[Freedombox-discuss] Freedombox on a free operating system

[bill-auger]

On Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:56:04 +0800 Sandy wrote:
> Would Devuan be any better? I prefer it because it does not use
> systemd, but do not know what it does about firmware.

devuan has included non-free firmware on it's ISOs since the
first release (about 5 years before debian decided to so the
same), and the installer configured the non-free repos
automatically, whether the machine needed them or not

that was the early end of my interest in devuan - i dont know
about today; but i doubt that has changed - they closed my bug
report three years later (essentially 'wont-fix') - users may
select the "expert install" option to opt-out of the non-free
repos; but the user _must_ select the "expert install" option,
_before_ being presented with the option to opt-out

thats not "better" IMHO - the implication is that "only experts
would want to avoid non-free software - most people should use
non-free firmware; and not care or even be aware of the concern"


On Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:56:04 +0800 Sandy wrote:
> Is this mostly illusory anyway, since most systems come with
> non-free firmware

if your hardware requires non-free firmware, there should be no
illusion - people should be aware of that and the implications -
then perhaps those people could be more mindful of their future
purchases

this is why the FSDG distros are dedicated to keeping non-free
software out of their repos entirely - if non-systemd is your
preference, you could use gnuinos for example; and stop
wondering about illusions

if there is no source code freely available for some hardware,
that will be plainly obvious on a FSDG distro - the hardware
simply will not work - the hardware can usually be replaced
though; so going libre is rarely a "deal-breaker" - most people
will happily buy a replacement wifi thingy or whatever

guixsd, hyperbola, and parabola are also non-systemd distros;
but those do not have freedombox packaged - trisquel and pureos
do, but those use systemd

those are the worry-free options - any other distros (even
relatively libre ones like debian and fedora) leave users
to wonder what to install or not, based on each's knowledge and
vigilance