Not all GNU/Linux distributions ship with a Linux-libre kernel, which is a kernel that has removed all the nonfree components such as binary blobs. The Free Software Foundation maintains a list of distributions that use Linux-libre kernels by default: https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html
More on Linux-libre: https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Linux-libre https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/ https://jxself.org/linux-libre/
I recently installed GNU/Linux on several computers (I have a few more to do this on), and I chose a Linux-libre distribution rather than my earlier Debian/Ubuntu based choice.
Debian has a package in the non-free repository named (IIRC) 'firmware-linux-nonfree' which allows users to plug the non-free bits back in if they desire. This is probably not possible with linux-libre.
In my experience, I have needed the non-free firmware to get WiFi working on some machines.
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