Hector Martin

I disagree with "no benefit" because being able to just take and flash free distributions without having to include blobs/enable non-free repos is a thing that directly benefits the user. I was porting SHR to N900 back in the day and I really wished it had its blobs stored too.

We ended up including an initial setup page that pointed users to instructions on how to copy the blobs from Maemo installation. Not having to deal with such bullshit and being able to just install things like Debian without contrib/non-free is definitely an advantage for me.

Notice that this is exactly the PureOS case - there's no non-free stuff in PureOS repos at all (like Debian main). That flash is IMO a very practical thing to have for a hackable FLOSS-oriented device. And worst case you just won't use it if you don't care.

We're back to square one. What's the *point* of those nonfree repos? Again, this is misrepresentation. Either you have blobs, or you don't. If you do, why is it so important that you stash them so the user doesn't need to care or know about them? Enable the damn nonfree repos.

Like do you *realize* the blatant doublethink this whole thing reeks of? "Our users dislike blobs, so instead of asking them to enable blobs, were going to provide blobs in a way they don't have to care about so they won't be disgusted by our blobs"

But the blobs are there anyway in much more places, even in the SD card or touchscreen controller - I doubt I have to explain that to *you* :P

What's important to me is whether I have to reach for non-free blobs when I build software to run on the user-oriented execution unit, and whether those blobs run on that unit itself. Getting rid of blobs contained in the hardware is also important, but it's a next, distinct step

Why? Why is that important to you? Do you get digital cooties if you touch a blob? Not running blobs on the main CPU has practical advantages. Not *touching* blobs with the main CPU serves no purpose. That's just FSF religious nonsense.