"... , every problem also brings opportunity. In the case of firmware above, perhaps it would be useful for Debian to fund reverse engineering of firmware where it seems plausible. Perhaps that should be done under a consortium for that goal that could get some specific sponsorship from all the companies who would like to see that goal materialized."
Would love to see that happening. Imagine Debian funding Asahi Linux! I am glad to hear they plan to invest in open hardware too.
Asahi Linux is only working on the bootloader and Linux kernel layers I thought. I expect all the M1 firmware is signed by Apple and free firmware can't be used?
What Asahi are doing is more like reverse engineering of drivers and the interface between drivers and hardware/firmware.
The issues Debian is talking about are more about the firmware blobs needed for WiFi devices. The Linux drivers exist and are included in Debian, but the software running on the WiFi device is proprietary software is not pre-installed on the device but instead uploaded by the Linux driver to the WiFi device at boot time and then runs on the WiFi device itself.
Would love to see that happening. Imagine Debian funding Asahi Linux! I am glad to hear they plan to invest in open hardware too.