100% Free OS ? Yeah!, I mean GNU/Linux based operating systems (a.k.a distributions or distro) which is made of free softwares and of course it has no proprietary stuffs. In Free Software, the term free stands for Freedom not the price.
As Richard Stallman (The Founder of Free Software Foundation) says –
In Free Software, Free stands for Free Speech not Free Beer
A number of GNU/Linux based distributions exists today but most of them have little or more proprietary programs but in this post you’re going to learn about some cool GNU/Linux distributions which is purely free software, recommended by the FSF (Free Software Foundation).These free software distributions are best for learners as well as common users who want to enjoy free computing.
Top 5 Free Operating Systems based on GNU/Linux
1. gNewSense
gNewSense is a fully free software – GNU/Linux distribution. By default it comes with Gnome desktop but other popular desktops that you can easily use with gNewSense are KDE and XFCE (Light weight Desktop environment, recommended for old computer). Some of the commonly used applications are – LibreOffice, Emacs, Evolution, Pidgin etc. It is a debian (package management) based distribution.
2. Parabola GNU/Linux
A light weight and flexible GNU/Linux distribution, based on ArchLinux, but it is totally free software so called as ‘Libre version of ArchLinux‘ (The official website of Parabola also looks very similar to Archlinux’s website). The package manager of Parabola GNU/Linux is Pacman, one of the coolest package manager. If you dream to build your own GNU/Linux distro or want to understand GNU/Linux very deeply then it’s the right distro for you – but little knowledge of command line is expected. It is available for 32 bit as well as 64 bit platforms.
Download parabola GNU/Linux from its official website – https://parabolagnulinux.org/
3. Trisquel GNU/Linux
Trisquel is a fully free GNU/Linux operating system for common users, educational centers (e.g schools) and small enterprises. The latest version is 5.0 (released a couple of months ago) with Gnome 2 as the default desktop (although trisquel mini editions are also available with LXDE desktop) and it is based on Linux-libre 2.6.38 (libre version of Linux kernel). Most popular applications are Abrowser (libre version of Mozilla Firefox) and Libre Office.
4. Dynebolic
Dynebolic is a simple and easy to use GNU/Linux Operating System and of course, it’s completely free! (no closed source stuffs inside). The whole OS can be used directly from a USB drive or DVD (size is around 1.6 GB) and so you can run a lot of application without even installing it on your hard drive. it is well suitable for older hardware as it can run smoothly even if a computer has only 256 MB RAM. The latest version 3.0 is available to download.
5. Blag
Blag is a 100% free GNU/Linux OS. It is very similar to Fedora, one of the most popular GNU/Linux distribution among advanced users specially server administrators. it’s available for i86 as well as x86_64 platforms.
Recommended Reading(s)
- More about Free GNU/Linux distributions – Full collection of Free GNU/Linux distributions at official website of GNU project.
- FSF – The official website of Free Software Foundation
- Richard Stallman’s Website – Richard Stallman or RMS, the Founder of FSF
I suspect many people will just try GNewSense (since it’s #1 on this list). I also suspect they will come away with a bad opinion on 100% free distributions.
Trisquel is the best for new users and Parabola is great for those with experience, since it’s based on Arch. Also try Debian with no “contrib” and no “non-free” repository.
How can GNewSense even be on this list, since it is horribly out of date? Furthermore, how could it be #1? WTH? I believe most of the work on this project is to get it to work on the Lemote YeeLoong netbook. They haven’t had a release in 2 1/2 years.
I’m glad to see that BLAG has had an update since it’s last in 2008, though.