Debian To Consider Changing How It Treats Closed-Source Firmware
www.phoronix.com

Edit: changed link.

  • angarabebesi@lemmy.ml
    22·
    3 years ago

    This is very tricky. I’m firmly on the “no closed source binary blobs on my watch” camp. But I also want my wifi and bluetooth to work.

    • PP44@lemmy.ml
      12·
      3 years ago

      I 100% agree. I’m a free software advocate to everyone around me, but still add the non-free repos to also the laptops/desktop I install, mainly for bluetooth/WiFi… To me, firmware looks like one of the biggest issues of free software…

      • adrianmalacoda@lemmy.ml
        9·
        3 years ago

        I’m a little bit on the fence about this. I use linux-libre on my desktop and laptop (because I bought hardware specifically for it) but I recognize the limitations of linux-libre for “normal” users or Windows migrants, so I’m loath to try to suggest a linux-libre distro as a beginner’s GNU/Linux.

        I’m thinking having vanilla Linux with non-free drivers/firmware would make libre distros more accessible to “normal” users, so I’m not sure I’m 100% opposed to this. However, I’m cautious of this being a slippery slope. Someone says they need Steam or MS Office or Discord or whatever other non-free thing to function correctly and distros are now pressured to accept non-free userland programs, because they already made the concession to allow non-free firmware. There would need to be an acknowledgement that enabling hardware to function is a special case and not an invitation to allow all sorts of other non-free stuff in the distro.

        With Guix System, which is an FSDG distro (more strict on software freedom than Debian), there is a third party channel that offers vanilla Linux with non-free firmware alongside other non-free userland software. I’ve considered separating Linux into its own channel and advertising it, because while I’m open to allowing non-free firmware for the purpose of enabling hardware I’m still vehemently against non-free software elsewhere.

        • PP44@lemmy.ml
          2·
          3 years ago

          I also agree with you. As we often encounter when you fight against any dominant model, the balance between acceibility for as many people as possible and the intellectual integretry or even coherence is so difficult. I am in absolute term against ANY proprietary hardware or software. But I try to get people to improve their digital behavior and being stubborn is heavily counterproductive. I do not pretend to have a solution to this dilemma…

  • Projjal@lemmy.ml
    2·
    3 years ago

    Excluding the 5 options proposed in this article for Debian’s decision considering non-free firmware, my suggestion would be kick-starting the production of hardware of various use-cases with free firmware on which the official image would run. The non-free image would be still be developed unofficially.

  • Echedenyan@lemmy.ml
    1·
    3 years ago

    Promoting some kind of help between H-Node and Debian would be great.

    There is also other project for Linux Hardware in which you can share reports of things working through the own application.

    I also think that some Linux Libre patches for including some Free Firmware by default or initialization without firmware in some cases (there are some AMDGPU graphics cards that can work with Linux Libre perfectly) should be included as well.

    For the rest, I agree with the current model.

    NonFree firmware separated completely but allowed to be load if really needed.

  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlM
    43·
    3 years ago

    It would also be super convenient if Debian could include Microsoft Teams in the default install. /s