Quoting Christian Kastner (2022-04-19 11:33:30)
> On 2022-04-19 02:27, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> > 1. Keep the existing setup. It's horrible, but maybe it's the best
> > we can do? (I hope not!)>
> > 2. We could just stop providing the non-free unofficial images
> > altogether. That's not really a promising route to follow - we'd
> > be making it even harder for users to install our software.
> > While ideologically pure, it's not going to advance the cause of
> > Free Software.
>
> Here's a somewhat radical idea: I propose that we make option (1) and
> (2) conditional on all Debian infra switching to hardware entirely
> free of binary firmware/microcode blobs.
>
> Because if *we* can't do it, then imposing this stringency on our
> users is outright idealist hypocrisy.
>
> [Spoiler: we can't, unless some open x86_64 silicon has popped up
> somewhere (doubtful, because of the required patents).]
I certainly like "eat our own dogfood", but our infrastructure currently
runs on _top_ of Debian systems, using non-Debian applications.
I don't think we should put the bar higher for firmware than we do for
applications, regarding "eat our own dogfood". What would be the point
of that (other than artificially creating an argument for option 5)?
> > 5. We could split out the non-free firmware packages into a new
> > non-free-firmware component in the archive, and allow a specific
> > exception only to allow inclusion of those packages on our
> > official media. We would then generate only one set of official
> > media, including those non-free firmware packages.
Please let's add an option 6:
6. Split out the non-free firmware packages into a new
non-free-firmware component in the archive. We would then generate
our official media only from free packages as today, and users
tolerating non-free firmware firmware but not other non-free code
could use our semi-official media and enable only that add-on
section.
I would then vote for option 6.
Let me also hint that I would likely vote for a *future* option 5 when I
know that the envisioned possibiliy for users to suppress non-free
firmware is reasonable. I just don't enough about that future yet.
In other words: Please let's take this is multiple steps, first being to
distinguish non-free firmware from other non-free code, without deciding
yet exactly how strongly we then allow that new section to be integrated
with our "pure" parts.
- Jonas
--
* Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
* Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/
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