributions hail from Argentina. Ututo is a Gentoo-based distribution, one of the first to be recognized by the FSF. The website is in Spanish. This project aims to reduce the digital divide in developing countries. UTUTO XS 2009 was released in March of 2009. Dragora is another Argentinian project, developed by Matías A. Fonzo. It is designed to be a simple, yet stable and powerful, multipurpose system. Version 1.0 was also released in March of 2009. Musix GNU/Linux is the third Argentinian distribution. It is based on Debian/Knoppix and supports several languages, including Spanish, English, Italian, Russian and many more. The live DVD contains support for about 65 languages. Musix is aimed at multimedia production, with tools for music production, graphic design, audio and video editing, and more.

dynebolic is developed by media activists, artists and other creative people. It is aimed at multimedia production. With dynebolic "you can manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, firewire, usb and more; all using only free software!"

Next is BLAG Linux and GNU. BLAG stands for brixton linux action group. It is Fedora-based and the first to use the Linux-libre blob free kernel. BLAG includes software for graphics, internet, audio, video, office, and peer-to-peer file-sharing applications. There are different flavors of BLAG, including a GNOME desktop, a server and "miniblag", which installs in about 350M.

Trisquel hails from the Galicia region of Spain, originally sponsored by the University of Vigo. It is Ubuntu based and supports several languages including Spanish, Galego, and English. Trisquel GNU/Linux 3.0 release, codenamed Dwyn, was recently released.

VENENUX targets people in the Spanish-speaking Americas. VENENUX is not an acronym and it is not from any particular country, but is developed and supported by volunteers from many Hispanic countries. VENENUX features the KDE desktop.

Last on the FSF list is Kongoni, a system from Africa. Kongoni is the Shona word for a Gnu (also known as a Wildebeest). It is Slackware based, with inspiration from BSD-Unix. Kongoni features some unique tools, such as P.I.G (Ports Installation GUI) and K.I.S.S. (the Kongoni Instant Setup System). Kongoni version 1.12.2 (based on Slackware 12.2) was released in July 2009.

That concludes the FSF list of free distributions. They are all GNU/Linux distributions, that is they combine the Linux kernel with GNU software. They should all run on lower end or older hardware, particularly those with Intel chipsets. There is potentially patent encumbered software included in some, particularly the multimedia distributions such as dynebolic and Musix. There is, of course, no guarantee that any of these distributions will work for you, but if you are serious about running FSF-approved free software, these distributions are for you.

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ClearOS (formerly ClarkConnect) 5.1 announced

The upcoming ClearOS 5.1 release has been announced, marking a number of changes in the distribution once known as ClarkConnect. "ClearOS has been made open and free by ClearFoundation, including software such as MultiWAN which allows multiple, balanced Internet connections. Other limitations and commercial restrictions on the ClearOS platform have also been removed for this version, and all subsequent versions."

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gNewSense 2.3 released.

The gNewSense project has announced version 2.3 of its FSF Free GNU/Linux distribution. "This release contains all security updates made up to 2009-09-11. As with other 2.x releases, this gNewSense release is available as a live cd for x86 (i386) systems, using GNOME as the default desktop environment (others such as XFCE or KDE are available post installation)."

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openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 7 Released

The openSUSE Project has announced that openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 7 is available for download and testing. "This release includes GNOME 2.28 beta 2, KDE 4.3.1, RPM 4.7.1, and much more."

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Announcing Fedora 12 Snapshot 2

Fedora 12 Snapshot 2 is available for testing. These snapshots consist of live images only, composed September 11, 2009 and made available September 14, 2009. Click below for download information.

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debmirror - new features

debmirror is a native package that is intended to be used for creating (partial) local mirrors. Version 2.2 is available.

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Help with Fedora Research

Duke University's MBA Program is conducting research on the Fedora community. They are looking for people willing to participate in an email interview or a phone interview with Duke professors. "We're looking for folks who don't work for Red Hat, and folks who do. We're looking for folks who are highly technical, and folks who aren't. We're looking for folks who contribute lots, or only a little bit."

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FUDCon Toronto 2009 update

Click below for an update on FUDCon Toronto 2009. "We are holding FUDCon from Saturday through Monday, December 5-7. The first day, Saturday, will be the day of technical sessions. The second and third days will be hackfest days where people can gather to work on some of the projects they've seen on Saturday, or anything near and dear to their heart."

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openSUSE Core Test Team Established

The openSUSE Core Test Team has been established to better organize the testing of upcoming openSUSE releases. "With the release of Milestone 7 of openSUSE 11.2 - the team is formed and already started his work to ensure that openSUSE will also be a rock-solid Linux distro in the future. First discussion about prioritizing tasks is already started and members of the team are planing their first real time meeting on IRC." Click below to see how non-team-members can participate.

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Upcoming openSUSE Board Elections

Bryen Yunashko takes a look at the upcoming openSUSE board elections. "As agreed upon, prior to last year's elections, the highest vote-getters in both Novell and non-Novell positions would assume a two-year term, and the second vote-getters would get a one-year term. This was a one-time arrangement, with the intention of ensuring there would be an election every year for half the electable board positions. As such, we will be holding elections again this year. All winners this year and subsequent elections will have a two-year term."

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Minutes from Technical Board meeting

Click below for the minutes of the September 8, 2009 meeting of the Ubuntu Technical Board. Topics include Debian technical committee participation in techboard, Java SRU policy, Removal of sun-java6 from Karmic, Developer Membership Board, and Archive reorganization.

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FSF updates its "fully free" distribution list

The Free Software Foundation has announced an update to its free distribution list. The latest addition is Kongoni. "Kongoni, named after the Shona word for 'gnu,' is based in Africa. For optimal performance with minimal bandwidth requirements, it uses a packaging system called 'ports' that downloads programs as source and builds them automatically."

[Editor's note] This original LWN article is included in the weekly edition because of the many comments attached to it.

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Foresight FOCUS log and draft minutes

Click below for the minutes of the September 4, 2009 meeting of the Foresight Council. Topics include 'Boots, a Fedora Remix', the 2.1.2 ISO release, and more.

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moonOS

moonOS is a complete and fully functional operating system based Ubuntu, with LXDE and Enlightenment DR17. moonOS was started and designed by the Cambodian artist Chanrithy Thim (12rithy), and aims to work for any Desktop, Laptop PC or even for a Virtual Machine. Ubuntu 9.10 based moonOS 3 "Makara" has been released.

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Trisquel GNU/Linux

Trisquel GNU/Linux is a Ubuntu based, free as in freedom GNU/Linux operating system. The main goal of the project is the production of a fully free as in speech system that is easy to use, complete, and with good language support. The project was started in 2004 with the sponsorship of the University of Vigo in Galicia, Spain. The first release was in April 2005. The project hosts its own repositories which are derivatives of Ubuntu's main and universe components, but with all proprietary software removed. The differences include the removal of all non-free packages, the substitution of the original Linux kernel with the blob-free linux-libre version, and the addition of several packages. Trisquel 3.0 has been released.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 320

The DistroWatch Weekly for September 14, 2009 is out. "With so many great distributions available today, how do you go about choosing one for your brand-new, state-of-the-art desktop computer? In the second part of his "distro odyssey", Michael Raugh delves into Arch Linux, a rolling-release distribution that is always up-to-date, even though it takes some work to install and set it up. But how did it fare in the test? Read on to find out. In the news section, Oracle hints at new investment into the recently acquired Solaris operating system, Phoronix takes an early look at OpenSolaris 2010.2, openSUSE releases a new set of 11.1 installation images with the latest KDE desktop, and Softpedia presents information about one Ubuntu issue that everybody seems to have an opinion about - the distribution's default artwork. Also in the news, Free Software Foundation expands its list of free distribution, while Debian developer Meike Reichle urges girls and women to join the development teams of free software projects. All this and more in this issue of DistroWatch Weekly - happy reading!"

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Fedora Weekly News 193

The Fedora Weekly News for September 13, 2009 is out. "In announcements, an invitation to the Fedora community to participate in research at Duke University on open source communities and an update on this December's FUDCon Toronto. A variety of recent postings from Fedora contributors follows in the Planet Fedora section. In marketing news, a call for Fedora 12 slogan ideas, update on weekly meetings and Zikula/Fedora Insight developments, and coverage of recent discussion aimed at getting Fedora into news channels to a greater extent. This week's QA news includes detail of the most recent Test Day activities around graphics card support, and coverage of this week's meetings. In translation news, more updates on Fedora 12 translation activities, and new Localization Project members from Spain. In Art news, a refresh of Fedora 12 wallpapers. This week's issue rounds out with Fedora Virtualization updates, including details on Fedora virt status and F12 virtualization release notes. Please enjoy FWN 193!"

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Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #159

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for September 12, 2009 is out. "In this issue we cover: Karmic Alpha 6 freeze ahead, UI freeze in place for Karmic, Ubuntu One has moved, New Ubuntu Developers, New Ubuntu Members, Ubuntu Stats, US LoCo Wiki Doc Day 2009, Ubuntu Pennsylvania, Launchpad meet-up: Sept. 28th in London, Meet Deryck Hodge, Ubuntu Forums Unanswered Post Team Meeting, An interview with Nathan Handler, Screencasting using Ubuntu: Part 1, Jono turning ?? - Wishlist predictable, Jolicloud innovates Atop Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and much, much more!"

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