Re: Firmware - what are we going to do about it?
Thanks for starting this conversation!
> 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.
>
> (We've already seen various suggestions in recent years to split
up the
> non-free component of the archive like this, for example into
> non-free-firmware, non-free-doc, non-free-drivers, etc. Disagreement
> (bike-shedding?) about the split caused us to not make any
progress on
> this. I believe this project should be picked up and completed.
We don't
> have to make a perfect solution here immediately, just something
that works
> well enough for our needs today. We can always tweak and improve
the setup
> incrementally if that's needed.)
>
> These are the most likely possible options, in my opinion. If you
have a better
> suggestion, please let us know!
>
> I'd like to take this set of options to a GR, and do it soon. I want
to get a
> clear decision from the wider Debian project as to how to organise
firmware and
> installation images. If we do end up changing how we do things, I
want a clear
> mandate from the project to do that.
Personally, I'm a fan of option #5. However, I'd like to point out that
these are two separate things, the first of which (creating a
non-free-firmware archive component) would benefit users greatly and
doesn't require a GR. I use non-free on my systems pretty much
exclusively for non-free firmware. On my systems that require it, I
would appreciate an archive that is ONLY non-free firmware. That would
ensure that I never accidentally pull in a piece of (non-firmware)
software from non-free.
In the past, I have absentmindedly installed rar or unrar from non-free
when I meant to install unrar-free from main. Ideally that shouldn't be
a mistake that could even happen. With a non-free-firmware archive, I
could ensure that it never happens again.
Thanks,
Andres
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