The relation and purpose of Debian to Ubuntu to Gobuntu to gNewSense
This is how I understand the relation and purpose of Debian to Ubuntu to Gobuntu to gNewSense. If I’m misinformed I hope you’ll correct me :-)
The Debian system is a “universal” operating system, which means it focuses on software that runs on a very wide range of computers. This is especially useful for legal persons who deeply understand computers, but means it is an unsuitable choice of recommendation for legal persons who have never used any GNU/Linux before. Every aspect of the Debian project’s development is made public and everything is done with free software, but the project distributes non-free software (although its core is totally free) and so cannot be ethically recommended anyway.
The Ubuntu system focuses the Debian system on software for contemporary PCs that most legal persons typically use. It is the most suitable choice of recommendation for potential users who have never used any GNU/Linux before, and is by far the most popular GNU/Linux distribution with existing users, but the project’s development is done with proprietary “Launchpad” software that gives a lot of power to one company (Canonical, the principle sponsor of Ubuntu) and it is distributing more and more non-free software, so it cannot be recommended ethically.
The Gobuntu system focuses the Ubuntu system on being 100% free software, but as a part of Ubuntu the project’s development is done with Launchpad and to recommend Gobuntu is to endorse Ubuntu, so it cannot be recommended ethically.
The gNewSense system rebrands Gobuntu so that the Ubuntu system can be recommended to new users, without endorsing the Ubuntu project directly, and thus its recommendation is ethical. It may also add|remove parts [not] included in Gobuntu.
If you are using a GNU/Linux distribution with all proprietary software included by the distribution project removed, there is no urgent ethical need to use gNewSense, but if you don’t want to go through that effort yourself, installing gNewSense is an easy way to ensure your software freedom.
Since the purpose of gNewSense is for promotion, the graphic and communication design aspects of the project are critically important. Even though the system is technically the same as Ubuntu, potential new users will initally compare gNewSense unfavorably to Ubuntu if their impression, determined by the subcommunication of the visual information design, is not equal.
Right now its basically impossible to recommend gNewSense to new users, because the site’s information design and visual look is so careless.
I attempted to engage Brian and Paul about the graphic design of the project, and they said they had a friend who did what is there, and thanks for the inquiry but they weren’t all that interested in developing it further. I wasn’t sure if this was because my simple first attempts sucked or because they didn’t want to offend their friend by replacing their work or because they really don’t care about visual presentation.
I hope that the presentation will improve in the future though!
The The relation and purpose of Debian to Ubuntu to Gobuntu to gNewSense by David Crossland, except the quotations and unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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@Daniel: Please be more specific and I can reexplain :)