In article <3043389.uOOYHXR5Wy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Roy Schestowitz quoted:
> All of the GNU/Linux distributions listed contained 100% free software. In
> today's computing environment, this is generally a novel concept. The
> majority of GNU/Linux distributions today do not contain all free software
> - there are sometimes restricted copyrights associated with the software,
> or the kernel is modified and contains proprietary components, etc. This
> is the case with distributions such as Ubuntu, SuSE, and Mepis, among most
> others.
Indeed, the only six distributions that consist entirely of free software in
the distribution itself and on the main distribution site, according to FSF,
are:
UTUTO-e
Dynebolic
BLAG
GNUstep
Musix GNU+Linux
AGNULA
Most of these I'd never heard of, and never seen mentioned here, so here is
a description of them:
AGNULA:
The AGNULA project is a volunteer based project aiming to spread Libre
Software in the professional audio and video arena.
AGNULA's main task is the development of a reference multimedia
distribution for the GNU/Linux operating system completely based on Free
Software as approved by the Free Software Foundation. It's called DeMuDi
and is based on Debian.
We also provide a music download database where our users can share
tunes that are released under a free content license. There are over
1000 tracks to download, and it's all free music! You are invited to
share the music, find new artists and help us maintain a collection of
royalty-free audio content. Please add your music if you are in the
position to publish it under a free license.
<http://www.agnula.org/>
GNUstep:
GNUstep (this is a Live CD, an OS, a distribution) contains a lot of
software for GNUstep, a free implementation of the OPENSTEP framework
(which was also the base as Cocoa in Mac OS X). It includes an excellent
application called Gorm for RAD (Apple Software Design Guidelines). More
about the Objective-C Language. The currently used window manager is
Window Maker.
...
The software on this CD as well as the whole content is Free Software.
This policy is firm and if you find anything on the CD that is non-free,
please contact me. I will then promptly remove it.
<http://www.linuks.mine.nu/gnustep/>
UTUTO-e:
UTUTO is a GNU/Linux distribution whose name remembers a small lizard or
Gecko from the north of Argentina
Its first version, massively distributed in October of year 2000 in
Argentina by Diego Saravia of the National University of Salta, was very
simple to use. It worked from CD-ROM with no need of installation. It
was one of the first "lives" of the planet. ISBN 987-9381-06-8.
<https://www.ututo.org/www/?country=ENGLISH>
Dynebolic:
You don't need to install anything, you don't even need an harddisk to
run a whole free software operating system running out of the box on
your PC! Download the ISO-image, burn your own CD, reboot your machine
and you'll get back true love ;^)
dyne:bolic is shaped on the needs of media activists, artists and
creatives as a practical tool for multimedia production: you can
manipulate and broadcast both sound and video with tools to record,
edit, encode and stream, having automatically recognized most device and
peripherals: audio, video, TV, network cards, firewire, usb and more;
all using only free software!
You can employ this operating system without the need to install
anything, and if you want to run it from harddisk you just need to
copy a directory: the easiest installation ever seen!
It is optimized to run on slower computers, turning them into a
full media stations: the minimum you need is a pentium1 or k5 PC
64Mb RAM and IDE CD-ROM, or a modded XBOX game console - and if you
have more than one, you can easily do clusters.
dyne:bolic is RASTA software released free under the GNU General
Public License.
This software is about Digital Resistance ina babylon world which
tries to control and market the way we communicate, we share our
interests and knowledge.
The roots of the Rastafari movement are in resistance to slavery:
this software is one step in the struggle for Redemption and
Freedom from proprietary and closed-source software.
<http://dynebolic.org/>
(In case you don't know what RASTA software is, here's an explanation:
This is Rasta software
Jah Rastafari Livity bless our Freedom! This is free software, you
should share it for the good of yourself and your people, respect
others and let them express, be free and let others be free. Live long
and prosper in Peace!
But remember there is no Peace without Justice. This software is about
Resistance ina babylon world which tries to control more and more the
way we communicate and we share informations and knowledge. This
software is for all those who cannot afford to have the latest
expensive hardware to speak out their words of consciousness and good
will. This software has a full range of applications for the production
and not only the fruition of information, it's a full multimedia studio
and has nothing to envy to other proprietary systems, because freedom
and share of knowledge are solid principles for evolution and that's
where this software comes from.
In the panorama of existing operating systems we see that there is a
great number of possibilities to listen: all kinds of "free to
download" players for audio and video, but no easy way for everybody to
speak out loud and spread their words. The way communication is
structured follows the hierarchy of powers allready established in
babylon's mediascapes and, worst than ever, money is the main
requirement for making a voice spread and possible to be heard by
others.
Neverthless, proprietary software spreads the dependence from business
companies thru the populace: whenever we share our knowledge on how to
use a certain software, we make the people in need to buy the tools
from merchants in order to express their creativity. This is great
responsability for anyone of us who teaches somebody how to do
something with software: the need to buy will be slavery under the
merchantile interests of capitalism.
The roots of Rasta culture can be found in Resistance to slavery. This
software is not a business. This software is free as of speech and is
one step in the struggle for Redemption and Freedom. This software is
dedicated to the memory of Patrice Lumumba, Marcus Garvey, Marthin
Luther King, Steve Biko, Walter Rodney, Malcom X, Mumia Abu Jamal, and
all those who still resist to slavery, racism and oppression, who still
fight imperialism and seek an alternative to the egemony of capitalism
in our World.
<http://rastasoft.org/resistance.txt>).
BLAG:
blag - le brixton linux action group
works to overthrow corporate control of information and technology
through community action and spreading Free Software.
blag - blag linux and gnu
blag is an operating system. blag has a suite of graphics, internet,
audio, video, office, and peer to peer file sharing applications. you
can replace a windoz installation with blag. if you would like to
install and run blag, download and burn it to cd.
<http://www.blagblagblag.org/>
Musix GNU+Linux:
It is a Free Operating system intended for musicians and users in
general. It also contains an enormous collection of free programs. The
system will boot from your CD/DVD drive, with no need to install
anything on your hard disk. The programs currently support the Spanish
and English languages.
<http://www.musix.org.ar/wiki/index.php/What_is_Musix>
Interesting that 3 of the 6 are aimed somewhat at music or audio.
--
--Tim Smith
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