TechieMoe.com

Introduction:

gNewSense came to me via a random suggestion on LinuxForums. These excite me because some of the most hilariously bad distributions I've ever tried have come to me this very same way. Looking at the rather sparse website for this distribution further fueled my excitement because it looks like essentially a reactionist derivative of Ubuntu that's sanctioned by the Free Software Foundation. These are likely the same people who have issues including "non-free" software packages in Debian and also likely the same people who worship Richard Stallman. Don't get me wrong, the FSF and RMS have created some great things, but their adherence to unrealistic ideals is just downright annoying to me. You might even say they're a "nuisance" (bad, bad joke, I know.)

To quote their site: "Note our goal is to produce a fully free distribution, not to have as many features as possible." (Emphasis mine.) I think this is a pretty good description of how the FSF and RM Stallman think: to HELL with features! We want freedom at all costs! It's worth noting that "freedom" means "what WE, the FSF, call freedom" and not the dictionary definition.

Their "feature list" is really a list of things they DON'T feature, such as the Ubuntu logos (understandably), some sort of unnamed firmware package (no idea), and everything from the "restricted" Ubuntu branch. They also list the fact that they've enabled "universe" by default. What that means in plain English is that they've taken Ubuntu and turned it into a very specialized version of Debian. Anyone else swimming in the pool of recursion? Ubuntu modifies Debian, these people modify Ubuntu and make it essentially back into Debian. Why not modify Debian and pull out the middle man? More on that later.

If it weren't obvious this was a distribution made by Stallmanites, the last bullet point on their "features" page is: "emacs, bsdgames, nethack and build-essential part of the default install." I have no problem with this, since all of the above are useful to me. I just find it humorous that they make it a key point in their distribution's feature list.

Install:

The LiveCD boot and install menus look a lot like Ubuntu, which is to be expected. The Ubuntu logos have been replaced with gNewSense logos. During the install I noticed something that I've also noticed in Ubuntu: the installer automatically installs dozens of language packs and then at the very end removes all the ones you didn't specify. It seems to me it would make more sense to simply install only the ones the user wanted rather than going with this approach.

Upon first boot I was greeted by a graphical login screen with a photograph of elephants against a snowy mountain backdrop. It was pleasant. What *wasn't* pleasant were the Breezy Badger-esque bongo sounds. I really hate those things.

My scanner was detected and XSane worked with it. There was no digital camera software available in the default install to test my camera. My USB thumb drive mounted and unmounted as expected.

MPG, WMV, and MP3 playback weren't available, which isn't exactly surprising. In a perfect world everything would come in OGG and faeries would dance with elves on the heads of pins and grant the whole world eternal life. Like it says in those Walgreens commercials: we live nowhere near perfect.

Software Selection:

Firefox was included, which came as a bit of a surprise to me considering the recent debacle about the "freedom" that some Debian developers wanted to modify the Firefox logos and artwork. OpenOffice, Gaim and Gimp were present in the default install. Synaptic and the Ubuntu "Add/Remove" program was available, and I nosed around the default repositories for a while. At a casual glance, the repositories seem to be regular Debian ones. The notable exceptions are the things that reside in the "non-free" and "restricted" sections, which include things like anything to do with Nvidia's kernel headers.

Since gNewSense is based on Ubuntu and doesn't really change the default install much, it suffers from the same problems for those of us who don't have access to broadband (or those who rely on programs like ndiswrapper to make our internet hardware work). The fact that gcc and make are installed by default is a nice touch. Unfortunately there was no Java VM (not even gcj).

Most Annoying Feature:

There's really nothing I can put here that I haven't already complained about with Ubuntu. It's not a very useful OS for offline folks. It is however a relatively lightweight way of installing Debian, provided you don't want anything from the "non-free" or "restricted" sections of the repository. This can be fixed with a little work though.

Who's it best for?

Let me be up-front and first say that my main objections to gNewSense have nothing to do with how well the distribution works (since it's essentially a clone of Ubuntu, and recent versions of Ubuntu work just fine for me). My main objections are in the philosophy behind *why* gNewSense was created in the first place.

Since the emphasis in this distribution is freedom (as defined by the FSF) rather than usefulness, it's obviously targeted at folks who hold the former more important than the latter. I could have sworn that was what Debian was supposed to be from the beginning, but apparently I was mistaken. Is there anything I find particularly offensive about it? Not really. The beauty of the GNU GPL license is that anyone can twiddle with anything released under it to fit any fringe market (such as this one). gNewSense is a relatively easy install of a completely "FSF approved" operating system. The Ubuntu codebase makes it pretty stable from the get-go.

That being said, I don't find anything particularly *useful* about this distribution either, so it's obviously not good for me. It's a stripped-down Ubuntu, and Ubuntu is stripped-down enough as it is. I rely on certain proprietary code for my living (such as Sun's Java VM) and my enjoyment (such as Nvidia's 3D drivers) as well as my gateway to the internet (such as Broadcom drivers). The Free Software Foundation would have me forsake my living, my pleasure, and my internet for the warm, fuzzy feeling of using all "free" software. I heartily disagree with this.

I read up a bit more on gNewSense and found out why they didn't want to use Debian. In an interview with Ars Technica, co-creator Brian Brazil said, "Debian unfortunately isn't free as it contains non-free firmware in the kernel and offers its users the optional non-free component[s]." For shame! How dare they offer users CHOICE! That's not FREE! For an organization that claims to be all about freedom, they seem to want an awful lot of control over what I put on my computer. No thanks, Comrade Brian. I'm moving along.