OpenBSD is in a similar boat and continues to fight the good fight. The developers continue to reach out to the hardware manufacturers to get permission to include firmware in OpenBSD without an NDA. Sometimes they're successful, but, more often than not, they're not. I think if more of the open source community stood steadfast in this regard, more progress could be made here. The saddest part of all this, perhaps, is we're all purchasing hardware that is, basically, useless without the firmware as it's not included with the hardware we purchased.
OpenBSD kinda does what's proposed here. The firmware packages aren't included in the distribution per se, but they're auto downloaded. It's pretty transparent for users.
Yes, but one you need these blobs for wireless, you will may to use a wired connection or download them to a flash drive and copy them over.
What OpenBSD seems better, but in many cases, you may need a wired connection for on First Install. Upgrading, no issues but I like to be plugged in anyway just in case wireless drops.
