On Sb, 29 feb 20, 21:45:48, John Kaufmann wrote: > > I have to agree with that script: a Thinkpad without wifi could fairly > be called a non-working system... which comes back to my two-part > first question, about the philosophical/operational aspect of the > "free" commitment: > - Is it a choice between a free non-working system or a non-free > working system? According to the Social Contract[1] the Debian system is free (as in freedom). In the case of firmware this is achieved by providing it (as a service to its users) from the non-official part of the archive. > - Are OEM hardware drivers by definition "non-free"? Not necessarily. Many free drivers in the kernel are contributed by the OEMs, including Intel, AMD, etc. Some hardware requires "firmware" in addition to the driver. As far as I understand most firmware is just pre-compiled software provided as is, without source, which automatically makes it non-free (even if freely distributable). Some hardware has free firmware (see firmware-linux-free and the other packages in the 'main' archive) and some don't require external firmware at all[2]. Debian's position on non-free firmware is making things more difficult for owners of specific hardware. Hopefully this works as an incentive to consider hardware with better free software support on their next purchase. [1] https://www.debian.org/social_contract [2] in most cases[3] this is arguably even worse than requiring external non-free firmware, because the hardware still uses some firmware stored internally which is very difficult or even impossible to upgrade. [3] as far as I understand there are pieces of hardware that don't need any kind of firmware, external or internal. Kind regards, Andrei -- http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser
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