Wireless (was: Questions about Ubuntu)

[Ben Scott]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Jarod Wilson <jarod at wilsonet.com> wrote:
> Just to add some more evidence as to the current solid state of Linux
> wireless support...

  In my experience, it has also depended on the packaging policies of
the distribution and the hardware one happens to have.  In particular,
since Broadcom chips need firmware loaded by the driver, and I guess
the distros cannot legally distribute the Broadcom firmware, one could
run into chicken-and-egg problems when booting from a live CD and with
only wireless available.

  Maybe things have improved, but I don't see how anyone could get
around the firmware issue.

  For chips made by companies that don't suck like Broadcom does,
things have been pretty good for a number of years.  The problem is it
seems like everything uses a cheap Broadcom chip these days.

-- Ben