The default ISO didn't come with non-free drivers until the latest release (12, bookworm). Unless you used the "unofficial" image which did include them. Now the situation is different.
Here is the relevant part from the release notes:
> In most cases firmware is non-free according to the criteria used by the Debian GNU/Linux project and thus cannot be included in the main distribution. If the device driver itself is included in the distribution and if Debian GNU/Linux legally can distribute the firmware, it will often be available as a separate package from the non-free-firmware section of the archive (prior to Debian GNU/Linux 12.0: from the non-free section).
> However, this does not mean that such hardware cannot be used during installation. Starting with Debian GNU/Linux 12.0, following the 2022 General Resolution about non-free firmware, official installation images can include non-free firmware packages. By default, debian-installer will detect required firmware (based on kernel logs and modalias information), and install the relevant packages if they are found on an installation medium (e.g. on the netinst). The package manager gets automatically configured with the matching components so that those packages get security updates. This usually means that the non-free-firmware component gets enabled, in addition to main.
If the default ISO already included non-free drivers, why would you have to separately enable the non-free repos to get firmware?
My Debian 12 install didn't come with proprietary Nvidia drivers, nor did it ask me if I wanted them during installation. I had to enable the non-free-firmware repo to get them.
Debian will not ship non-free software in its main repos / official installers. The unofficial images are exactly that, created outside the rules of the project to avoid this prohibition. But, you don't have to trust them.
You can download and place the non-free firmware files on a thumbdrive yourself, and the official installer can use them. It will stop and prompt you to insert the thumb drive if it is necessary to complete the installation.
If you e.g., netinstall over a wired ethernet connection, it is rarely a problem. But, all 802.11ac and above wifi chipsets require a non-free firmware. You can always add non-free to your sources.list and install nonfree firmware after installation for any devices other than those required for installation, i.e., your network adapter (and in maybe a super rare case for a desktop install, your disk controller).
There are unofficial "non-free" Debian images (both install and live) that contain said non-free firmware, though. And though they're 'unofficial', they may be needed to enable even fairly baseline features on recent hardware.
Clarification: I know there are instructions in the Debian documentation on how to put nonfree firmware on a USB drive and to use that drive with the free installer, but it's so much easier to just use the nonfree installer if you're going to be using nonfree firmware. Why make it hard if you're using the bits anyway?
That said, I'd love to see a lot more people writing about what hardware works with free firmware so we can decide if we want to go in that direction. I am all for that.
> We will include non-free firmware packages from the "non-free-firmware" section of the Debian archive on our official media (installer images and live images). The included firmware binaries will normally be enabled by default where the system determines that they are required, but where possible we will include ways for users to disable this at boot (boot menu option, kernel command line etc.).
"Debian Votes to Include Proprietary Firmware" in the headline is misleading. The Debian distribution already contained this firmware (in an isolated repository).
This vote seems to be about making it available by default on official media, making installation easier. This supersedes the previous approach, which as of this comment is still described here: https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware
Hm? Debian is famous for not including nonfree wireless firmware on purpose (drivers are an entirely different thing). They also provide an optional installer with these included.
So your example seems to be completely unrelated to the question.
These images are only "unofficial" due to the aforementioned non-free firmware; everything else in them is the same as in official images. Debian cannot guarantee that this firmware will be supported in any real sense, being proprietary; they're simply making it available for the user's convenience.
It's for firmware for network devices, especially wifi.
An annoying number of Debian installs fail on laptops because the wifi needs firmware and people expect it to work. You can choose to enable non-free after install, but the installer doesn't have that as a direct option.
Prior to this, an alternative installer was available that had the firmware in it... but it was not well-publicized, and was not the default or even available from the same page as the default.
If you install with non-free firmware, it will continue to be installed afterwards.
Unfortunately "non-free firmware" doesn't really capture the entire issue, akin to how the FSF misses the mark with their baked-into-flash exception. Unknown binary blob on a device effectively separated by an IOMMU? That's a peripheral, they all basically run non-free firmware. Unknown binary blob on a device that has DMA access? That's a tainted main computer and security issue.
I hope the installer settles out into making these distinctions and informing users of the compromises being made. When I stick a Debian installer into a machine that requires non-free firmware to work, my intent is pretty clear. But that doesn't apply to someone just starting out.
Often the required firmware is in the non-free section of Debian, which isn't enabled by default for idealism/purity reasons. It is very simple to enable installation of packages from the non-free section, and then usually everything just works. Basically, Ubuntu have chosen a different default - it probably doesn't actually have any firmware that Debian doesn't. Neither approach is wrong.
With Debian, the key thing is that you usually have to install the non-free-firmware package to make things like WiFi work (anything that needs a proprietary blob). This isn't done automatically.
Here is the relevant part from the release notes:
> In most cases firmware is non-free according to the criteria used by the Debian GNU/Linux project and thus cannot be included in the main distribution. If the device driver itself is included in the distribution and if Debian GNU/Linux legally can distribute the firmware, it will often be available as a separate package from the non-free-firmware section of the archive (prior to Debian GNU/Linux 12.0: from the non-free section).
> However, this does not mean that such hardware cannot be used during installation. Starting with Debian GNU/Linux 12.0, following the 2022 General Resolution about non-free firmware, official installation images can include non-free firmware packages. By default, debian-installer will detect required firmware (based on kernel logs and modalias information), and install the relevant packages if they are found on an installation medium (e.g. on the netinst). The package manager gets automatically configured with the matching components so that those packages get security updates. This usually means that the non-free-firmware component gets enabled, in addition to main.
https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/ch02s02.en.ht...
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