I totally agree with you. This isn't just an issue for libre GNU/Linux users
though. Non-free software negatively impacts everybody and the Ubuntu
population is (unkowningly) doing themselves and everybody else a diservice
by supporting non-free software- particularly where there are decent free
software friendly solutions available.
I like what Debian has done in recent releases. They stopped shipping the
non-free firmware with the distribution even though there is still support
for it. I think ultimately what we should be doing as distributors of
GNU/Linux (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc) is releasing software that is more
freedom friendly and point people to freedom friendly hardware. It may not be
the right answer although it at least builds the demand.
I think that is largely what Trisquel has done (all a bit more extreme- for
the right reasons) and even while I don't think Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or other
distributions are going to impliment it to this extent there is still room to
work with them where the goals overlap (freedom for support / ease of use
/etc - rather than ethical).
