Soren Stoutner <[email protected]> writes: > On Sunday, March 1, 2026 4:18:39 PM Mountain Standard Time Jonas Smedegaard > wrote: >> Do you also agree it is not useful to label a single Debian Pure Blend >> more "Libre" that anything else? Because as I understand it, that is >> the very point that Gunnar was making and that I tried to examplify. > > I would consider it fairly uncontroversial that a Debian blend that did not > contain non-free-firmware would be more "Libre" than a version of Debian that > does contain non-free-firmware. It’s in the name. “Non-free” means “Not > Libre”. “Debian Libre” means “no non-free stuff".
Thanks for expressing that, I felt alone in holding that interpretation. > My only concern is that, without further labeling or distinction, it might > not > be obvious to end users what the implications are for installation on most > hardware. This is why I suggested a warning on the website explaining to > users that Debian Libre is not recommended on most hardware due to security/ > functionality limitations when running without non-free-firmware. Feel free to suggest improvements: https://codeberg.org/debian-deblob/debian-deblob-live I think the warning has to go both ways: By installing non-free-firmware you open up to one set of security (and other) problems. By NOT installing non-free-firmware you open to to another set of security (and other) problems. I don't think we can pretend to know which trade-off is best for everyone. Explaining the trade-off in a neutral fact-based way would be useful. The Debian Deblob README already explain some of the advantages of not including non-free-firmware, but it could explain better the disadvantages. I don't want to lead people to install non-free-firmware after installing Debian Deblob though, that goes against the spirit of using the blend in the first place. I suspect few people would be coming to Debian Deblob not knowing about these matters though. But there is no problem to explain the disadvantages of Debian Deblob, much like we can explain the disadvantages of Debian or free software. We are probably not the best suited people to do this genuinely though, but understanding the negative things may help us to improve. /Simon
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