I'm inclined to agree, but, apparently, there are hardware manufacturers who sue anyone who distributes their binary blobs without permission, but are quite happy to give Ubuntu and Debian and Redhat permission.. Freedom is not having to ask permission.

The Debian Free Software Guidelines (paragraph 8) clearly says that "License Must Not Be Specific to Debian".

http://www.debian.org/social_contract

Like the article tells, Debian developers are currently negotiating if the firmware blobs should be removed before or after the Lenny release. In any case, Debian developers are removing all the kernel binary blobs from their main repository and they won't distribute any software where the distribution license is not the same for everyone.

AFAIK, the Debian installer for Lenny already checks your hardware and it prompts for additional non-free packages of drivers or firmware (which the user needs to download separately from the installer) if your hardware needs them to work properly. Then it's up to the user to decide if non-free drivers or firmware will be installed.

Also Debian has release cycles, you know. But while Ubuntu's release cycles are inflexible and tied to arbitrary release dates, Debian's release cycles are more flexible and they can afford to wait until the release has actually become stable and ready.

You mention GNOME and Linux as examples that other projects should follow, but you should remember that the early GNOME2 releases were unusable crap, as were were the early Linux 2.6 releases. KDE4 also makes time-based releases now, and so far their releases have been crap. But once GNOME2 and Linux 2.6 matured, they started to make quite usable releases. And it looks like KDE4 will also mature soon, so I'd expect they'll too start making usable releases in the near future.

With distros it's a bit different, though. Distros package software from various sources, and they can refuse to include software that they consider to be just development previews (like early GNOME2, early Linux 2.6, or early KDE4). Distros can cherry-pick stuff that is known to work without problems, if they want to. Or they can include the latest and greatest versions of software and then put their hands together in prayer, hoping that everything works -- even if they haven't really had time to test it.

Ubuntu wants to include the latest versions of software in their releases (even in the so called "LTS" releases), and they have a strict release schedule they need to obey. Quite often this means that they don't have much time to test the software that they include in their releases. Ubuntu is also known to ship with pre-release versions of some popular software programs, even in the "LTS" releases. With such a misguided release policy, Ubuntu can never become mature enough to make releases that are actually stable and well-tested.

Debian, on the other hand, cherry-picks software that is known to work, and they also take time to carefully test software that goes into their stable releases. They only release when the developers think that all the serious bugs have been fixed and the release has really become stable. That's really the reason why Debian releases are so much more stable and trouble-free than Ubuntu releases.

Only two months later than expected, the Debian project has completed the first release candidate of Lenny's installer.

Unfortunately, an installer RC is not the final distribution release.

Lookout, world, Debian releases are picking up speed!

I don't think so. It'll still take a couple more months before the final Lenny release will be out. There will yet be another installer release candidate (RC2), and that will also need some further testing before the final release.

Still, I think the Lenny release will be well worth the wait for users who want a stable server OS. (Desktop users would prefer Debian's "testing" branch because it has more up-to-date software.) Debian doesn't put out half-assed and buggy releases just to meet arbitrary release dates, like Ubuntu does. Debian won't make a stable release until it's really ready and stable.