This is a case of Debian conceding a loss in a longer battle, where the battle line gets drawn (moved backward into our territory) between sides. Hardware vendors have succeeded in normalizing nonfree firmware to the point of ubiquity.And it is somewhat painful to me to now have non-free firmware in the installation media included by default, but I understand that this makes things much easier for a lot of people. It always bugged me that the FSF didn't accept Debian as a free software distribution. Now it is clearer than ever before, that this won't happen.
Despite me agreeing with Richard Stallman on the idea that free software is even better where it works worse than proprietary software for it providing freedom, I still prefer Debian over the distributions he and the FSF promote.
My concern with this decision is the slippery slope. What else is Debian going to cede ground on? Is it just a matter of popular vote?
Statistics: Posted by Uptorn — 2024-09-07 15:15 — Replies 11 — Views 4017