Re: Subject: Suggestion to Improve Modern Laptop Wi-Fi Support on Debian
At Sun, 24 Aug 2025 22:08:35 +0300 Tran Duc Minh <td6656423@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Subject: Suggestion to Improve Modern Laptop Wi-Fi Support on Debian
>
> Dear Debian Developers and Contributors,
>
> First, I would like to express my gratitude for the tremendous effort and
> dedication you all put into maintaining Debian. Debian is a remarkable
> operating system, renowned for its stability, security, and commitment to
> free software principles. The community-driven nature of Debian is truly
> inspiring, and I greatly appreciate the countless hours that go into
> ensuring Debian remains a world-class distribution.
>
> I am writing to respectfully share a suggestion regarding Wi-Fi support on
> modern laptops and computers. Over the past few years, hardware innovation
> has accelerated, and many new laptops (2021-2026) now include Wi-Fi chips
> and network controllers that require drivers and firmware not available in
> the Debian stable releases at the time of their launch.
>
> While Debian is known for its rock-solid stability, this approach sometimes
> means that users attempting to install Debian on a brand-new laptop
> encounter difficulties with Wi-Fi connectivity. This can be a significant
> hurdle for new users and those who wish to use Debian on the latest
> hardware without requiring workarounds, such as manually adding non-free
> firmware repositories, installing backports, or compiling kernels.
>
> I understand that Debian's philosophy emphasizes stability, security, and
> free software, and I respect the careful approach to freezing kernels and
> packages in stable releases. However, I would like to humbly suggest
> exploring ways to improve modern hardware support for networking devices,
> particularly Wi-Fi, in the following ways:
>
> 1. Consider including or enabling updated firmware packages for modern
> Wi-Fi chips by default, while clearly labeling non-free firmware.
>
>
> 2. Provide more accessible guidance in the installer or official
> documentation for enabling non-free firmware or using backports to support
> the latest Wi-Fi hardware.
>
>
> 3. Explore optional hardware enablement kernels for stable releases that
> allow newer hardware support without compromising Debian's stability
> philosophy.
>
>
> 4. Improve testing with new laptop hardware in collaboration with hardware
> vendors or community contributors to proactively ensure compatibility.
>
These are all good suggestions on paper, but it is uncertain that any of them
could be implemented in practice. It is not an issue of whether or not the
Debian distro maintainers would agree with these suggestions *philosophically*
or not (I suspect not), but whether or not the drivers or firmware are even
available at all.
You really need to write to the manufacturers of this hardware to urge them to
make the drivers and firmware available to the Linux community (preferably in
advance of the hardware hitting store shelves). Unless/until that happens the
Debian distro maintainers really can't do anything.
You should know that *some* distro maintainers of other Linux flavors (Linux
Mint for example), do make available closed source / non-free WiFi drivers and
firmware available as part of the base install. (Linux Mint is directly or
indirectly [via Ubuntu] derived from Debian.)
>
>
> The goal of these suggestions is to make Debian more accessible and
> convenient for users with modern laptops while preserving the stability and
> principles that Debian is celebrated for. By enhancing Wi-Fi support for
> new hardware, Debian could reach an even broader audience and demonstrate
> that it is not only robust and reliable but also ready for the evolving
> hardware landscape.
>
> Thank you for your time, consideration, and ongoing contributions to
> Debian. I hope these suggestions are helpful and can contribute in some
> small way to improving the user experience for new Debian users on modern
> laptops.
>
> With sincere appreciation,
> Tran Duc Minh
> td6656423@gmail.com
>
>
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