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Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Released

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thu Oct 30, 2008 10:45 AM
from the might-be-time-for-a-topic-icon dept.
GNU is Not Unix
SDen writes "Bang on target, the new version of Ubuntu Linux is available for our downloading pleasure. Amongst various changes it sports updates to the installer, improved networking, and a new 'Mobile USB' version geared towards the blossoming netbook market. Grab a copy from the Ubuntu website, and check out Linux Format's hands-on look at the Ibex."
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  • Grab a copy from the Ubuntu website ...

    TorrentFreak has a great tutorial on using BitTorrent [torrentfreak.com] to upgrade to Intrepid Ibex. Odds are high that the default servers in sources.list are going to be taxed pretty heavily today so this might be useful to a lot of people.

    Now if only Microsoft & Apple could harness & effectively utilize the power of p2p ... *cough* *cough*

  • Does it fix the annoying wireless disconnect issue (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rikkards (98006) on Thursday October 30 2008, @10:49AM (#25570431) Journal

    I have been experiencing a minor annoying bug with Heron for the last while where the wireless connection will drop randomly. Reading the logs it shows that the wireless nic hasn't talked to the AP for a while and assumes it is out of range. I have seen others with this issue but no solution. A workaround is to restart networking.

    • Re:Does it fix the annoying wireless disconnect is (Score:5, Informative)

      by binarylarry (1338699) on Thursday October 30 2008, @10:56AM (#25570563)

      I'm not sure on your issue, but the network manager has had some serious work done:

      http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/alpha5#Network [ubuntu.com] Manager 0.7

    • You might not be experiencing the same bug I was, but if you are, this is what I figured out.

      Looking through dmesg, I noticed what appeared to be authentication requests. It appeared to be coming from me. Doing a little hunting, it appears that a lot of routers do not support ipv6 in addition to a few wireless drivers not fully supporting ipv6. Either way, browsing would be fine, until an ipv6 connection was attempted. This would return a "connection not found" type error, and resulted in deauthentication, technically the right course of action.

      Long story short, and from reading about other people having similar problems, opened up /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add the line 'blacklist ipv6'. My wireless worked fine after this, when previously it would disconnect somewhere instantly, and rarely staying up as long as 2 minutes. Hope this helps.

  • Here are the torrent links (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30 2008, @10:55AM (#25570547)

    Torrents:

    Desktop - AMD 64
    http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.10/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent

    Desktop - i386
    http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/8.10/ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso.torrent

    I am downloading both of these, they are quite fast. Seeders are increasing by leaps and bounds!

  • I hope the improved compability. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gapagos (1264716) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:03AM (#25570699) Homepage

    I hope they improved compatibility / hardware detection for the sake of all the newbies out there.

    I used to run Ubuntu 6.04, 6.10, 7.10 and 8.04 on my OEM e-Machine with moderate success and after some tweaking, I really enjoyed it.

    However, when I upgraded to a non-OEM machine of my own, and tried to install 8.04, I wasn't so lucky.

    First, boot CD installer failed to launch properly (keeping me stuck to a black DOS-ish screen, I forgot what it was exactly).
    After several google searches on my 2nd computer, I managed to disable some things in the boot options, and Ubuntu installed properly. ...Or so I thought. No ehthernet card was detected. If I didn't have a 2nd computer, how was I supposed to search a solution for that one?

    Trouble is, I spent way too much time messing with Linux before, and now I no longer have that patience. I didn't feel like going through the whole process again. Either it works, or it doesn't.

    I'll give Ubuntu 8.10 a try. But if my broadband wired internet connection doesn't work right away, I'll just uninstall it like 8.04 and be over with it.

    Still, Ubuntu is by far, the most user-friendly distro out there, and I wish linux advocates would recommend it more, instead of dividing the userbase into alternate Ubuntu-like projects like Mandrivia or SuSE.

    The main reason why Linux doesn't build a solid desktop base among home users is because:
    1- Lack of standard, reducing support available and compatibility consensus.
    2- Linux Geeks expecting average joe to spend time (which he doesn't have) browsing at forums for his answers, often "on his 2nd computer" (which he doesn't have either).

    • No ethernet card detected? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by nicks,nicks,nicks! (1312041) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:30AM (#25571137)
      Isn't that exactly the kind of situation something called the "Live CD" was invented?So that you could check out whether all your hardware works before you install.Or was that too newbie for you?
    • Well, it sucks that you had that experience. Next time, try the live CD and make sure things are working -- if it works there, you know it can work with the full install.

      As for your commentary, let me point out two things.

      1- Lack of standard, reducing support available and compatibility consensus.

      I'd argue there's far more standards and compatability in Gnome and Ubuntu than for Windows. From a user perspective, Windows allows any executable installer to basically vomit anywhere it wants -- sure, go ahead and muck with the registry, install three systray icons, a quicklaunch shortcut, a desktop shortcut, and two start menu entries. Which might be named after the manufacturer, or maybe the product, or maybe the parent company. Who knows? There's no standard way of doing it -- it's just that users have been trained to accept it. In Gnome, basically everything gets filed so it's never more than one click away, and it's always under a sane, general heading. "Internet", "Games", "Graphics", "Office", whatever.

      Same with installation of new stuff. Want a CD burner for Windows? Google "cd burner software" or similar, tromp through eight or nine results looking for one that doesn't look sketchy, isn't crippled trialware, and that you're reasonable sure won't install some spyware or other. Download it, run the installer, agree to weird EULAs and maybe it'll work. Maybe not -- maybe it was XP only and you have Vista, or vice versa. And unless you really know what you're doing, you can't be sure it didn't stealthily install some crapware alongside it. Finally, clean up the mess it left behind when installing (extraneous icons, shortcuts, start menu entries, etc).

      Ubuntu? Open Synaptic and click whatever you want. Then ignore it. It'll download, configure, and install without any further interaction, and there's accountability for who made it and where it is coming from. You're done.

      2- Linux Geeks expecting average joe to spend time (which he doesn't have) browsing at forums for his answers, often "on his 2nd computer" (which he doesn't have either).

      No one expects this. And honestly I have never, ever had trouble with drivers on any machine, on any distro -- including random ones like DSL, Puppy, or other ones I just want to use for experiments. The sole exception has been wireless Broadcom stuff...and that headache stopped over a year ago with the Restricted Drivers manager.

      Compare this to Windows, where I've never gotten an install to work the first time. A clean install of Windows will not have drivers for your wireless or ethernet, sound card, video card, and probably a few other things. You either have to have some sort of recovery CD, which Joe User doesn't have lying around, or you have to have...a second computer, so you can go to dell.com or whatever, and download the drivers. Then install them one at a time, by hand. And clean up the mess they leave behind, again. :)

      I guess my point is that Linux in general and Ubuntu does a much, much better job at hardware detection and driver handling. Windows is essentially incapable of it, and either way, if you're Joe User, you don't know how to fix Windows problems any more effectively than Linux problems, so it's kind of a null point.

      No, I think the real reason Ubuntu doesn't have a solid base of home users is because the overwhelming majority of users just buy a computer that has Windows already on it, and stop thinking about it right then. They see no reason to switch because to most people, "Windows" IS a computer, and the only other option is to buy a Mac. So they put up with Windows' endless annoyances and nagging because it's what they're used to, and are blissful in their ignorance.

    • Re:I hope the improved compability. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by WebCowboy (196209) on Thursday October 30 2008, @01:03PM (#25572715)

      However, when I upgraded to a non-OEM machine of my own, and tried to install 8.04, I wasn't so lucky.

      I think this is not an issue with Ubuntu 8.04 specifically, but instead with your new hardware.

      I got a new system with an Intel motherboard that was introduced only this summer, after the release of 8.04. That version--and 7.10 before it--gave me no joy. There was no support for the new Intel graphics chipset and there were some other problems too. Not much blame can be put on Intel though; they had Linux drivers out publicly before the motherboards based upon the chipset were even available to the public! Linux being a more...errr...diverse ecosystem means it is a bit more challenging to package and distribute such divers (alas, my board did not include binary packages suitable for Ubuntu with the appropriate modules backported to the kernel in 8.04).

      So, I've been running 8.10alpha5 (and upgrading as alphas and betas became available) and had more luck (still no digital audio out, but I may need to tune my system--and for a couple weeks I had to disable onboard NIC and use a cheapo spare to keep the e1000e driver from bricking it--ubuntu blacklisted it anyways and has since fixed it and I am using my onboard 1000bT again--but considering it is pre-release quality I cannot complain).

      Trouble is, I spent way too much time messing with Linux before, and now I no longer have that patience.

      Honestly, aside from using alpha and beta distros, it has been YEARS since I've had to "mess around" with Linux. As a matter of fact it is faster and easier to set up a "bare" PC with Ubuntu (or Fedora or SuSE for that matter) than it is with Windows. Ubuntu install is done faster, I can run a 3-D desktop just as well on literally half the machine Vista requires, updates and upgrades are easier and faster, there is NOTHING like "software repositories" for Windows--you always have to insert a damn disk or explicitly google and download an EXE or MSI and you cannot install applications with MSFT update--only upgrade. when I do a fresh install of Windows I ALWAYS need to run Windows update and reboot 2 or 3 times, and with new hardware you still need vendor drivers, sometimes event to get out of the initial install phase! Hell, I hardly have the patience for WINDOWS anymore!

      As to your assertions about barriers to Linux adoption:

      1 - there is no lack of standards, just resistance to universal adoption. There are many Debian-derived distros that use the same package format and can work against the same repositories. There is Fedors, RHEL, SuSE,Mandriva, etc that all use the same "standard" in RPM and related apt/synaptic style management and update tools, and above that is the LSB that not only specifies standard packaging and deployment practices, it outlines a cross-distro binary compatibility standard!

      For some reason, for every complaint about lack of a single standard there is a chorus of calls against any and all attempt at establishing a formal or de-facto standard! Perhaps it is because in the MSFT and Apple worlds there is no choice because standards are so entrenched--to the point of lock-in. People that move to Linux right now LIKE the choice and don't want to lose it in the process of creating standards.

      2 - I fail to see the point here. When people have problems with Windows the exact same thing happens--some Windows guru saying to do something way above a beginner's head, useless tech support, etc. The average joe still has to rely on forums (which are relatively useless for windows compared to Linux), second computers, or an expert friend or coworker. In fact, I think your argument here is quite false: If an average Joe user starts off with an Ubuntu system that is working, it continues to work and is LESS likely to just break with everyday use. Windows, however, seems to break much easier with normal use--installing and uninstalling, various upgrades that break other things and above all VIRUSES.

  • Eeepc Netbook Support (Score:5, Informative)

    by johnsie (1158363) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:06AM (#25570749)
    This version of Ubuntu works better on the EEEPC than Hardy did. They have included alot of eeepc modules so less tweaking is needed. If you have a 701 with 4gb, compressing /usr will give you a at least 1gb free space, possibly 2gb. I used this tutorial too do it: http://po-ru.com/diary/linux-liposuction-or-xubuntu-in-under-a-gig-on-the-eee-pc/ [po-ru.com] The tutorial works on Xubuntu and Ubuntu, possibly Kubuntu but I haven't tried that. Read the comments on that page for extra help.

  • New features (Score:4, Interesting)

    by apathy maybe (922212) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:08AM (#25570775) Homepage Journal

    Personally, despite some wonderful new features, I'm going to stick with 8.04 for a bit, at least until they work out the bugs. Of course, I won't ever be prompted to upgrade to 8.10, because 8.04 is a long term support release. Having a look at the release notes, at least one unacceptable (for me) bug is:

    On laptops with Intel 3945 or Intel 4965 wireless chipsets and a killswitch for the wireless antenna, starting the system with the killswitch enabled (i.e., with wireless disabled) will prevent re-enabling the wireless by toggling the killswitch. As a workaround, users should boot the system with the killswitch disabled. A future kernel update is expected to address this issue.

    Considering the regression from 7.10 with the wireless lights (it used to be a light would flash when transmitting data, now the light never even shows (known bug)), maybe they should have a long look at their wireless system.

    Oh, and the CD eject bug...

    Yeah, I would like to have the latest GNOME, and OOo 3 without installing backports, but honestly, I don't think I'll bother.

    • Re:New features (Score:4, Informative)

      by Chris Pimlott (16212) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:27AM (#25571083)

      Personally, despite some wonderful new features, I'm going to stick with 8.04 for a bit, at least until they work out the bugs. Of course, I won't ever be prompted to upgrade to 8.10, because 8.04 is a long term support release. Having a look at the release notes, at least one unacceptable (for me) bug is:

      On laptops with Intel 3945 or Intel 4965 wireless chipsets and a killswitch for the wireless antenna, starting the system with the killswitch enabled (i.e., with wireless disabled) will prevent re-enabling the wireless by toggling the killswitch. As a workaround, users should boot the system with the killswitch disabled. A future kernel update is expected to address this issue.

      This is not a new bug in 8.10 by any means, it's been present since 8.04 [launchpad.net].

  • Excellent on Acer One Netbook (Score:5, Informative)

    by SlashdotOgre (739181) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:09AM (#25570801) Journal

    I initially tried 8.04 on my Acer One and found a lot of basic features required some ugly workarounds. Before I gave up on Ubuntu (was going to do a binary version of Gentoo using my desktop as a build server), I gave 8.10 beta a shot and everything (wifi with ath5k, sound with snd-intel-had, etc.) works out of the box. I'm very satisfied with the 2.6.27 kernel.

  • Default wallpaper? (Score:5, Funny)

    by kermit1221 (75994) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:10AM (#25570813) Homepage

    Based off the screenshots, the desktop looks to me like a bloody faceprint on a cave wall.

    Or is it significant of "Bang Head Here" when configuration works like 8.04?

  • But will the wifi work? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Yarcofin (1397091) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:18AM (#25570919)
    I'm a beginner trying to make the switch from Vista to Ubuntu, but for the past two weeks and about 5-10 failed attempts, I've been trying to get my AR5007 wireless card to work in Ubuntu 8.04 to no avail. Will an AR5007 card work with 8.10 right out of the box? Or else I'm not going to bother with it if I can't even get a internet connection. Most user-friendly distribution of Linux my ***...

    • Re:But will the wifi work? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Trelane (16124) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:53AM (#25571589) Journal

      Most user-friendly distribution of Linux my ***...

      You were doing quite well up until this point. Generally, blanket insults (particularly one that blithely ignores highly salient details relevant to the situation) will turn people away from giving you help with the project you're insulting. If you want help, please be nice. Otherwise, you will only spark a flamewar.

        • Re:But will the wifi work? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Trelane (16124) on Thursday October 30 2008, @12:34PM (#25572249) Journal

          Is OK. I'm just glad you're not intentionally trolling. :)

          Going over the relevant bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24/+bug/182489 [launchpad.net]) it looks like the answer is "yes, but there's a twist". The driver was included, but turned out to cause more problems than it solved, but the release window closed too soon. So the solution is to install the 'linux-backport-modules' package for intrepid (http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=linux-backports-modules-intrepid [ubuntu.com]). If you can't connect to the 'net to get the package, you can download it manually at http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/i386/linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-7-generic/download [ubuntu.com] by clicking on one of the mirror links. This page was found from http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=linux-backports-modules-intrepid [ubuntu.com] by making assumptions about your system, namely that it was a desktop system (click on "intrepid" in "intrepid (devel): Backported drivers for generic kernel image"), that it was 32-bit system instead of AMD 64-bit (the "i386" link). You'll need to go through the selection process again if you use a different system than what I assumed, or if you wait too long and there's a kernel update (because you'd end up downloading the package for the old kernel instead of the package for the new kernel, and it would fail to install). HTH.

            • Re:But will the wifi work? (Score:4, Informative)

              by Trelane (16124) on Thursday October 30 2008, @01:07PM (#25572775) Journal

              But I don't understand what you said either :P. Not sure where I need to put the linux backport modules or what I do with them, but thanks for your help

              Sorry, my bad.

              Once Intrepid is installed, you will need to go into System -> Administration and select 'Synaptic Package Manager'. Once synaptic has started, search (Ctrl+f or Edit -> Search) for "linux-backports-modules-intrepid". Mark "linux-backports-modules" for installation by double-clicking on it, and it should automatically select the correct packages for you to install. Then click the check mark on the toolbar to accept the changes and install. If you don't have network access, you'll have to download the correct package manually, and then perform the above procedure to ensure you keep the package up-to-date.

              I'll save all the links and take my laptop to my computer-savvy programmer friend once I get back to my hometown and let him sort through it.

              This is likely a good idea; it's usually easier to help when you have the computer right in front of you. :)

              I think most of my problems is because I don't have something called "build essential", and that's what is preventing things from installing

              http://packages.ubuntu.com/nl/intrepid/build-essential says "This package contains an informational list of packages which are considered essential for building Debian packages. This package also depends on the packages on that list, to make it easy to have the build-essential packages installed." It's unlikely that installing this package will be of immediate use to you. Rather, it would help if you have to compile a driver yourself (iirc, this is the situation prior to Intrepid).

              It seems to me that the easiest way to get the AR5007 to work is to install Intrepid and then install the linux-backports-modules through Synaptic, as I outlined above.

  • The biggest most awesome change in Intrepid!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:37AM (#25571255)

    You know that GTK bug where if your mouse cursor is on a button and the button becomes greyed out so you can't click it and then it becomes normal again but your mouse cursor has been in it the whole time but now you can't click the button even though it's normal now so you have to move your mouse pointer OUT of the button and then back into it again to get the button to work? You know that bug? The one that makes you want to rip out your hair and scream?

    Well it's fixed. Whoever is the awesome person who fixed that is my hero. Someone give that person a fucking cookie.

  • Good luck with that (Score:5, Informative)

    by SleptThroughClass (1127287) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:44AM (#25571401) Journal
    I wish you luck. My upgrade doesn't recognize my sound card, Pidgin starts but displays nothing, and Totem hangs (MPlayer does work). And the network configuration tool shows both wired and Bluetooth links, but it doesn't seem to actually use the Bluetooth link for data (even if I disconnect the wired LAN cable). Sure do look purty, though.

  • Drifting further away from the unix ideology (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Theril (606664) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:51AM (#25571561)

    Again Intrepid seems to take the progression of and Linux desktops in general: abandon the traditional and well proven unix ideology, where simple tools do well defined tasks well. Instead things "Just work" meaning that when they don't work, they "Just don't work" and the only solution is to wait for new release. Yes yes, you have the source, but hacking around all of the "Just works" bugs isn't isn't very feasible even if one had the programming knowledge.

    I've been using the prerelease versions of Intrepid for about a month and have witnessed again few cases of the new bloat-methodology.

    For example the NetworkManager has been around for a while destroying an architecture that could be comfortably tweaked in command line and config files. Of course I don't have anything against GUIs that simplify this, but in the same time the command line usage has been stripped.

    A great example is the new touted 3G automation, which does work quite nicely. However, for more experienced user it seems quite weird as there's no options to set up the network interface or serial device to use. Of course it turns out that this only works on USB devices that are somehow autoprobed probably by HAL (which itself has configurations that few mortals can edit by hand). And this leading the system not supporting 3G over Bluetooth, even if I'd set up the rfcomm serial device myself.

    Another amazing way for "Just works" methodology is to write them in the DE itself, not as separate programs. For example in GNOME there's a applet to kill a misbehaving GUI program by clicking it's window (ie a xkill replacement). But of course it runs as part of gnome-panel process (or something like that). Well, when the kill cursor is on it prevents switching VTs (WHY!?) and also jams the whole screen in the process. Now of course the solution is to SSH to the box (because VT switch is prevented) and kill the offending process from command line. But with the new way to do things, there's no single process to kill.

    And other great thing is the gconf. Sure it's nice to use from programmer's point of view, but of course it's practically unusable otherwise. With the GUI-editor there's change to find the proper configuration field in reasonable time, but using CLI is nearly impossible. Sure it uses ASCII files to store the data, but these are in some horrible illegible non-commented XML format nesting several directories deep with some "overlaying" stuff so that the offending parameter can be where ever.

    It's a fun way to spend time trying to config your screen through gconf when Gnome has decided to screw up your display using XRandr.

    These kinds of situations are already everywhere and getting more common by every distribution and DE release. In no time the big open desktop distros reach the "Just doesn't work" level of Windows and OSX.

    Please don't get me wrong. I like the new stuff that makes computers simple to use (like automatic networking setup etc). But it really shouldn't be done in expense of flexibility and ability to fix things manually _when_ the automated stuff breaks.

  • Strange question from an Ubuntu user (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ericrost (1049312) on Thursday October 30 2008, @11:55AM (#25571625) Homepage Journal

    Why upgrade an existing system to this release? I have a working, nicely functional laptop that has support for the next three years for security updates, why should I hop on the update treadmill again and deal with upgrade headaches every six months? I like where I got Hardy (after waiting through 4 releases to get to another LTS).

  • Is the disk thrashing addressed? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by spitzak (4019) on Thursday October 30 2008, @02:29PM (#25573989) Homepage

    I have the problem that caused a huge amount of discussion here before, where the disk in the laptop repeatedly parks and then wakes a few seconds later to write something. I have used up about 1/3 of the lifetime limit on the disk for these parks. I have updated from Feisty to Gibbon and Hardy and it is still there.

    I have a script to turn off the disk timeout to fix this. However I have to run it manually every time I unsleep the machine. I have followed the instructions to install it in init.d and power on/off but it appears to have no effect. Either it is not run or it's changes are undone after it is run. This is very frustrating and I see absoltely zero information about this.

    I heard there was some analysis about why Windows does not have this problem, and it was determined that Windows reads the disk *continuously* until it sleeps. This led the manuafacturers to adjust the timeout very small so it is, in effect, a fast "Windows is sleeping" detector. Now it appears that Linux is using the disk far less often, but not zero, so the result is worse for the disk. It would be really cool if Linux actually stopped reading the disk at all when nothing is happening, but I realize this is difficult, so I think an acceptable solution is to replicate how Windows acts.

    In any case, despite all the yakking about this earlier, I see no comments. Have they addressed this or not? Is it ever going to be fixed? Or can somebody tell me how to debug the init stuff and find out why my script has to be run manually?

    • Re:EEE? (Score:4, Informative)

      by mean0machine (1103993) on Thursday October 30 2008, @01:38PM (#25573253)
      To answer the last question first: it is the final version, not a beta (although I foresee that some (inherent) bugs will still have to be ironed out in the next weeks or so).
      And instead of the EEE version of 8.10, I suggest you install the full (K)(X)Ubuntu and add Adamm's kernel packages for Ubuntu 8.10, which add support for all the problematic devices on the EEE (on top of this they also remove some kernel modules not needed on the EEE, resulting in much shorter boot times).
      Here is the link where you can read more about the needed packages: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=46649 [eeeuser.com]

        • Re:GNU? (Score:4, Informative)

          by skeeto (1138903) on Thursday October 30 2008, @02:17PM (#25573809) Homepage

          He didn't know any of this, because he only heard it from somebody else (who probably didn't know what they were talking about), and subsequently blew it out of proportion.

          Actually, it sounds like you only heard this from somebody else (who probably didn't know what they were talking about), and subsequently blew it out of proportion. He doesn't claim it contains non-free software, but that it suggests non-free software, which is true. To quote from his e-mail to the OpenBSD-misc mailing list [kerneltrap.org],

          From what I have heard, OpenBSD does not contain non-free software (though I am not sure whether it contains any non-free firmware blobs). However, its ports system does suggest non-free programs, or at least so I was told when I looked for some BSD variant that I could recommend. I therefore exercise my freedom of speech by not including OpenBSD in the list of systems that I recommend to the public.

          Sounds like he understood the issue well, and if you know about his philosophy, its extremely clear why he won't recommend OpenBSD. By doing so, he would recommend the ports system that suggests the use of non-free software, and by recommending it he will implicitly also suggest the non-free software.

          And to clear things up, OpenBSD does not contain [kerneltrap.org] non-free blobs in the kernel, and they even themed their 3.9 release on this issue. Because the emphasis is on security, they did so for primarily for security reasons. In a sense, the OpenBSD kernel really is more free than the Linux kernel you get with most distributions, as many distributions include non-free binary blobs with the kernel (including Ubuntu). To push this point through,

          The fact that OpenBSD is not a variant of GNU is not ethically important. If OpenBSD did not suggest non-free programs, I would recommend it along with the free GNU/Linux distros.

          It is entirely about the ports system. Other than that, he's all for it. In fact, I doubt you will find him telling people not to use OpenBSD, but rather warning them to be careful with the ports system.

          You don't have to agree with him, but at least get the facts right about his argument.

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