Less than a week after the release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS "Hardy Heron", the Free Software Foundation has gone ahead and released version 2.0 (named DeltaH) of gNewSense. For those not familiar with gNewSense, this is one of the few distributions certified by the Free Software Foundation as being a truly free Linux distribution...Here are a few screenshots from this latest release.

"Free software lovers can rejoice at this month's release of gNewSense 2.0 (pronounced "guh-new-sense"), the latest version of the popular distribution based on Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Code-named DeltaH, this operating system includes only software where users have the right to run, study, adapt, redistribute, and improve all of the software and code.

"BOSTON, MA, USA — May 1, 2008 — The gNewSense project today announced the release of DeltaH, the second version of their all free-software GNU/Linux distribution..."

So gNewSense 2.0 came out a few days ago as the gNewSense crew is tracking Ubuntu LTS releases. Of course, the bad part is that there is no upgrade path from gNewSense 1.0 to 2.0. Ubuntu recommends upgrading by going from release to release so upgrading is not feasible (or is too hard for the developers to implement) so freedom lovers need to have a good backup strategy.

"Download and try gNewSense GNU/Linux, an operating system that contains nothing but free software! Even the drivers for all the devices this system supports are free software. You can test drive gNewSense before you install it and see what a completely free computer operating system can do for you. This CD is an updated version of the gNewSense GNU/Linux system I discussed before..."

"gNewSense DeltaH was released today, and we are pleased to offer preconfigured Workstations, Portable Systems, ThinkCentres, Laptops, and Servers, as well as fully customized Core 2 Duo, Athlon 64, Xeon, and Opteron computers, preinstalled with the latest gNewSense GNU/Linux operating system.

The gNewSense project is pleased to announce version 2.2 of its 100%
FSF Free GNU/Linux distribution. This is the second point update to the
release codenamed 'deltah'.

For those not already in the know, gNewSense is a distribution based upon Ubuntu. The aim of the distro is to strip Ubuntu of all non-free software components and offer a completely ‘pure’ free software distribution to those who wish for it. This new 2.0 release is based upon the recent Ubuntu Hardy Heron version, as the announcement states.

Brian Brazil and the team behind the ultra-free gNewSense GNU/Linux distribution have released a beta of the forthcoming 2.0 (or Deltah) series. gNewSense is based on Ubuntu but strips the distribution of non-free components to provide users with a truly free operating system