Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 8th Apr 2008 12:40 UTC, submitted by SEJeff
Linux Here's an update on the Linux Driver Project. "The Linux Driver Project is alive and well, with over 300 developers wanting to participate, many drivers already written and accepted into the Linux kernel tree, and many more being currently developed. The main problem is a lack of projects. It turns out that there really isn't much hardware that Linux doesn't already support. Almost all new hardware produced is coming with a Linux driver already written by the company, or by the community with help from the company. There are two main classes of hardware, video input devices and wireless network cards, that is not well supported by Linux, but large efforts are already underway to resolve this issue, with the wireless driver issue pretty much taken care of already, however there are a few notable exceptions. Because of this, our main effort has turned into one of education. Educating vendors of how to become members of the Linux kernel community, proper coding standards and procedures, and how to get their code into the kernel tree."
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RE: Just a little bit more
by lemur2 on Tue 8th Apr 2008 13:57 UTC in reply to "Just a little bit more"
lemur2
Member since:
2007-02-17

Take a look at any broadcom wireless card.


Broadcom wireless is listed specifically as one of the hardware devices that is not supported by Linux due to the recalcitrant manufacturer.

FTA: "There are still some wireless vendors that do not provide Linux support directly. Two of these, Atheros and Broadcom have drivers created by the community through reverse engineering efforts. These drivers usually lag the introduction of the hardware by a number of months due to the lack of vendor support. Both of these companies have internal versions of drivers for their new hardware, but efforts on getting them to release them so far has been resisted."

Therefore ... avoid any hardware with a Broadcom chip in it. Shun it.

Maybe then Broadcom will feel the stupidity of their attitude to rejecting custom from a section of the market for no good reason.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 17

RE[2]: Just a little bit more
by Moulinneuf on Tue 8th Apr 2008 16:46 in reply to "RE: Just a little bit more"
Moulinneuf Member since:
2005-07-06

"Broadcom wireless is listed specifically as one of the hardware devices that is not supported by Linux"

http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices

"Therefore ... avoid any hardware with a Broadcom chip in it. Shun it."

Better yet , get to know the Free Software developper who are interested in making it work and help them by testing there solution and reporting the problems and funding them instead of company who are not interested in fixing the problem.

If you really think shunning something as brought on any real solution your seriously delusionnal.

GNU/Linux started with nothing , if it had shun everything that did not work or wanted to support it there would be nothing supported today.

Edited 2008-04-08 16:47 UTC

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5