On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25:40PM +0000, Jeff Jennings wrote:

Recently, I decided to download Debian 12.4 and was alarmed to notice that Debian 12 downloads are no longer through https connections.

Do you mean, the initial download of the installer image?

Do you mean, the repository that's used during the installation to install
the selected tasks?

Do you mean, package installations that occur AFTER the installation?

If it's the second one, you get to choose your mirror during the
installation. I don't know whether https options are available that
early.

If it's the last one, you can just use an https mirror in your
sources.list file.

In addition, I installed 12.4 and discovered that the post installation repository links are non-free only.

I don't understand what you mean by this. Can you please PASTE your sources.list file here so we can see what you see?

Also, two of the largest corporate entities are evident within desktop notifications, prior to any updates to the operating system.

What desktop environment did you select?

What (mis)features are you seeing that you object to?

Have you considered using a different desktop environment, or NOT using
a desktop environment at all? Whatever you liked about your Debian 10
setup, you can probably get close to it (or identical if you're not using
a DE) in the newer release, once you know what your goal is.

Debian is *extremely* customizable. Install what you want, how you want.
If you don't like something, replace it with an alternative.

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Hi Jeff,

On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25:40PM +0000, Jeff Jennings wrote:

Please find a way to restore the integrity of open-source software distribution.

Firmware updates are required for almost every general purpose
computing device in existence and at this time those are non-free.

You have no choice about using them whether you use Debian or not,
because your computer hardware will come pre-installed with several
bits of non-free firmware, such as the CPU microcode and the entire
Minix-based OS that runs inside every Intel and AMD CPU. By refusing
to download newer firmwares you will not actually make your computer
usage any more ideologically pure, you will only make it less
reliable and secure.

Most Linux distributions provide firmware updates as a matter of
course, without really telling the user the difference between these
non-free software and the proper free software they also
distribute. Debian is different in that it tells you. In Debian, the
decision to enable non-free for firmware was a long and contentious
one, but it was done in the open. It's important to understand what
is going on before calling for its abolition.

https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware

If you somehow do have a device that doesn't require any non-free
firmware whatsoever, it's also easy to disable these repositories.
But this would be an unusual device in this day and age.

Thanks,
Andy

--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

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Am 16.01.2024 um 22:25:40 Uhr schrieb Jeff Jennings:

Recently, I decided to download Debian 12.4 and was alarmed to notice
that Debian 12 downloads are no longer through https connections.

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/bt-cd/

https works fine here.

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On 17 Jan 2024 03:21 +0000, from andy@strugglers.net (Andy Smith):

Please find a way to restore the integrity of open-source software distribution.

Firmware updates are required for almost every general purpose
computing device in existence and at this time those are non-free.

You have no choice about using them whether you use Debian or not,
because your computer hardware will come pre-installed with several
bits of non-free firmware, such as the CPU microcode and the entire Minix-based OS that runs inside every Intel and AMD CPU. By refusing
to download newer firmwares you will not actually make your computer
usage any more ideologically pure, you will only make it less
reliable and secure.

Another example of non-free firmware on a typical system might be that
running on and managing the internal workings of the storage device.

Or the UEFI/BIOS.

Or the display.

Or the network card.

Also, there seems to me to be some confusion on OP's part. What's
changed in Debian 12 compared to earlier releases is that a new,
separate component was added, named non-free-firmware; and non-free
firmware was moved into it from elsewhere. Previously firmware was
often packaged in non-free, so required either including the non-free
component as a whole or managing firmware blobs packages manually.

IMO, if anything, this change _helps_ things by creating a cleaner
separation between non-free packages which are to some extent
necessary for the secure use and proper functioning of the computer,
and those which are not required except for their particular uses.

Nothing forces you to include even non-free-firmware in your apt
sources list, but as has already been pointed out, you probably _want_
to do that in order to bring in firmware updates. You aren't running
any _less_ non-free software by not including it.

If you absolutely want to run an operating system with no non-free
components at all, the FSF has a list of distributions that they
recommend. https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html Be prepared
to need to make significant concessions in other areas if you use one
of those, and keep in mind that unless you have _really_ gone out of
your way in picking components, there will still be a _lot_ of
non-free code running on your computer.

--
Michael Kjörling 🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se “Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”

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