On Fri, Feb 13, 2026 at 11:54:37AM +0100, Simon Josefsson wrote: > What I hope to be saying is that Debian can be improved to not force > non-free software into users' software supply-chain.
This is actually not true. Debian not shipping non-free firmware means that our hands are clean. But the non-free software in question would *still* be forced into users' software supply-chain. It would just use different channels, not Debian. There are really only four options you can take: 1. Do not ever install updates for non-free firmware, keep the firmware version that is shipped with the hardware. This is the choice Trisquel made; this is the choice the FSF wants you to make. It however does not result in the user not running non-free firmware, it only results in that fact being less obvious. It *could* be a valid choice for Debian to make, but I don't think we should take that, and the GR we took on the non-free firmware issue confirms that this is the opinion of a majority of us. This choice means that Debian keeps its hands clean, but users run insecure and buggy versions of their firmware. 2. Do not ship non-free firmware through Debian, but users install updates through upgrade packages that they download directly from the vendor. Debian's hands are clean, and users (could) run up-to-date versions of their non-free firmware, but they have to manually keep track of what's available as well as verify code signatures on the upgrade packages provided by the hardware manufacturer. I think this choice is objectively the worst for our users; you get all the downsides and no upsides. 3. Do ship non-free firmware updates through Debian. If you want to install updates for non-free firmware, this is better for you than the second option; you do not need to manually track and validate upgrades, Debian does that for you. Other than that, there is no difference with option two. 4. Install coreboot on your laptop, and make sure that any form of non-free firmware in any flash memory is erased; additionally, update coreboot such that any hardware which has non-free firmware in ROM rather than flash memory is disabled. This means that you are not running any non-free firmware. It also means that some part of the hardware of your laptop will not work. Most likely, this will include things like the display, the wifi interface, and the USB controller, amongst others. There is no option 5, "do not buy hardware that does not require non-free firmware", because such hardware does not exist. There *is* an option to buy hardware that makes more of its parts functional if you choose to go for option 1, but that is absolutely not the same thing. Now, it would be one thing if option 1 were to bring us closer to a situation where option 5 does become available. But that is not the case; a hardware manufacturer couldn't care less whether you installed firmware updates (option 2) or not (option 1), they do the work anyway and it's your choice whether to install it; whether you go for option 1 or option 2 makes absolutely zero difference for them. Worse, the FSF's "respect your freedom" campaign, which effectively claims that option 1 is good enough, means that manufacturers with good intentions have now settled for the easier to accomplish goal of hardware that makes option 1 an option, rather than option 5. Had the FSF held that option 5 must be an option, then we might have had working hardware that allowed option 5. But alas, the FSF decided that *true* freedom from non-free firmware does not matter... -- "I never had a C in history!" "Yeah, but there was so much less of it when you were my age!" -- Joe Brockmeier recounting a conversation with his father, cfgmgmtcamp 2026, Ghent
