Re: Summary of the DebConf firmware discussion

On Fri, Aug 28, 2015 at 5:33 PM, Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com> wrote:

3. Advertise the "unofficial" firmware-included media better?
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Yes.

It was generally agreed that this would be a good thing. Alongside the
links to normal media in various places on our web sites, we should
include links to the non-free media too, *with* some explanatory text
describing the problems with non-free firmware and why it's not
included by default. Also, similar better links to the firmware
bundles will help.

Let's see if I understood this correctly

(1) The official images do not contain non-free stuff, such as firmware, therefore those images are useless for many users these days

(2) Therefore, we also officially generate unofficial images which do contain non-free stuff, such as firmware, therefore those images are sueful for many users these days

As a result of (2), the are officially advertising unofficial images that were officially generated

Looks a bit crazy to me

I wasn't at DebConf but here is another idea, probably quite similar to the firmware bundles (which I didn't know of, either):

Have the official image, without non-free stuff. Usable and useful to those who have sufficiently free hardware.
Have the bundles as tar.gz and also as ISOs. Advertise them along with the installer ISOs: "here you have the non-free stuff you may need to enable some hardware features"
When the installer starts, give the user the choice to use non-free stuff. Maybe include a link to FSF or Debian or whatever explaining why some vendors are evil.
Offer to download from the Internet (if a network connection is available) or use a second ISO/USB.
Do this no matter what hardware is available. E. g. many Broadcom wifi chipsets provide Bluetooth too but Bluetooth and some advanced wireless stuff (for instance, 802.11ac) will only work after loading the proprietary firmware.

I think Ubuntu is doing something in that line?

Pau Garcia i Quiles
http://www.elpauer.org
(Due to my workload, I may need 10 days to answer)