Gnubuntu
Mark Shuttleworth mentioned a few days ago on the Ubuntu mailing list that the Ubuntu folks were interested in developing a version of Ubuntu that contains only software deemed by the Free Software Foundation to be “free.” Shuttleworth mentions that they might collaborate with Ututo, an Argentinian Linux distribution that includes only free software (English description of project).
I was curious about how much non-free software was included in Ubuntu, so I installed the virtual Richard M. Stallman, or vrms (which sounds like a joke, but is not):
sudo apt-get install vrms
vrms took the liberty of not only installing, but also adding itself as a monthly cron job– reminds me of the real RMS: irritating but right.
It turns out that my Ubuntu server is pure– free software only– but my desktop machine has the Sun JDK, Opera, RAR, and XMame. The first three I don’t actually use, but with regards to XMame, I will confess that I like Zaxxon. In my defense, by the time I was old enough to have quarters, Zaxxon had been replaced by NBA Jams, or some other irritating business.
I suspect that vrms is not as particular as the real RMS, as I have installed the w32 codecs and the gstreamer mp3 decoder on my desktop machine. I *thought* those are both non-free. Maybe the iPodLinux people will get ogg working on generation 4 ipods soon. It’s believed to be possible, as the gen 4 has the faster PortalPlayer 5020 processor.