[Kubuntu] About Kde Integration

[Christofer C. Bell]

On 2/25/07, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu> wrote:
> Christofer C. Bell wrote:
> > On 2/24/07, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu> wrote:
> >> I'm actually using gnewsense-kde (http://www.gnewsense.org/), which is
> >> Ubuntu without unfree software, for similar reasons.
> >
> > I never understood this distribution.  Don't you get the same thing by
> > removing linux-restricted-modules-*?
>
> No, the linux kernel itself has unfree software, and there's a bit of
> unfree software in the universe repository.  See
> http://www.gnewsense.org/Main/Features,
> http://www.gnewsense.org/Universe/Universe , and
> http://www.gnewsense.org/FAQ/FAQ .

All non-Free software in the kernel (which is included, if I recall
correctly, in the vanilla upstream kernel) is contained in
linux-restricted-modules-*, and in the Restricted repository (which
can be removed / disabled).   The gstreamer issue sounds like a bug to
me.  The removal of nvidia-xconfig is a nitpick -- the software itself
is Free.  Putting nethack and bsdgames in the default install is a
non-issue (and sounds like personal preference on the part of the
distribution maintainer).  The same goes for emacs in the default
installation.

Enabling Universe by default is another non-issue and again seems like
personal preference on the part of the maintainer, nothing to do with
"Free software-only."  Universe can't be enabled by default in Ubuntu
because it's not supported directly by Canonical.  Canonical would
like to advertise that "all the software in the default install and
repositories is supported by Canonical employees."  They can't say
that about Universe so it's disabled by default.

> It's more work than that.  They actually had to dig through the kernel
> sources (partially automatically) and decided to rebrand Firefox (to
> avoid Mozilla trademark rules).  Also, Ubuntu is trending towards *more*
> proprietary software by adding Click & Run (which distinguishes itself
> from other repositories mainly through distributing proprietary
> software) and in the future possibly more proprietary video drivers.

I still don't see how it's "more work than that," to be completely
honest.  The only *real* issue they seem to have with Ubuntu is
linux-restricted-modules and the Restricted repository which you're
free to disable yourself.  Re-branding Firefox to get around a request
from the Mozilla Project seems rather unethical to me.  I don't care
for Debian's stance, either.  "We'll take the rest of your work, but
thumb our noses at your very simple and reasonable request to protect
your trademark."

Speaking of Debian, would the maintainers of gNewSense refuse to use
Debian as well?  It does come with a non-free repository that the
installer offers to enable for you, a repository that contains
non-free software that is "officially" supported by the Debian
Project.

I remain unconvinced that gNewSense adds any real value worth the
effort of forking a distribution.  It looks to me like a "customized
Ubuntu" that reflects the maintainer's personal software preferences
and uses linux-restricted-modules (which is not "required" past
installation) as the justification to get others to use it.

At any rate, this discussion is tangential to the original poster's intent.

-- 
Chris

memes don't exist -- tell your friends