On Wed, 2015-06-03 at 12:45 +0100, KatolaZ wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 03, 2015 at 08:37:22PM +1200, Daniel Reurich wrote:
> >
> > I'd like a straw poll on whether we should include non-free firmware
> > in our installers by default.
> >
> My two cents on this point: I would really prefer *not* having any
> non-free software/firmware in the default Devuan install.

I have a position that appears out of the mainstream here but afraid I
have to say that Fedora has the right policy on this issue. Non-free
software: NO, Firmware: YES. So ixnay on things like the Nvidia drivers
but yes on blobs. The reasoning on where to draw the line is pretty
clear cut. If it comes down to the vendor shaving ten cents to save a
serial eeprom, put the danged blob on the install media if the vendor
allows unlimited redistribution. Doubly so for the blobs required to
get connected to the network in the first place. But a closed driver
polluting the kernel is right out. And no fair putting the non-free
repo a single click away, they force all of the problem packages out to
rpmfusion and do not even permit discussion of its existence on any
official fora.

Debian always has seemed to get this exactly wrong, creating pointless
annoyance for the users while selling out the free software principles
they yell so loudly about. They pretend to be RMS pure but make the
non-free repos with all of the unfree crap a single install option away;
but won't include the blobs on the install media to make that option
meaningful if your problematic hardware is the network adapter. So in
the end it makes Nvidia video, Adobe Flash and other horrid closed
abominations easy to install and keep updated but a firmware blob that
runs entirely outside of the CPU's address space stops install cold.