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totally anecdotal.... but i've installed debian on a bunch of different machines and i've never had to "prepare additional installation media" for any weird hardware/firmware/drivers.... i just installed the base system and connected ethernet if any non-free stuff is needed. has anyone ever come across an ethernet interface that didn't work out of the box? maybe it didn't work 100%, but at least good enough to download the proper firmware to fix?
Well, my laptop doesn't have an ethernet port. When it happened to me (not on Debian, I think Mint or something), I didn't even use a phone OS that was capable of sharing my internet via USB. Fun times.
Some wifi drivers. It's because of the Debian philosophy of never using non-free (as in speech, not beer) software.
Thats why i said you just need a few minutes on ethernet.... Although i can see the problem these days with a lot of laptops shipping without ethernet ports
These days Debian ship with non-free firmware in the default installer, so laptops without ethernet isn't a problem.
My old ThinkPad has non working ethernet. When I moved it to Debian after Ubuntu made 32 bit hard a non-free USB was by far the best way to get online