It's not "software" in that it's not something I choose to use. It's firmware, which is code that I have to use. Also, even if you do not agree with the above

It's not "software" in that it's not something I choose to use. It's firmware, which is code that I have to use. Also, even if you do not agree with the above statement, the kernel is unique enough to be granted an exception. If I can't get say sublime text or some proprietary decoder from the repos, that's a tiny annoyance; but if my screen gets funny colours or if I cannot connect to the wireless, that makes it unusable for me. And at that point you're effectively barring me from using free software (but with the exception of a couple blobs that I can totally live with given the status quo), not helping me adopt it. Yes Debian is not as cool (I really like Guix and GuixSD), but at least they are not impeding my day-to-day needs because of extremist morals. When I asked on the official mailing list for help and was told kindly to f off, that makes me sour enough to say meh, I can use a relatively less interesting distro if it has a better, unconditionally helpful community. Edit: also it's totally censorship to ban people from saying things they do know and could say.