Wireless (was: Questions about Ubuntu)

[Jarod Wilson]

On Thu, 2008-09-18 at 15:58 -0400, Ben Scott wrote:
> 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.

There would be that.

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

I know Jeff Garzik has been repeatedly poking Broadcom, trying to get
them to let their firmware be distributed, but still, to no avail. Intel
gets it, RealTek gets it, a few others get it, Atheros just recently got
it, Broadcom is really the only holdout.

>   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.

Not everything cheap. The $330 Acer Aspire One I picked up a week or two
ago came with the Atheros AR2425 in it. Same chip is in some of the
EeePC line, and I believe the latest additions to the EeePC line are
equipped with a RealTek chip.


-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod at wilsonet.com