Damian Wardingley wrote:
Hi there!
Howdy ;-)
How free is my installation? I have been told that Ubuntu installs
non-free drivers without telling me, but how do I find out which ones?
Oh, probably about 99% Free. Ubuntu automatically installs a couple
binary-only kernel modules, so the kernel is tainted from the start. On
top of that, drivers for things like wireless cards that have no Free
driver (for example, MadWifi is a nonfree example due to its binary-only
HAL) are also installed, even if you don't need them for your specific
configuration.
The easiest way to check in an automated fashion is to use VRMS ("sudo
apt-get install vrms") and it will give you a list of packages it
believe to be nonfree... you can ignore the "Gentium" listing, however,
as the license has changed and is now considered Free as in Freedom. It
probably won't list everything, though, so short of going through every
single package and reading the license you'll just be guessing.
Even knowing what parts are nonfree, however, you really can't just pull
them out (mostly due to the kernel being compiled with nonfree parts)
and that's a major reason, to my knowledge, for the existence of
gNewSense. I'm sure you could get a very detailed listing of what the
nonfree parts are by skimming over the Builder source (in the gNewSense
svn repository). Sorry this is not more detailed, but I haven't looked
over the source itself. From what I know, however, most of the
differences between gNewSense and Ubuntu are in not including anything
nonfree in the kernel, and the removal of the "Restricted" and
"Multiverse" repositories. Oh, and rebranding of course. Hopefully this
answer is helpful.
I appreciate this isn't strictly a GNewsense question, but you guys
would be the ones to ask!
Cheers, and thanks in anticipation,
Damian
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iD8DBQFFec7GfQfOxlaoXR0RAlTBAKCKmg9wej0PsIwhm8R77mCpbmnIiACeLw2n
29DjtSNfkJ+iXeChmhzX1YE=
=rRJI
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________________
gNewSense-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
_______________________________________________
gNewSense-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
