Am Mittwoch, 3. Juni 2015 schrieb James Powell:
> While keeping to the libre creed is nice, at least having the option for firmware will help compatibility with hardware that requires it. Sadly, this is becoming more commonplace as newer hardware is released. More and more modern hardware requires firmware.
>
> The question isn't about including it, but better reworded... "Should Devuan have an option for installing non-free firmware to support hardware that requires it, at the initial installation to promote more system hardware compatibility?"
>
> I think it should offer the option, because at least it can show people installing Devuan that Devuan aims to support your hardware out of the box of sorts.
>
> Should it be default added, no, but offered for choice? Absolutely.

Please let us distingush between "non free drivers" and "firmware". "Firmware" runs on some device seperate from the OS, while "drivers" are part of the OS. And firmware is by definition a binary blob that used to be stored on some EEPROM in times long past. Nowaday these blobs get pushed into the devices RAM by the host system - good for marketing as stuff gets cheeper but you can't just use these devices when you harvest a junk yard. You will most likely not even be able to set up a working toolchain to build firmware - just check how much effort is needed to keep etherboot and coreboot useable.

Nik


--
Please do not email me anything that you are not comfortable also sharing with the NSA.