@rozenglass @SuperSnekFriend @Suiseiseki
>but also includes some closed-source proprietary software in some core parts of the operating system, to improve the user-experience.
>If the line is to be drawn, where would it be?
debian installer really *should* ask the user before installing convenience (but nonfree) drivers. i forget what other distributions' installers have this prompt, but i remember being asked by at least one of them at some point. that said, even the kernel has long been tainted to the degree that people felt the need to spin off into linux-libre, and now that it's unmaintained, by default no linux distribution can live up to the stringent "fully free" standard expressed here

the obvious counterargument is "well, if you don't want proprietary firmware, choose open hardware" and ideally we live in this world, but in reality linux sets out to support whatever hardware it can by any means until free alternatives are sufficient. i speak from a hardware-preservationist perspective when i say, for my needs, it's "good enough" when i can't control the hardware. if i'm buying hardware or building new systems myself, i try my best to avoid closed hardware altogether; it's why i made it a point to build my network stack with openwrt-supported devices rather than opting for dd-wrt or similar, and why i rebuilt my desktop with amd/amd, because overall those are better alternatives. but i still have some shit lingering around especially when it comes to NICs and maybe the odd peripheral