Steve McIntair (Steve McIntyre), who held the post of the Debian project leader, spoke with the initiative of rethinking Debian Relationship The supply of proprietary firmware, which is currently not included in the formal installation images and are supplied in a separate non-free repository. According to Steve, attempts to achieve an ideal regarding the delivery of only open software lead to excessive difficulties in users who in many cases have to install proprietary firmware, if they wish to achieve a full work of their equipment.
Proprietary firmware are placed in a separate non-free refosuit, along with other packages distributed not under free and open licenses. The non-FREE repository is not officially applied to the Debian project and packages from it cannot be part of the installation and live assemblies. Because of this, installation images with proprietary firmware are collected separately and attributed to the category unofficial , although the project is developing and maintained by their development and maintenance Debian.
Thus, the community will reach a certain QWO status, in which the desire to deliver only open software and the need for users in the firmware in the distribution. There is a small set of free firmware, which is included in the official assemblies and the Main repository, but there are very few such firmware and they are not enough in most cases.
Now the approach creates many problems, among which the inconvenience for users and spending resources to assemble, testing and placing informal assemblies with closed firmware. The project presents official images as the main recommended assemblies, but only introduces these users into confusion, since during the installation they are faced with problems in supporting equipment. The use of unofficial assemblies involuntarily leads to the promotion of non-free software, since the user along with firmware and the connected non-free repository with another non-free software, while if the firmware were proposed separately, without switching on the Non-Free repository one could do.
Steve delivered five main options for making the supply of firmware in Debian, which are planned to put on a general voting of developers:
- leave everything as it is, supply closed firmware only in separate unofficial assemblies.
- Stop the provision of informal assemblies with non-free firmware and bring the distribution in line with the ideology of the project for the supply of only free software.
- Translate unofficial assemblies with firmware in the category of official and supply them in parallel and in one place with assemblies, including only free software, which will simplify the user’s search for the desired firmware.