On 17 Jan 2024 03:21 +0000, from a...@strugglers.net (Andy Smith): >> Please find a way to restore the integrity of open-source software >> distribution. > > Firmware updates are required for almost every general purpose > computing device in existence and at this time those are non-free. > > You have no choice about using them whether you use Debian or not, > because your computer hardware will come pre-installed with several > bits of non-free firmware, such as the CPU microcode and the entire > Minix-based OS that runs inside every Intel and AMD CPU. By refusing > to download newer firmwares you will not actually make your computer > usage any more ideologically pure, you will only make it less > reliable and secure.
Another example of non-free firmware on a typical system might be that running on and managing the internal workings of the storage device. Or the UEFI/BIOS. Or the display. Or the network card. Also, there seems to me to be some confusion on OP's part. What's changed in Debian 12 compared to earlier releases is that a new, separate component was added, named non-free-firmware; and non-free firmware was moved into it from elsewhere. Previously firmware was often packaged in non-free, so required either including the non-free component as a whole or managing firmware blobs packages manually. IMO, if anything, this change _helps_ things by creating a cleaner separation between non-free packages which are to some extent necessary for the secure use and proper functioning of the computer, and those which are not required except for their particular uses. Nothing forces you to include even non-free-firmware in your apt sources list, but as has already been pointed out, you probably _want_ to do that in order to bring in firmware updates. You aren't running any _less_ non-free software by not including it. If you absolutely want to run an operating system with no non-free components at all, the FSF has a list of distributions that they recommend. https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Be prepared to need to make significant concessions in other areas if you use one of those, and keep in mind that unless you have _really_ gone out of your way in picking components, there will still be a _lot_ of non-free code running on your computer. -- Michael Kjörling 🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se “Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”
