There Will be a Free Flavour of the Next Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon

Submitted by dylunio on Fri, 2007-04-13 18:37. Tags:

The next version of the Ubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux has been announced. In the announcement Mark Shuttleworth states:

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...because Ubuntu 7.10 will feature a new flavour - as yet unnamed - which
takes an ultra-orthodox view of licensing: no firmware, drivers,
imagery, sounds, applications, or other content which do not include
full source materials and come with full rights of modification,
remixing and redistribution. There should be no more conservative home,
for those who demand a super-strict interpretation of the "free" in free
software. This work will be done in collaboration with the folks behind
Gnewsense

This is a positive move towards freedom, though the 'normal' release of Ubuntu with all the proprietary parts will still exist.

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Submitted by libervisco on Fri, 2007-04-13 22:15.

That's great news, although

That's great news, although Mark sounded slightly sarcastic there talking about "super-strict interpretation of the "free"". On the gNewSense mailing list people seem to welcome this, but have some reservations because this, let's call it "GNUbuntu" project, might not be led fully with freedom as the paramount goal, but rather merely offering a "token" free distro for this "ultra-orthodox" crowd. Some say that it might lead to even further proprietarization of main Ubuntu, because everyone who'd be bothered by nonfree software in main Ubuntu would now be basically diverted to this new Ubuntu flavor.

Well those are roughly some thoughts that are flying in the gNewSense mailing list, but overall the news is good. Maybe it gets more attention of the overall Ubuntu crowd to the benefits of a fully Free Software distro, which are not only ideological, but very pragmatic (thanks dylunio for that link).

Thanks

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Submitted by democrates on Sat, 2007-04-14 16:20.

I'm not surprised if he

I'm not surprised if he appears to distance himself from those who don't want to compromise, considering the social circle a gozillionaire moves in and the corporates he's trying to convince to run a compromised Ubuntu that 'just works'. Labeling others as hardliners is the easy way to classify yourself as a 'reasonable moderate', someone your audience can do business with.

I wouldn't take this PR style personally, as he steps up the land-grab for free software we'll have an easier time getting the freedom message to people who have then experienced the benefits of some free software and have found themselves explaining to others how well they're doing without wall to wall non-free.

I've seen over the last year a much greater receptiveness to 'open source' among end users, they're aware there's a colossal buzz and are curious. 10,000 people for 5 years to deliver Vista and what are the differences v xp? In light of the emi/apple deal the extra drm looks even worse, while the same old security flaws are coming up. Wow! = Windows Ow!

Aero? Old hat for compiz/beryl users. Vista is longhorn lite, users will have to wait until who knows when and fork out again for fiji to get some of what was promised, then some years later vienna will break compatibility with previous windows applications offering users yet more expense and insecurity.

Contrast all that with free software release schedules, ten times the programming energy going round the clock worldwide. It's now trivial to point out that it is free software in the fast lane, and accelerating. No wonder Bill is abandoning ship to do something he can genuinely believe in. keep up the good work guys, we're winning.

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