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sources/news/20220726 Debian May Consider Including Non-Free Firmware in Official Releases.md
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Debian May Consider Including Non-Free Firmware in Official Releases
Debian is one of the most loved Linux distributions for its approach to stability and a balance between new features.
Also, it does not come with any non-free firmware.
However, that is becoming an issue for users who want to use Debian on newer hardware.
Most of the latest devices and configurations need non-free firmware to make things work, which includes Wi-Fi, graphics, and more.
And to address that, Steve McIntyre, a Debian developer and a former Debian project leader, has been actively discussing the issue for a while.
At the DebConf 22 conference, Steve recently talked about fixing the firmware mess to highlight this better to users and developers, as spotted by Geeker’s Digest.
Including Non-Free Firmware in Official Releases
As for the current situation, you can find an unofficial Debian image with non-free firmware.
However, not every user is aware of it, and even if it is promoted on Debian’s download page, “unofficial” is not something a user will prefer over the recommended image.
Also, it is counter-intuitive to expect users to install non-free firmware when they can choose any Ubuntu-based distribution or Ubuntu as an alternative.
Not just limited to these issues, Steve mentions a few other problems with it in his blog that include:
- Maintaining separate non-free images is time-consuming.
- The official images are not preferred by many users because of the lack of non-free firmware.
Steve proposes that this mess be fixed sooner than later if we want more users to use Debian on common hardware.
Potentially through a prompt in the installer for users to install non-free firmware, similar to what Ubuntu does.
Furthermore, in his talk at DebConf 22, it seems that most of the developers voted to add non-free firmware in official Debian images.
And with the recent highlight, Steve has gotten more attention from users/developers to find a solution to this problem as a community.
The easy/convenient way out: adding non-free firmware in official release images.
So, will Debian finally add support for non-free firmware in its newer releases? Will Debian 12 make this a reality?
Share your thoughts in the comments down below.
via: https://news.itsfoss.com/debian-non-free/
作者：Ankush Das 选题：lujun9972 译者：译者ID 校对：校对者ID