gNewSense is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu designed for users who wish to only use free software. It is officially supported and recommended by the Free Software Foundation,[1] and uses that organisation's term GNU/Linux to describe its inclusion of software from the GNU project. It is the distribution Richard Stallman currently uses.[2] Version 1.1 was released on 22 January2007.
Differences between gNewSense and Ubuntu
Though based on Ubuntu, it has significant differences:
Non-free software in the form of device firmware removed from the Linux kernel. This was thought by some developers to create legal problems for the development of wireless LANdevice drivers in the United States, since U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibit user-configuration of software radios to operate outside the approved power levels and frequency channels[3]. This appeared to create legal problems for certification of free software drivers in the United States[4]. gNewSense therefore currently supports fewer types of wireless device than Ubuntu[5]. However, the legal position has since been clarified by the FCC in subsequent responses to petitions from vendors, and the US Software Freedom Law Center has stated that the FCC rules now allow development of free and open-source wireless drivers [6], though more free software drivers may become available now that legal uncertainties in the US appear to have been resolved.
Non-free software repositories are not made available by the gNewSense project - such as Ubuntu's "restricted" and "multiverse" repositories, which contain some non-free software
Non-free documentation and artwork have been removed
The "Universe" package repository is enabled by default
Mozilla Firefox is rebranded as BurningDog, to avoid certain trademark issues that stem from modification of the software to remove functionality suggesting non-free plugins.[7] A similar situation motivated the rebranding of Firefox as IceCat and Iceweasel, in the Gnuzilla and Debian projects respectively.
Build-essential (software development tools such as gcc, make etc.) are installed by default
As of January 2007, the latest release of gNewSense (deltad 1.1) is based on the Dapper/6.06 LTS release of Ubuntu, and available only for the x86 architecture.[8]
