More or less a week ago has been released the Version 5.5 of this interesting distribution, for the uninitiated, the principle upon which Trisquel is born is to use 100% free software.
Trisquel 5.5 (codename: Brigantia) is based on Ubuntu 11.10, while the next release will use Ubuntu 12.04.
In Trisquel every software is checked in every component and is discarded (or modified) if don’t use a 100% compatible license, for example the kernel used in this distribution is the one released by the Linux-libre project.
Linux-libre is a project that releases and maintains modified versions of the Linux kernel. Their kernel version removes any software that does not include its source code, has its source code obfuscated or released under proprietary licenses. The parts that have no source code are called binary blobs and are generally proprietary firmware which, while generally redistributable, generally do not give the user the freedom to modify or study them.
Trisquel 5.5 STS is the first version based on GNOME 3/GTK 3 and also Linux-libre 3.0.0 kernel. The biggest problem for the team has been the implementation of the GNOME 3 desktop environment, especially because of GNOME Shell, which requires 3D acceleration, while not introducing in the kernel many binary modules for video-cards, a good news for Nvidia user is that the 3D is now full supported thanks to the Nouveau modules.
This release features, among many others:
- Linux-libre 3.0.0
- GNOME 3.2
- Abrowser 11 (Aka Firefox)
- LibreOffice 3.4.4
- Gimp
- Exaile
This distribution has always attracted me for its radical choice, but so far I have not had the courage to install it, who knows maybe in the future I’ll move to the side of the softwar totally free, but i think that it should be tested just to realize how many modules/software non-free all other distributions use.
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It’s quite interesting: to release Ubuntu-based spin for 11.10 just few days before 12.04 LTS is due.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in review of Trisquel 5.0 Dagda, the previous version, it is available too.
Thereis nothing radical about a 100% free GNU system, is common sense. The normal thing. The system was designed with that objective.
Nonsense and radical is to take a GNU system and loading it with privative software, like other lame distros do.
Don’t be afraid, use a true free distro. And if you happen to depend on a non free driver or other private garbage,
you can install them easily, just that you’ll know exactly what privative software you have installed. You won’t suffer the
problem of inadvertently installing privative crap.