Many distributions of Linux prefer to include only free software and drivers by default, and Debian falls into that category. The reason for this can be due to moral decisions or licensing restrictions, but the result may be that a specific network card or hardware device ceases to function out of the box. Commonly, this is very typical with wireless cards. One example of this is Intel wireless cards. While these typically work without any tinkering needed when it comes to end-user distributions (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and so on), Enterprise distributions such as Debian often don't include these and force you to jump through additional hoops. The reason for this is because the software required for these cards to function isn't open-source, so the decision was made to not include it in the default repositories. Thankfully, this usually isn't too difficult to rectify providing you know the steps.

On Debian systems, there is a non-free parameter that...