Well yes it does require a firmware still however now one is free to distribute said firmware
provided by the kernel under this firmware license
(provided in git commit: 8ce599d7e75d7e998a325408ae9507bf9e3388c0)
So it would be in the linux-firmware package or something, usually already installed for with your
distrobution of choice.
so they've released the firmware too but only in binary form under thier license
all that you said I agreed with, except your last line
In short, Dell's right: if you're new to computing, install Ubuntu. If you have legacy MS apps, bend over!!
Dell's site explicitly says "if you are new to computing, install/get MS Windows".
I however think that if you are new to computing, aka never ever has used a PC before, it actually doesn't matter which system you get as long as you have one to show you the robes. That said my opinion is that they should be introduced to Linux (be it Ubuntu or any other user friendly distro) first though.
Similarly, help files and forums have people running shell commands and editing configuration files - that's just voodoo to a totally new computer user, and if nothing else ingraining a "just run whatever the forum tells you as administrator" mindset is not good.
Likewise, which to my knowledge is still the standard, any newly installed MS Windows system has the primary user setup as Administrator that is similarly a dangerous situation. So how would that be any different?
At least in ubuntu you have to invoke the judo command, or similarly, to elevate the user. Okay to Windows' defence it now has a bunch of security warning boxes when the user is about to access or change the system.
This file will self-destruct in five minutes.
