Steve McIntyre, who has served as the leader of the Debian project for several years, has proposed rethinking Debian's approach to providing proprietary firmware, which is currently not included in the official installation images and is supplied in a separate non-free repository. According to Steve, the attempts to achieve the ideal of supplying only open-source software lead to unnecessary difficulties for users, who often have to install proprietary firmware in order to ensure their hardware functions properly.
Proprietary firmware is placed in a separate non-free repository, alongside other packages that are not distributed under free and open licenses. The non-free repository is not officially part of the Debian project, and packages from it cannot be included in installation and live builds. As a result, installation images with proprietary firmware are compiled separately and categorized as unofficial, even though they are formally developed and maintained by the Debian project.
Thus, a certain status quo has been reached within the community, combining the desire to deliver only open-source software in the distribution and the users' need for firmware. There is also a small set of free firmware included in the official builds and the main repository, but there are very few such firmware packages, and they are insufficient in most cases.
The approach adopted in Debian creates many problems, including inconvenience for users and resource expenditure on compiling, testing, and hosting unofficial builds with proprietary firmware. The project promotes the official images as the main recommended builds, but this only confuses users, as they encounter hardware support issues during installation. The use of unofficial builds inadvertently promotes non-free software, as users receive the non-free repository along with firmware, while if the firmware were offered separately, without including the non-free repository, it could be avoided.
Recently, manufacturers have increasingly turned to the use of external firmware loaded by the operating system, instead of providing firmware stored in the permanent memory of the devices themselves. Such external firmware is necessary for many modern graphics, sound, and network adapters. However, the question of whether firmware can be classified under the requirements for supplying only free software is ambiguous, as firmware essentially runs on hardware devices rather than in the system, thus relating to the equipment. Similarly, modern computers equipped even with completely free distributions run firmware embedded in the hardware. The only difference is that some firmware is loaded by the operating system, while others are already flashed into ROM or Flash memory.
Steve presented five main options for the firmware delivery format in Debian to be put to a general vote among developers:
Steve himself advocates for the adoption of the fifth point, which will allow the project to stay focused on promoting free software while making the product convenient and useful for users. The installer proposes to clearly separate free and non-free firmware, giving users the opportunity to make an informed choice and informing them whether the available free firmware supports the current hardware and if there are projects for creating free firmware for the existing devices. During the boot process, there are also plans to add an option to disable the package with non-free firmware.
Source: opennet.ru
