Re: Making Debian available
Marc Haber <mh+debian-devel@zugschlus.de> writes:
> My workaround is to plug in a network cable for installation. But
> alas, I have up to now been able to avoid hardware without built-in
> Ethernet. I guess that many USB Ethernet interfaces will work out of
> the box without non-free, right?
Yes, even integrated LTE/5G modems could "work out of the box without
non-free", if the GPLd userspace tools were included with the installer.
This demonstrates how ridiculous the WiFi firmware restrictons are. All
these USB devices work only because they come with firmware on a largish
flash. In the LTE modem case, the firmware is a complete source-less
Linux installation with big binary-only blobs for the radio/signal
processors.
This is obviously not more "free" than downloading a firmware blob for
the processor in the WiFi module would be. I believe it's about time
Debian gets rid of the double standard. Just admit that non-free
firmware is required to run Debian on any modern system. Making it hard
to install Debian over WiFi does not change anything. It just makes it
hard to install Debian.
Bjørn
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