Re: [gNewSense-users] gNS accepted licenses

[Kevin Dean]

> I must agree that gNewSense is one of the very few GNU/Linux
> distributions that actively enforce the state of the freedom of
> software. However, I would like to see the practical side of the
> situation, which is also the same situation that led RMS to come up
> with freedom #3 (that is, there are just too much software in the
> world).

I'm not sure that was the motivation. In fact, freedoms 1 and 3 both
make specific note to "access to the source". I don't think that "too
much software" was ever an issue... In fact, the problem of the time
was that too LITTLE software was free software.

For practicality, however, it is much better to share code than redo work.

> Thus, I would like to ask if the gNewSense project is going to
> actively verify the free-ness of each and every piece of software even
> though they are already GPL-ed?

As of this moment, the project is too small to hand pick EVERY
possible line of code from non-free content. gNewSense uses Builder,
however, which will allow anyone to automate the removal of binary
blobs; anything it misses is due to lack of resources.

Several packages HAVE been audited... BurningDog, tons of firmware,
the kernel Linux itself, X...

On a side note... This is where Canonical has a HUGE opportunity to
help the project and contribute to Free Software. The Ubuntu team has
a lot of resources, and with the release of Glossy GNU, they may
provide tools and patches that will integrate itself into gNewSense,
and GNU/Linux as a whole.

> Regards
> Koh Choon Lin