Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux helpSpecial Offers
Feature: Distributions
Gobuntu to become installation option in Ubuntu
Share
Print
CommentsAccording to the Ubuntu development team and Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu derivative Gobuntu has been sucking up too many resources and will therefore be dropped in favour of an installation option in Ubuntu that installs only free software.
Almost a year ago the Ubuntu developers founded Gobuntu in order to offer a version of Ubuntu that did not include any proprietary components. Gobuntu was supposed to be a distro that stringently followed the guidelines of the Free Software Foundation. Free software licenses allow users to study the source code and modify the software to their liking without any limitations. Many people refuse to run proprietary software because they do not want to be limited by a license in what they can do with their computers.
In the default configuration Ubuntu includes few components that can be characterized as non-free, such as a few binary-only firmware components and drivers, and Gobuntu does away with these. Ubuntu lacked enough resources to maintain Gobuntu, but the project will not be abandoned entirely.
Bacon emphasized that the Ubuntu Project will continue to support a distro that is made entirely of free software. The upcoming version of Ubuntu, scheduled to be released in late October and codenamed Intrepid Ibex, will carry an installation option that installs only free software. Updates of all Gobuntu components will be merged into the mainline branch.
Nikolai Sivertsen is an avid Linux user who enjoys fiddling around with his OS.
Comments
on Gobuntu to become installation option in UbuntuNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
Gobuntu to become installation option in Ubuntu
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 24.192.233.133] on June 17, 2008 08:02 PMGobuntu to become installation option in Ubuntu
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 69.76.161.36] on June 17, 2008 09:19 PMNot even the most stringent FSF adherent would claim that.
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 72.150.2.93] on June 17, 2008 11:18 PMLess facetiously, any one who objects to non-free bits residing in the same installer ISO would object to them being any official Ubuntu distribution at all. It is like that in Debian - the main Debian archive is free software by any reasonable definition, but Debian also provides non-free packages (really "almost free" would be a more appropriate term). RMS objects to Debian because it manages the non-free archive on its servers, not because of any quibbles with the contents of the main (Free) archive.
Gobuntu to become installation option in Ubuntu
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 82.69.130.94] on June 17, 2008 11:16 PMgNewSense on the other hand is an excellent, FSF-approved Ubuntu derivative developed by people who care about free software, rather than tacked on as a marketshare-grabbing afterthought by a company which just doesn't get it.
Gobuntu to become installation option in Ubuntu
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 78.32.109.170] on June 17, 2008 08:01 PMThey probably should/could include the other derivatives (Kubuntu, Xubuntu and possibly Edubuntu) as options too in a DVD version.
#