The appearance in the past year of so-called "completely libre" distributions such as gNewSense and Gobuntu, especially against the backdrop of existing distributions, like BLAG, Dyne:bolic, Ututo and others, might seem to point to an increased interest in software freedom. Should we be looking for the "rise of the completely libre distros", or is there something more subtle that we should notice?

I don't know about you, but the announcements of gNewSense and Gobuntu over the past year got me wondering if we might see more such distributions coming down the pike. I'm talking about distributions that remove all of the non-Free software from their packages and repositories and get the Free Software Foundation's stamp of approval. It was gNewSense last year and Ututo the year before that. BLAG likes to boast that they've been around longer than Fedora. Dyne:bolic offers users a multimedia experience using only Free Software. And Fedora is moving to purge its packages of non-Free software, even if it doesn't make the Free Software Foundation's list.

Many people seem to think that Free Software lovers are a small but vocal minority. Many others buy into the notion that a person just can't survive without at least a few non-Free programs. Against these views, one might wonder that these distros have any users at all. But the truth is that BLAG and Dyne:bolic both have spots in the top 100 distributions on DistroWatch, and seem to have climbed in popularity. Indeed, most of these distributions are showing gains in popularity over the past quarter.

That's all well and good, but does any of this point to a "rise of the purist distros"? Is software freedom gaining ground? Will we see more distributions offering "completely libre" versions? Maybe. Most of the people I have asked about this seem hesitant to point to a surge in the popularity of software freedom. Danijel Orsolic, publisher of the Libervis Network, suggested, "I'm not sure if it is really increased as much as that there is a continued effort from Free Software supporters, also sometimes called "purists", to offer completely free options so as to provide an alternative to distributions which agree to some compromises."

Fedora's Rahul Sundaram told Blue GNU, "I think there is a recent upsurge in interest but it still seems to be exceptions rather than a trend..." Sundaram explained that the up-stream Linux kernel contained non-Free firmware, and the FSF currently accepts that, though the dialog between them makes clear this will not always be the case. He believes Fedora probably already meets the FSF guidelines. After pointing out several problems that affect most distributions, he added, "So I don't think just being recognized as a Free software distribution gives you a complete picture and there are many ancillary issues and I think all distributions suffer through some of them to various degrees."

When I asked Texstar, of PCLinuxOS, whether he planned to offer a completely free distro, he said he wasn't sure what I meant - there is no charge for PCLinuxOS. When I clarified, he responded thus: "flac, faac and ffmpeg libs are non-free? We dont include win32codecs
on our livecd." He went on to mention a "minime cd" with only a basic KDE desktop, aimed at users who want to customize their whole KDE environment from the ground up. When I asked whether PCLinuxOS offered Adobe's Flash or Gnash, the GNU Flash player, I did not receive any further response, but maybe the "minime cd" would fit the bill.

So, whether there is really an increased commitment to, or popularity of Free Software, remains to be seen. What does seem clear, however, is that these purist distributions serve an important role nonetheless. Orsolic offered his view on this...

"gNewSense, while not necessarily very popular (compared to Ubuntu) still does a very important and potentially influential job - showing what is Free Software and what isn't and how far has Free Software come in terms of usability when not used in combination with *anything* non-free".

He is not alone in this view, either. Others have expressed similar sentiments.

Many people discover GNU/Linux without realizing for a long time that software freedom is what guarantees that GNU/Linux can thrive. The benefits of freedom seem lost on people who want things to "just work" they way they seem to in the old WIndows world. Not that Windows is a bed of roses, but things like Flash, games and the oddball application that many depend on generally work quite well, and are found to be lacking (partially or completely) in the GNU/Linux world.

Distributions like BLAG, Dyne:bolic, gNewSense, Ututo and the rest help demonstrate that there really isn't much left for the Free Software community to conquer. I think if gNewSense and the other distros were to offer working implementations of Gnash, OpenWengo, Hiitch and a few other cool tools, most people would quickly discover they have little or no need beyond games to use non-Free software. Furthermore, other distributions might begin to follow suit, offering less and less non-Free software.

I have been using gNewSense (pronounced like "nuisance", but with a "g" at the front) since just before the Ohio LinuxFest in September. Other than lacking Flash, which I only need on a few sites, gNewSense is a fine distribution. What's more, I recently migrated a local user to gNewSense from his improperly-licensed, virus-ridden Windows XP system. I am due to follow up with him soon, so we'll see how his GNU/Linux eXPerience is going. Frankly, I'm pretty sure he'll agree that gNewSense is a great demonstration of the power of software freedom.