* On 2015 03 Jun 08:42 -0500, hellekin wrote:

> As Devuan offers a pretty easy and automated way to make a custom build,
> maybe we should take advantage of this, and provide a way for
> downloading non-free blobs during install, after the detection was made.
> This way would at least make users aware of the problem.

That works until the needed blob is to enable WiFi to download the blob.

That is the practical implication. Philosophically, I agree that free
should be preferred over non-free, however, reality has this nasty habit
of overriding ideals.

Doing a few Debian installations over the past year I can say that it
isn't immediately apparent which non-free blob is necessary for some bit
of hardware. It's not an easy line to define although I think Debian,
at least in the installer, errs a bit to far in the philosophically pure
direction while Ubuntu errs a bit too far in the non-free direction.
IMO, network hardware that needs a non-free blob is the most glaring
issue, unless one wants to download and burn a small pile of DVDs, as
network access is critical for the installation to complete
satisfactorily.

- Nate

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