To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
From: Jan Rychter <jan@rychter.com>
Subject: Re: Announce: ndiswrapper
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 15:13:27 -0800
Message-ID: <m2ekvyel0o.fsf@tnuctip.rychter.com>
References: <20031120031137.GA8465@bougret.hpl.hp.com>
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>>>>> "Jean" == Jean Tourrilhes <jt@bougret.hpl.hp.com> writes:
 Jean> Jeff Garzik wrote :
 >> Pontus Fuchs wrote:
 > Please! I don't want to start a flamewar if this is a good thing to
 > do.  I'm just trying to scratch my own itch and I doubt that this
 > project changes the way Broadcom treats Linux users.
 >>
 >> Then help us reverse engineer the driver :)
 >>
 >> Jeff

 Jean> Even better :
 Jean> 1) go to the Wireless LAN Howto
 Jean> 2) find a card are supported under Linux that suit your needs
 Jean> 3) buy this card
 Jean> I don't see the point of giving our money to vendors that don't
 Jean> care about us when there are vendors making a real effort toward
 Jean> us.  Regards,

Unfortunately, this means you can't buy a "Centrino"-based
laptop. Actually, that pretty much means you can't get any recent
laptop.

I'd like on this occasion to remind everyone that Intel left Linux out
in the cold in spite of loud announcements of upcoming Linux support for
the "Centrino" marketing thing (see for example
http://news.com.com/2100-1006-993896.html or
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-993896.html or
http://www.intel.com/support/notebook/centrino/sb/cs-006059-prd955.htm).

There is of course the "Intel Support of Centrino Under Linux" petition
(http://www.petitiononline.com/xanthan/petition.html), which seems to
have done some good as the aforementioned Intel page has been updated to
say the drivers are "under development".

Still, even if they are "under development", this means some other
operating systems have had an unfair over one-year advantage over
Linux. That's a *big, long* advantage.

I'm a bit surprised that nobody has sued Intel yet for unfair market
practices, as providing documentation on chipset workings to select
vendors certainly constitutes one. But I guess that's politics, nobody
wants to mess with the big guys, it's better to play along and get early
access to server architectures.

I find it rather sad that Michael Robertson has so far been the only one
to speak up: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29840.html. Why is
RedHat (for example) sitting quietly? Whining about lack of success of
Linux on the desktop seems to be a silly thing to do if Linux doesn't
even WORK properly on the desktop machine.

The reason I wrote this posting is because I think reverse-engineering
the drivers forever is not a long-term solution. Vendors should start
feeling the pressure.

--J.

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