McIntyre: Firmware - what are we going to do about it?

Steve McIntyre argues thatDebian needs to rethink its approach to non-free firmware.

Today, a user with a new laptop from most vendors will struggle touse it at all with our firmware-free Debian installationmedia. Modern laptops normally don't come with wired ethernetnow. There won't be any usable graphics on the laptop's screen. Avisually-impaired user won't get any audio prompts. Theseexperiences are not acceptable, by any measure.