Brazil/O'Malley:
Richard has always held that there should be room for all free distros. An interesting point perhaps is that I can confirm that Richard is currently using Ututo. However I do know a good few other people in the FSF are using gNewSense.

MJ:
When you boot up gNewSense, it looks, on the surface, to be Ubuntu without its logos. Could you explain why it's really *not* Ubuntu?

Brazil/O'Malley:
The kernel differs in that it is missing the firmware, and the restricted modules found upstream, our repositories only contain Free Software. Of course we would prefer if people did not add Non Free Software to our mix, no doubt some people will, however they should be aware that we neither support or encourage this kind of activity.

MJ:
I'm happy to say that I successfully booted gNewSense on my Thinkpad laptop (a somewhat finicky machine) and got my wireless card running. What kind of feedback have you been getting? Have people had as much luck as I have?

Brazil/O'Malley:
That is great, you must tell us the exact model. :-) On a more serious note, some people are finding issues with their hardware, but I think if you take a global picture if you are trying gNewSense and it does not work, you may be aware that you have a hardware issue, and it is your call at that stage to consider what to do next.

MJ:
And you're also using gNewSense as a base, of sorts, for others to create their own distribution. Can people really create their own personalized distros with it? And how would that work?

Brazil/O'Malley:
We are using Builder to allow people the ability to build their own tuned as they want it distro. To make it work down stream of gNewSense it would need to be tweaked a little, as it is designed for use with Dapper. However right now it is used to make gNewSense.

MJ:
I think a lot of pundits out there are probably saying 'Look, another Linux distribution'. There are some that would argue that we don't need more distros but more volunteers for existing distros. Why was it more important for you to create gNewSense instead of say, volunteering to work on Ubuntu or Debian?

Paul O'Malley:
Let me break that into a few parts. We don't need more distros is a spurious argument. Obviously there was an itch and we endeavoured to scratch it. Technically there is also the fact that we were enthralled with the prospect of attacking the source of a distro to remove the non free parts, and see how much of it is still operational. While I say we, please note that Brian is the lead dev, I am a sysadmin not a coder, I can hack a little. Ergo I got the community side of the deal.

MJ:
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and good luck with gNewSense development.

Paul O'Malley:
Glad to answer your questions Michael, thanks for your interest in our project. Lastly if I might pimp the distro a little, if anyone has the interest in getting involved have a quick look at our website, it contains things we need help with. http://www.gnewsense.org, with links to our mailing list.

Final Note:
Just for the record, the model of my Thinkpad is the 600X - an oldie but a goodie! And I got gNewSense running on it - with my LinkSys PCMCIA wireless card and all - with ease. So if you're a purist and you want to work guilt-free (especially after the Novell-Microsoft pact), then I suggest you try it out.

Michael J. Jordan is the webmaster of Linux Online. He can be reached at Michael.Jordan**AT**linux.org