To expand on this, for Linux, most of the drivers are actually open source!
For the other stuff, there are “kernel modules”, that the kernel loads and runs in kernel space (just like how user programs can load libraries to do stuff). So they’re part of the kernel in that sense, but not necessarily open source. But that doesn’t mean the kernel isn’t open source at all, just that it might, optionally, be running other code that’s proprietary.
(Most kernel modules are open source, too. It’s only a few weird ones like Nvidia’s proprietary driver that aren’t.)
By “shipped with the kernel”, do you mean by the kernel people? Or just by distros?
Because I don’t think the kernel people ship anything proprietary. Distros do, because distros are in the business of actually putting together a functional operating system, but that doesn’t make the kernel nonfree any more than some distros shipping Steam by default makes the kernel nonfree. (Personally I like that our distro of choice doesn’t ship Steam preinstalled, but I like having nonfree wifi firmware on the install disc because it’s really hard to get wifi drivers when you don’t have working wifi.)
For example, Debian and Fedora don’t ship with proprietary drivers. The user is still able to install those later, making the OS partially closed source.
Some distros, like Bazzite, give you the proprietary drivers during installation, which makes those partially closed source out of the box.
To expand on this, for Linux, most of the drivers are actually open source!
For the other stuff, there are “kernel modules”, that the kernel loads and runs in kernel space (just like how user programs can load libraries to do stuff). So they’re part of the kernel in that sense, but not necessarily open source. But that doesn’t mean the kernel isn’t open source at all, just that it might, optionally, be running other code that’s proprietary.
(Most kernel modules are open source, too. It’s only a few weird ones like Nvidia’s proprietary driver that aren’t.)
There’s a reason why I wrote “not (fully) open source”. Some drivers aren’t open source and it’s very hard to completely avoid proprietary drivers.
By “shipped with the kernel”, do you mean by the kernel people? Or just by distros?
Because I don’t think the kernel people ship anything proprietary. Distros do, because distros are in the business of actually putting together a functional operating system, but that doesn’t make the kernel nonfree any more than some distros shipping Steam by default makes the kernel nonfree. (Personally I like that our distro of choice doesn’t ship Steam preinstalled, but I like having nonfree wifi firmware on the install disc because it’s really hard to get wifi drivers when you don’t have working wifi.)
– Frost
For example, Debian and Fedora don’t ship with proprietary drivers. The user is still able to install those later, making the OS partially closed source.
Some distros, like Bazzite, give you the proprietary drivers during installation, which makes those partially closed source out of the box.