Linux.com

What would Jesus download? Maybe Ubuntu CE

Hancock, a 29-year-old bus driver with a B.S. in business administration, says he came up with the idea for Ubuntu CE earlier this year. "I wanted to see a full Christian Linux distro, and the only ones that I could find had pretty much stalled in their development. So I decided to create my own." Hancock used the Ubuntu Customization Kit. "The process of creating the ISO is fairly simple, and is based directly on Ubuntu," he says.

Ubuntu CE is just like "regular" Ubuntu, except that it has a custom splash screen and includes software that Hancock believes Christians would want to use, such as DansGuardian for Web filtering, GnomeSword for Bible study, and a script that provides a daily Bible verse. The latest CE release also comes with Automatix and GnuCash, for more secular pursuits.

"I know that this could all be accomplished with a meta-package or a bash script," Hancock says. "In fact, with each release there is an accompanying 'convert_me' script that will customize a default Ubuntu install to Ubuntu CE." But, Hancock says, an ISO targets new Linux users "who may never have heard of Ubuntu and would not know where to start with a bash script. I also wanted users to be able to burn the ISO to a CD and hand them out to their family and friends."

The custom distro is just the latest in a series of steps Hancock has taken with Linux. A college friend first Hancock to Linux, but he was "not that impressed," he says. Years later, an acquaintance handed him a copy of Ubuntu Warty Warthog, and he "was immediately hooked. I switched briefly to MEPIS because I was unable to get Win4Lin to run in Ubuntu. I liked MEPIS, but I kept getting pulled back to Ubuntu." Hancock still uses Windows to test his Web site in Internet Explorer and the Windows version of Firefox, but says he uses Ubuntu for "99.9%" of his computing time."

Hancock says the purpose of his portal site, where visitors can download Ubuntu CE, check the weather, and post in a prayer forum, is not to talk people into becoming Christians. "WhatWouldJesusDownload.com is a family site. I have tried hard to not include elements on my sites that could be perceived as pushy. For instance, I do not put links to pages that tell you 'how to get saved.'"

Rather, the site reflects his personal philosophy. "We should all consider what we download or view on the Web. So, we can first ask, 'what would Jesus download' before we proceed."

Hancock says he's experienced some resistance from some in the open source community who don't agree with his mission. "I have been disappointed in some of the reactions to the project," he says. "I expected to get some bashing, but I had really hoped the open source community would not be so closed-minded." Still, he says he's received a fair amount of support from unexpected sources. "I have received emails from quite a few self-proclaimed atheists letting me know that they support the project ... because they believe in the philosophy of open source software."