October 5, 2022
From the next version, Debian 12, aka Bookworm, Debian Linux will include proprietary firmware. Although Debian has always offered a selection of installation images that contain proprietary software, they have been described as experimental.
Plans to implement this change are already underway. Debian Linux 12 with the new closed-source software will arrive in 2023.
In the future, Debian will include non-free firmware packages on its official installer images and live images, and these firmware binaries will be enabled by default if necessary.
Although many Linux distributions, including ArchLinux and Fedora, have long included “necessary” proprietary drivers, Debian continued to lock out proprietary software.
Leah Rowe, lead developer and founder of Libreboot and OSBoot, open-source boot and firmware, said they “wholeheartedly approve this decision.”
‘Freedom is very much preferable and a world where everyone can use Free Software exclusively, is to be welcomed. However, we do not yet live in that world,” Rowe said.
Users who prefer to run a Linux distribution without proprietary code can do so with the Debian-based PureOS and Ubuntu-based Trisquel.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNet.
