On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 04:20:33PM +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote: >* Robert Millan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2008-11-12 15:29]: >> For example, if you want to install Debian on an NSLU, the only >> difficulty is finding the unofficial D-I images that include >> non-free firmware. And even that can be improved. They could be >> linked from the main website, and integrated with our >> infrastructure, much like we do for "non-free", as long as we make >> it clear they're not officially "Debian". > >The problem with this is that we'll end up shipping official Debian >CDs that won't work on many systems and eventually we'll end up >telling people "take the unofficial one, you know, the one that >actually works". I've been doing that for NSLU2 and there it's not >such a big deal because everyone uses netboot images, but it's more of >a problem with CDs/DVDs.
Absolutely. I'm looking into creating such "unofficial" CDs already as part of the regular builds. As far as I can see, too many people are going to need them. If we make it too hard for people to install Debian on their hardware, we *will* lose a lot of users. I'm even in that group - a lot of the machines we have at work need firmware and if they don't install and work easily we'll probably end up being forced to install Fedora instead. I think I agree with the suggestion of creating a new archive section for firmware - packages that are acknowledged to not meet the same standards as main, but checked so that we know they're still legally shippable by default on official installation media. I'm not sure if we can make that kind of change before Lenny, so I'd be happy to go with another exemption for Lenny and make the change afterwards. -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. [EMAIL PROTECTED] "When C++ is your hammer, everything looks like a thumb." -- Steven M. Haflich -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
