Subject: Re: WLAN drivers
From: Lee Revell <rlrevell@joe-job.com>
To: sclark46@earthlink.net
Cc: Alistair John Strachan <s0348365@sms.ed.ac.uk>,
       Panagiotis Issaris <takis.issaris@uhasselt.be>,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-netdev@vger.kernel.org
In-Reply-To: <43E39E77.90403@earthlink.net>
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	 <1138990013.15691.272.camel@mindpipe>  <43E39E77.90403@earthlink.net>
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Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:33:56 -0500
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On Fri, 2006-02-03 at 13:18 -0500, Stephen Clark wrote:
> The module includes a binary hal module 
> that keeps the
> card from being abused - programmed out of FCC specs. Why is so 
> different from a card that
> has to have firmware loaded on it that in essence does the same thing
> - 
> prevents the driver
> writer from programming the card out of FCC specs. 

Big difference - firmware runs on the device, on the other side of a
bus, while a binary driver runs in the same CPU in kernel context.

I don't buy the FCC argument - after all there are completely open
drivers for other chipsets and I don't recall the FCC coming after the
distributors.

Lee

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