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Pre-install gNewSense on laptops and desktops

Software, Desktops and Laptops submitted by libervisco 02/21/07

gNewSense, from http://gnewsense.org/ , is a pure 100% Free Software Ubuntu based GNU/Linux distribution sponsored by the Free Software Foundation, an organization which started the Free Software movement from which the latter Open Source Initiative sprung up. It is the organization behind the GNU General Public License.

gNewSense is special in that it does not contain any code under proprietary licenses at all, and is yet quite usable even for the average user. This means that it is easy to guarantee that all software within gNewSense is completely legally distributable.

The idea is to offer a line of laptops and desktop PCs whose hardware perfectly fits what this GNU/Linux distribution supports (and it doesn't support only a few hardware devices, notably some wifi chips and some Nvidia and ATI cards). It should be quite possible to build a system that doesn't contain any such unsupported parts.

The benefits of doing this is offering a choice for those who wish to have a completely legally free operating system working out of the box on Dell computers. There is a great number of people within the Free Software community who would appreciate having such a choice and would buy it for themselves and recommend it to their relatives and friends.

It would also certainly attract attention of the Free Software Foundation which would publicly commend Dell for offering this choice, which is very good for bettering Dell's reputation within the whole of Free Software and Open Source movements.

If Dell decides to do this, they should brand these boxes by the correct terminology, calling the operating system they are offering as "GNU/Linux" because the GNU Project, sponsored by the Free Software Foundation, started what we today know as GNU/Linux, a popular free operating system that rivals Microsoft Windows. Many of the core and essential components of the OS come from the GNU project. 23 Comments »



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