[Solar-general] FSF updates list of free GNU/Linux distributions, adding Kongoni and announcing the Trisquel 3.0 release

[Marcos Guglielmetti]

http://www.fsf.org/news/free-distributions-updates-kongoni-trisquel

FSF updates list of free GNU/Linux distributions, adding Kongoni and 
announcing the Trisquel 3.0 release
 
 
 
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Friday, September 11, 2009 -- The Free Software 
Foundation (FSF) today announced updates related to its list of fully free 
GNU/Linux distributions, including the addition of one new distribution 
called Kongoni, and a milestone release of the Trisquel system.
Trisquel, which was added to the list last December, has issued its 3.0 
release, codenamed "Dwyn." It is the first in a new series of short term 
support releases that will be updated every six months with new software to 
add features, improved performance, and hardware compatibility. 
Kongoni, named after the Shona word for "gnu," is based in Africa. For optimal 
performance with minimal bandwidth requirements, it uses a packaging system 
called "ports" that downloads programs as source and builds them 
automatically.
Trisquel, Kongoni, and the other GNU/Linux system distributions on the FSF's 
list only include and only propose free software. They reject nonfree 
applications, nonfree programming platforms, nonfree drivers, nonfree 
firmware "blobs," and any other nonfree software and documentation. They 
uphold a commitment to remove any such components as they are discovered -- a 
commitment most well-known GNU/Linux distributions do not follow.
FSF operations manager John Sullivan said, "It's very encouraging to see this 
list continuing to increase in both quality and quantity. While others 
continue to propagate the outdated claim that it's too hard or not possible 
to make distributions without proprietary binary firmware and other nonfree 
programs, free software activists and developers working on projects like 
Kongoni and Trisquel continue to prove them wrong."
Both Trisquel and Kongoni are calling for more contributors to help. Trisquel 
is seeking mirrors, package maintainers, beta testers, translators, and 
documentation writers. Kongoni is looking for people to help with publicity, 
and writing new package ports. More information about using and contributing 
to Trisquel and Kongoni can be found at their respective Web sites, 
http://trisquel.info/ and http://kongoni.co.za/.
The FSF's guidelines for free system distributions are online at 

http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html, and the 
distributions committed to those guidelines are listed at 

http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html.