Steve McIntyre, who held the position of project leader for Debian for several years, has initiated a re-evaluation of Debian's approach to the delivery of proprietary firmware, which is currently not included in the official installation images and is supplied in a separate non-free repository. According to Steve, striving for the ideal of providing only open-source software creates unnecessary difficulties for users, who in many cases must install proprietary firmware if they wish to achieve full functionality of their hardware.
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. Because of this, installation images with proprietary firmware are built separately and classified as unofficial, even though their development and maintenance are formally managed by the Debian project.
Thus, a certain status quo has been reached within the community that combines the desire to deliver only open-source software in the distribution with the users' need for firmware. There is also a small set of free firmware included in the official builds and in the main repository, but such firmware is very rare and insufficient in most cases.
The approach used in Debian creates many problems, including inconvenience for users and resource expenditure on building, testing, and hosting unofficial builds with closed firmware. The project presents the official images as the main recommended builds, but this only confuses users, as they encounter hardware support issues during the installation process. The use of unofficial builds unintentionally promotes non-free software, as the user receives the non-free repository with other non-free software along with the firmware, whereas if the firmware were offered separately, without including the non-free repository, it would be possible to avoid such a situation.
Koha më shumë prodhuesit po përdorin gjithnjë e më shumë firmware të jashtëm, të ngarkuara nga sistemi operativ, në vend të ofrimit të firmware në memorien e përhershme të pajisjeve. Të tilla firmware të jashtme janë të nevojshme për shumë adaptues modernë grafikë, audio dhe rrjeti. Megjithatë, është e paqartë se sa firmware mund të përfshihen në kërkesat për ofrimin vetëm të softuerit të lirë, pasi në thelb firmware ekzekutohen në pajisje harduerike, jo në sistem, dhe i përkasin harduerit. Me një sukses të ngjashëm, në kompjuterët modernë, të pajisur edhe me shpërndarje të plota të lira, ekzekutohen firmware të ndërtuara në harduer. Diferenca është se disa firmware shkarkohen nga sistemi operativ, ndërsa të tjera janë tashmë të programuar në BIOS ose Flash.
Stefani paraqiti për diskutim pesë opsione kryesore për ofrimin e firmware në Debian, të cilat planifikohen të dalin në votim të përgjithshëm midis zhvilluesve:
Steve himself advocates for the adoption of the fifth point, which will allow the project to not deviate too much from the promotion of free software while making the product user-friendly and beneficial. The installer proposes to clearly separate free and non-free firmware, giving users the ability to make an informed choice and informing them whether the available free firmware supports current hardware and if there are projects to create free firmware for existing devices. There are also plans to add a setting to disable the package with non-free firmware during the loading stage.
Burimi: opennet.ru
