Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 16th Apr 2008 20:05 UTC, submitted by Rahul
LWN reports: When kernel developers talk about problematic hardware vendors, Atheros often appears near the top of their lists. So this announcement from Luis Rodriguez, a developer of the reverse-engineered ath5k driver, is intriguing: "I write to you to inform you that I have decided to join Atheros as a full time employee, as a Software Engineer, to help them with their goals and mission to get every device of Atheros supported upstream in the Linux kernel." What will come of this remains to be seen, but if it truly signals a change of heart at Atheros, it is a most welcome development.
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Member since:
2007-02-17
There is a whole new class of machine opening up.
Microsoft have come up with a new term to describe them: "Ultra low cost PCs" or ULCPCs. Microsoft have even extended the life of XP Home to try to cater for this market ... because each and every manufacturer is offering a Linux option on their ULCPC.
There are at least six manufacturers who have a machine lined up for this market ... the EEEPC and the XO OLPC laptops were just the beginning.
Since they all run Linux, and they all have wireless connectivity ... this amounts to literally millions of machines that will require a wireless chip this year which must have a Linux driver. ASUS alone expects to sell 6 million machines ... even if over 50% of those have Windows installed on delivery ... they will still be the same machine in hardware terms as the ones which have Linux installed ... so all 6 million units must have a wireless chip that has a Linux driver available for it.
That is just one manufacturer. So we are talking sales here of perhaps 20 million units a year for any manufacturer of a decent, low cost wireless chip which has a good Linux driver.
Not to be sneezed at.