It's based on the latest Linux 5.0 kernel series

Mar 4, 2019 18:52 GMT  ·  By

The GNU Linux-Libre project released today the GNU Linux-libre 5.0-gnu kernel for GNU/Linux users who are seeking 100% freedom for their personal computers.

Based on the recently released Linux 5.0 kernel series, the GNU Linux-Libre 5.0 kernel is here to offer you a Linux kernel that doesn't contain any proprietary code as it deblobbs the new ipu3-imgu driver, removes the Eicon DIVA ISDN driver, and updates the names of several firmware included in the upstream Linux 5.0 kernel.

"Besides the usual assortment of firmware name updates, a new driver (ipu3-imgu) required disabling of blob requests, and a driver that we used to deblob (Eicon DIVA ISDN) was removed, so its cleaning up code is now gone," said developer Alexandre Oliva in a mailing list announcement.

Of course, GNU Linux-Libre 5.0 kernel also inherits the new features of Linux kernel 5.0, such as AMDGPU FreeSync support for AMD GPUs, improved power management for devices with ARM big.LITTLE CPUs, Adiantum file system encryption support, swap file support in the Btrfs file system, and support for the binderfs file system to enable running of multiple Android instances.

Be free with the GNU Linux-libre 5.0 kernel

The GNU Linux-libre kernel project aims to provide the Linux community with a completely free version of the Linux kernel, which doesn't include proprietary drivers.  It the perfect replacement for the original Linux kernel if you want to keep your operating system 100% free and Open Source.

The GNU Linux-libre 5.0 kernel is available for download right now from our free software portal as a source tarball to compile on your favorite GNU/Linux distribution if you want a 100% free kernel that does not contain any proprietary code. Some distros like Arch Linux also offer the GNU Linux-libre kernel on their repositories.