Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.debian.devel > #116293

Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion

Show all headers | View raw

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] - view raw

The ideal laptop in my dreams is running pure Debian on a RISC-V CPU,
and all firmware from BIOS/EFI to peripheral devices has the source
code available with a license which allows the free-software community
to maintain it and remove undesired features.

Unfortunately, even though we are getting closer every year, we do not
have such hardware yet for the greater market for a reasonable price.
If you want to run an Intel- or AMD-based laptop, you have no choice
but to run their firmware, BIOS, EFI, microcode etc. More firmware is
required for video and network devices. Unfortunately, you cannot run
much of it without proprietary firmware, no matter if that firmware is
on the Debian CD or not.

Please note that firmware is something different than drivers. The best
option that I see at the moment with commodity hardware is to buy
hardware which does not require proprietary drivers. So at least the
main CPU and memory is free from undesired code. This is much easier
today then it used to be. I run my primary workstations without any
proprietary driver, application or library for years.

I really feel with you. I really wish there were more options without
proprietary firmware. But I not see any options.

The POWER9-based Raptor systems are advertised with free firmware, but
they use AMD video cards and Broadcom Ethernet. So I think that what
they mean by free firmware only applies to the BIOS/EFI. The coreboot
and libreboot projects also need some blobs for Intel and AMD based
systems.

Microcode is fortunately a thing of the past. It is an idea from the
1960's CISC design which is uncommon and unnecessary for RISC
processors. So the most important goal is to get develop laptop with
free EFI and free video firmware.

Regards
Stephan

Back to linux.debian.devel | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> - 2025-03-07 22:00 +0100
  Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org> - 2025-03-08 12:50 +0100
    Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> - 2025-03-08 13:50 +0100
      Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Aurélien COUDERC <libre@coucouf.fr> - 2025-03-08 14:30 +0100
      Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion  of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Andrey Rakhmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2025-03-08 15:00 +0100
        Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion  of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Andrey Rakhmatullin <wrar@debian.org> - 2025-03-10 12:00 +0100
      Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Simon Josefsson <simon@josefsson.org> - 2025-03-08 16:30 +0100
      Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues <josch@debian.org> - 2025-03-08 16:30 +0100
        Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2025-03-08 16:50 +0100
        Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of  Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Stephan Verbücheln <verbuecheln@posteo.de> - 2025-03-08 23:40 +0100
  Re: Reconsidering Debian’s Inclusion of  Non-Free Firmware - A Call for Discussion Stephan Verbücheln <verbuecheln@posteo.de> - 2025-03-08 16:40 +0100

csiph-web