On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 12:08:35 +0100, Philipp Kern <pk...@debian.org> wrote: >It's not very relevant today anymore, but my first Linux distributions >(including Debian) were actually store-bought. If we had needed to rely >on firmware back then (which we did not) and would it not have been >included in the box, the user would have been pretty much out of luck. >Especially on the networking side. I guess the end result is the >equivalent of shipping a separate driver disk with all the non-free bits. :(
The only worse experience I can think of was late Windows XP, when having floppy disk drives was already out of fashion, but the only praticable¹ way of getting the drivers needed for the installer to see the disks into the installer was a floppy disk. Greetings Marc ¹ short of having a second CD-ROM drive -- -------------------------------------- !! No courtesy copies, please !! ----- Marc Haber | " Questions are the | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | Beginning of Wisdom " | Nordisch by Nature | Lt. Worf, TNG "Rightful Heir" | Fon: *49 621 72739834