And this is Gobuntu, written Oct 23, 2007, and concerning Linux

This weekend I upgraded my machine to Gobuntu, the entirely-free-software (but see below) version of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. Since I'm specifically named as the use case (!) it seemed like the right thing to do. First, the good news: it all seems to be working fine. Since I was doing a clean install (again, see below), and because my laptop has an AMD Turion chip in it, I went for the 64-bit version. (Thanks to Dave Morley for taking the time to tell me whether the 64-bit version was worth it.) Everything works; no problems at all. Good work, the Gobuntu team. I have a few extra things worth mentioning, though. First, like Mark Pilgrim, I'm disappointed that the issue with Firefox's non-free logos wasn't resolved before release. Apparently the solution will be to replace Firefox with Epiphany, the Gnome browser which is based on Gecko, the Firefox rendering engine. At that point people will hopefully be able to move to the unbranded "Firefox", which seems to be called "Iceweasel" or something similar; I don't really like using Epiphany, because I want lots of Firefox extensions that aren't available for it. This seems like a good solution in general, though, and it's what I assumed would be the case in Gobuntu; I'm slightly surprised that it wasn't. Second, there doesn't seem to be an upgrade path from Feisty, the last version of Ubuntu, to Gobuntu Gutsy. That's really annoying. Now, possibly there is such an upgrade path; possibly just upgrading to ordinary gutsy and then installing the gobuntu-desktop package would work. However, I couldn't find anything, anywhere, to say that that was the case; does that package remove all the dubiously-free stuff that Gobuntu doesn't contain? I don't know. Gobuntu's very new, so it's entirely understandable that there's not a lot of documentation yet (I had to hunt around rather a lot to find the official Gobuntu page so that I could link to it!), but it was pretty disappointing that it wasn't clear how to install it. (I eventually decided to go with a clean install, because then I could be sure that I wasn't running anything non-free, and because I wanted to take the opportunity to move to 64-bit, and because I liked the idea of being sure that I hadn't made configuration decisions three years ago that were adversely affecting me now). Third, and not a complaint, there's no live CD for Gobuntu yet. I personally think that's fine; again, Gobuntu's new, and at least initially it's probably not destined for "ordinary" users; having people like me use it for this release should shake any obvious bugs out of it ready for the next release. My ideal eventual goal is that people install Gobuntu by default, but we're a way away from that yet. All the hardware on my laptop that I care about works fine (the wireless card doesn't work, but then I wasn't using it anyway, and the video card doesn't do 3d acceleration, but I can live without that for now). This leads on partially to... Fourth, also not a complaint, Gobuntu allows you to install non-free software once you have it itself installed. There was something of a furore about this on the Gobuntu mailing list, but I can't think why. The distribution is, at the moment at least, destined for people who want to ensure that they're using entirely Free software, and are prepared to deal with limitations (like no wireless) to make that so. I personally am not going to install any non-free software, even if it's offered. The idea that Gobuntu should not allow non-free installations from the Ubuntu archive implies that the plan is to somehow trick people into running Gobuntu without realising it, so that they must be forced to stay on the straight-and-narrow path of free-software-only. I don't need forcing; I choose it. Let's have some faith in people. All in all, I found it to be pretty successful. My experience hasn't got any worse since Feisty (and I get the advantage of improvements made in gutsy), but now I have a warm comforting satisfied feeling that I know that my machine is entirely Free. Thanks for that warm feeling, Gobuntu and Ubuntu communities: I like it.

Comments

Christian

Well I hope you are prepared to install Stepbuntu as soon as it is out! Go Stepbuntu!

Eduardo Padoan

Screenshots, please!

I will wait until a (beta) Gobuntu Gutsy+1, *just* to get Epiphany out-of-the-box.

sil

Eduardo: the screenshots look just the same as ordinary Ubuntu, so I didn't do any. You can install gobuntu now and then remove firefox and install epiphany instead, and then you'll be using gobuntu right now!

Christian: bugger off. :)

Timo Jyrinki

To me it seems Gobuntu has lacked resources and is thus only in the very beginning. The reason it's hard to find Gobuntu-specific stuff, upgrade path info or anything is that Ubuntu == Gobuntu for the most part.

You can achieve "Gobuntu" via normal Ubuntu by deselecting "restricted" and "multiverse" repositories in System -> Administration -> Software Sources, and removing the packages that then are shown as local or obsolete in Synaptic.

I think the most important aspect of Gobuntu will be to actually keep Ubuntu's main and universe repositories "clean", a situation which has not been completely achieved yet (eg. kernel sources, and some firmware blobs are in main via linux-ubuntu-modules-*).

ReinoutS

Epiphany is much better integrated into the GNOME desktop than Firefox/Iceweasel is, it's a shame Ubuntu doesn't follow Gobuntu's lead yet! :)

Matt Lee

Interesting that you did a clean install.

Wasn't this the very reason you didn't install gNewSense?

sil

Matt: nope. There were two reasons why (see the original post for details). The first was that there wasn't an upgrade path, and the second was that gNewSense is based on dapper.

I said somewhere (I thought it was here or in the LugRadio forums, but I can't find it) that if there's no upgrade path to gobuntu then I'll install it but I'll be annoyed. There was no upgrade path, and I am annoyed, hence the second complaint in the post above.

Matt Lee

Do you have a gobuntu splash screen? I've gone from Feisty to Gutsy to (I think) Gobuntu, but I'm not sure.

Are you running this on your laptop, or on your desktop? Maybe you need to post an update of all your machines and what they run.

I agree on gNS being out of date. I am seriously considering formatting my machine and installing gobuntu now.

Rogue Gunner

Its all dutch to me I guess thats why Im not in the top 100 Blogs.

sil

Matt: laptop, which I use most of the time, runs Gobuntu gutsy. Desktop is running Ubuntu feisty. My daughter's machine is Xubuntu feisty. My wife's machine is Windows XP. The Mac Mini that's plugged into the telly runs Ubuntu gutsy.

virtualx

What does your apt sources.lst look like? I'd like to try a direct upgrade from gnewsense.

thanks.

sil

aquarius@giles:~/Projects/make-dvd-slideshow$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

# deb cdrom:[Gobuntu 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release amd64 (20071016)]/ gutsy main

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to

# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main multiverse

deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the

## distribution.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main multiverse

deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu

## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to

## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in

## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security

## team.

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy universe

deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy universe

deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe

deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'

## repository.

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as

## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes

## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.

## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review

## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.

# deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

# deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main multiverse

deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security universe

deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security universe

# deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security multiverse

# deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security multiverse

Rexzooly

Gobuntu seems to be a good idea but like its said its new

maybe things need to change but look at 7.10 before

it was final to the public.

I wil install Gobuntu when all these things/problems have been removed but saying that firefox is still a free to use software so people should still have the option to use this

as end of the day its free so ya its brandard to FireFox

but hey they do a good job with there browser so give them that.

And saying that no matter that OS i end up using i always seem to convert back to FF so i will wait till the bugs are clean and the programs have been changed see what the future bings on this one.