Simon Josefsson dijo [Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 06:36:27PM +0100]:
Holger Levsen <[email protected]> writes:
On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 01:49:37PM +0100, Simon Josefsson wrote:
I both disagree and believe this is irrelevant. I have a bunch of
machines that do not require non-free firmware (e.g., Talos II, NV41,
Framework 13", Protectcli VP2440).
the firmware is embedded in the hardware on these devices. The main
memory of those devices does not initialize without non-free blobs, same
for the main CPU, to name two devices you probably want to use.
We clearly mean different things by "without non-free blobs".
I assume you mean "without non-free blobs available anywhere in the
hardware"?
I mean "without non-free blobs loaded from user-supplied software".
Yes, we both know what you mean and what Holger, Wouter, and others in the
discussion mean. And we even understand and acknowledge the truth for both
sides.
We have decided, as a project, we want people with _regular-sourced
hardware_, with _any computer they might have_, to have a good chance of
installing Debian without bending over and without learning deep
incantations to support their hardware to get basic functionality.
You are welcome to think differently, to buy more expensive hardware, to
build hardware for your OS (instead of choosing which OS suits best the
hardware you already have).
I am happy you are pursuing a Debian Libre blend. I also dislike the fact
that naming it so is, of course, political — it means “you can take that
ugly, non-free Debian, or you can be a purist like myself”.
I guess it all boils down to Debian people not wanting you to badmouth the
Debian project using Debian resources for it.
We are taking the steps we can take to clearly differentiate what is
non-free in our system (i.e. by clearly labeling it as
non-free-firmware). I have seen many groups of knowledgeable Linux users
(licensing-aware as well) have a much better opinion of Debian since we
started including non-free-firmware.
So, go ahead! Scratch your itch! Just don't paint our project as not
caring. Because it is not true.
