No proprietary drivers in default Feisty Fawn

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The next release of Ubuntu, named Feisty Fawn, will be available only in April but we already know two things about it. Proprietary video drivers are not going to be included in the default install and the PowerPC port of Ubuntu will be downgraded to an unofficial architecture.

Both decisions were made by the Ubuntu Technical Board and were announced by Ubuntu chief technical officer Matt Zimmerman. The main point behind the debate about proprietary video drivers was the support for Composite.

The Ubuntu Technical Board decided that the software required to make Composite work is not mature enough to be included in Feisty Fawn. Ubuntu however will monitor the progress of this software and will do the same for the Nouveau driver. The latter is a replacement for the closed source Nvidia drivers but still requires a lot of work to be included in Ubuntu.

Zimmerman also confirmed that Ubuntu will still include selected closed source drivers. This is necessary because some hardware requires strictly proprietary drivers and its absence would create problems to the user. Zimmerman, a member of the Ubuntu Technical Board, cited as an example the wireless network cards.

As for the PowerPC port, it was a decision that Ubuntu considered since last November. PowerPC users will not have to worry because Ubuntu will still release packages and ISO files for this architecture. The only difference is that eventual issues with PowerPC software will not stop the release of Ubuntu. The other versions of the distribution will be released but the PowerPC Ubuntu will wait until all the issues are solved.