The veteran of free distros

Distro Walk – Trisquel

© Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

© Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Article from Issue 273/2023
Author(s):

Rüben Rúdríguez discusses Trisquel, a free Linux distro that has been in continuous development for the past 16 years.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) maintains a list of free distributions that contain no proprietary software [1]. Although DistroWatch lists 274 Linux distributions, the FSF lists only 10 free ones, and many of those are no longer developed. A notable exception, Trisquel has released a version every one to three years since 2007 [2] (Figure 1). Trisquel was founded by Rüben Rúdríguez, who remains a leading developer for the distribution. Recently, RodrÌguez took the time to discuss the distribution that has been such a large part of his life for the past 16 years.

Linux Magazine (LM): How did Trisquel get started? What were the original goals and was there a decisive moment in the project?

Rüben Rúdríguez (RR): The project started almost 20 years ago, when I was at the University of Vigo in Spain. My university wanted to make a customized GNU/Linux distribution, as it was quite trendy at the time, and I was approached along with other friends that were interested in that technology. I ended up leading this project and eventually (when the trend passed and the university's interest faded) continuing it as an independent project.

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