ubuntu 18.04 64bit how much is non free software?

> Do you know the percentage of non free software present
> in ubuntu 18.04 64bit?

I'm not exactly sure how to answer that question. Are we talking about the number of non-free packages, lines of code, etc.? Are we talking about the software installed by default, all of the software in the the main repository, or all of the software in all the repositories? Should we count the Ubuntu Snap Store?

While I don't know how to calculate a percentage, I would estimate that most of the software in the repos and most of the software installed by default is free. As far as I know all of the software that Canonical develops themselves is free, so Ubuntu probably has the same amount of non-free software in their repos as Debian, and Debian's non-free and contrib repos are quite small compared to their main repository.

> If you know the percentage, is that what generally
> is present of non free software in non free
> gnulinux distributions?

Assuming we are talking about all of the software in all of the repositories, I'd estimate that Ubuntu has about the same amount of non-free software as most non-free distros. However, they are better than some other distros in that most of their non-free software is in the restricted and multiverse repositories, so you can avoid a lot of it by disabling those repositories. There's also the issue of which repos are enabled by default. Debian has its contrib and non-free repositories disabled by default, so in that sense it is more free than Ubuntu despite packaging the same amount of non-free software.

If we consider the Ubuntu Snap Store then that changes things. I don't see a difference freedom-wise between "apt-get install [non-free package]" and "snap install [non-free package]" so if a distro includes snap then maybe we should count the Ubuntu Snap Store as one of the repositories. The Ubuntu Snap Store appears to contain a lot of non-free software that isn't in usually in distros repositories, such as Spotify, so distros like Ubuntu and Debian who include snap are arguably less free than ones that don't like Arch. But then if we bring Arch into it, do we count the AUR? The AUR does include snap, as well as non-free software like Spotify.

Basically, there are a lot of different possible answers to this question depending on your criteria.

The percentage of non-free software varies among distributions, mainly based on the distribution's "guideline".

So Ubuntu contains far more non-free software than Fedora that only makes an exception for non-free firmware. But Ubuntu isn't the worst example. Its "main" and "universe" repositories can still be considered as free/libre.

Some egregious distributions have lots of non-free software in their main repository. They also proudly advertise the availability of popular non-free software as a "feature". I know certain Chinese distributions or modified versions like this... (I'm doing my best to discourage people to try them.)

> Its "main" and "universe" repositories can still be considered as free/libre.

The software in the main and universe repositories is under free licenses, but does that does not mean that disabling multiverse and restricted is enough to have a free system.

Even if main and universe are the only *apt* repositories you have enabled, Ubuntu has other package managers in addition to apt that point to additional repositories. For example, Snap points to the Ubuntu Snap Store, which contains lots of proprietary software. In the Software Center you can't even tell (last time I checked) whether a package is from main, universe, or the Snap Store. Then there's the freedom issues with Firefox and Chromium, and other programs in main and restricted that recommend proprietary software.

Debian has those problems too, but Ubuntu has two additional ones:

- The default kernel has non-free blobs, whereas Debian's does not.

- The multiverse and restricted repositories are enabled by default and presented as part of the distro, whereas Debian's non-free and contrib repositories are disabled by default and are not recognized as an official part of Debian.