• poVoq
    link
    fedilink
    22 years ago

    No my last point was different. At no point is Debian forcing you to use these non-Free firmwares. They are a purely optional inclusion in their installer for those people that do need to use them to get a functional system. Thus your digital rights are not negatively impacted at all.

      • poVoq
        link
        fedilink
        12 years ago

        Granted there are some rare edge cases where both options exist, but after installing Debian you are free to revert any such non-Free firmware on your actual system.

          • poVoq
            link
            fedilink
            22 years ago

            I think you somehow maneuvered yourself into a illogical position without realizing it?

            Including some optional firmwares in the install boot-medium infringes zero rights of yours and none of the 4 software freedoms are impacted by this.

            Complain with the hardware vendors for making these firmwares a requirement if you will, but better not buy such hardware in the first place. But Debian absolutely did the right thing here to their current and future users by optionally including these non-free firmwares regardless of what some ideological demagogues say.

              • poVoq
                link
                fedilink
                22 years ago

                I didn’t mean you personally with that, sorry if that was not clear.

              • poVoq
                link
                fedilink
                12 years ago

                Only if you run hardware that requires it. That is not the fault of Debian and making this hardware available for use is better than not doing it.

                  • poVoq
                    link
                    fedilink
                    02 years ago

                    The majority of the hardware either requires it, or it doesn’t. It is the rare edge case that it can also work in a degraded mode using only Free software, and you are free to not use such firmwares on your system after installing Debian on it. But yes in the 30 minutes or so that you use the installer it will be auto-loaded helping a lot of users actually install an running system and inflicting no damage to you at all.