Initially it was indeed call Gnuisance. From their faq:
4. Why the name gNewSense?
The name originated as Gnusiance as a reference to RMS's GPG key, but was later changed to gNewSense by bbrazil and ompaul to also capture the New Sense of the distribution and as a pun on GNU.
Well rms wouldn't dissuade people from using debian, it's just to easy to install non-free software with debian, so he doesn't recommend it. If you're interested in his views, here is a nice interview with rms http://geekspeak.org/shows/2008/02/02/.
The FSF will not recommend distros, which contain non-free software or make it easy to install non-free software through the repos, thus giving the impression it is ok to install and use non-free software. Gobuntu seems to be dead, there's still no official release, as far as I know. There was an intresting thread on the gobuntu-devel mailing list https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gobuntu-devel/2008-April/000650.html/.
Debian is not strictly free as in freedom, at least not to the point to be recommended by the fsf. The main reason is, it's still too easy to install non-free stuff through debian repos. With gNewSense there are no such non-free repos, and further the gNewSense guys have been going through a lengthy process called KFV (Kernel Freedom Verification), where they did inspect the kernel and removed any sourceless blobs and tracked down files with ambigious or vague license statements, which were either deleted or licensing issues resolved by contacting the copyright holders.
A little OT, but the link in TFS actually points to the print version of TFA (no, I didn't read it). This is like "Submitting To Slashdot: Best Practices". Kudos to NYCL.
The headline as well as the summary have quite a lot of spin in it. If you want to know what Knuth actually says, you should RTFA.
Yes, I know this/., but you won't regret it, it's a good read.
By the way, Knuth uses Ubuntu.
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Well rms wouldn't dissuade people from using debian, it's just to easy to install non-free software with debian, so he doesn't recommend it. If you're interested in his views, here is a nice interview with rms http://geekspeak.org/shows/2008/02/02/.
The FSF will not recommend distros, which contain non-free software or make it easy to install non-free software through the repos, thus giving the impression it is ok to install and use non-free software. Gobuntu seems to be dead, there's still no official release, as far as I know. There was an intresting thread on the gobuntu-devel mailing list https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/gobuntu-devel/2008-April/000650.html/.
Debian is not strictly free as in freedom, at least not to the point to be recommended by the fsf. The main reason is, it's still too easy to install non-free stuff through debian repos. With gNewSense there are no such non-free repos, and further the gNewSense guys have been going through a lengthy process called KFV (Kernel Freedom Verification), where they did inspect the kernel and removed any sourceless blobs and tracked down files with ambigious or vague license statements, which were either deleted or licensing issues resolved by contacting the copyright holders.
A little OT, but the link in TFS actually points to the print version of TFA (no, I didn't read it). This is like "Submitting To Slashdot: Best Practices". Kudos to NYCL.
The headline as well as the summary have quite a lot of spin in it. If you want to know what Knuth actually says, you should RTFA. Yes, I know this /., but you won't regret it, it's a good read.
By the way, Knuth uses Ubuntu.