Hi, * Theodore Tso <[email protected]> [2026-02-21 23:39]:
So let me suggest a compromise that might alleviate some of Simon's concerns as detailed here[3], without needing to have a separately named blend. Reading [3], it appears that Simon has two complaints that I think are very reasonable. The first complaint is that that Debian Live always will load non-free firmware modules, and when a system is installed using Debian Live, the non-free firmware modules are always in use. The second is that booting with the non-Live (traditional) installer image, firwmare=never probhits loading any firwmare, both free and non-free.[3] https://blog.josefsson.org/2023/07/11/coping-with-non-free-debian/ If both of these issues could be addressed; namely that there is a way to add a control firmware=free-only to both Live and traditional Installer images which disables using non-free firmwares, and installing non-free firmware. It allows users who have downloaded the default Debian installer to be able to avoid using non-free firmwares. And if it turns out that forgoing non-free firmware causes fundamental failures, such as no WiFi support so that the Debian Live installer isn't able to download Debian Packages --- well, the user can also much more easily re-enable non-free firmware without having to download a completely different installer image.
To be honest, I actually thought this feature was implemented already. I'll let the readers decide whether that's on me for not paying enough attention to the Debian installer, or on Debian for being so rock-solid that I did not have the need to reinstall anything from scratch in ages.
I understand the concerns of the non-free firmware critics much better now, and this sounds like a really good compromise.
Cheers Timo -- ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ ╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮ ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ │ Timo Röhling │ ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ │ 9B03 EBB9 8300 DF97 C2B1 23BF CC8C 6BDD 1403 F4CA │ ⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀ ╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
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