@sally @phnt @newt >most GPUs after 2017 and a lot of NICs surely need proprietary software to work at all
Ironically even the most proprietary nvidia GPUs still work without any proprietary software if you're happy with no re-clocking (nouveau can read the option EEPROM in the VBIOS without executing it and init the card to native resolution).

As for AMD cards, you do at least need to execute the nonfree Option EEPROM to get an image, but a similar thing to what nouveau does should be possible and you can often get native resolution by using the ATI driver.


Most wired NIC's just werk without proprietary software, but there are many garbage wireless NIC's and a few garbage (Broadcom) wired NICs.