Wifi and Linux (Was: [Gllug] Linux on Desktop )

[Ryan Cartwright]

Dan Kolb wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 11:23:12AM +0000, Ryan Cartwright wrote:
> So it appears that it's only the Marvell chipset card that's not supported by
> Linux.

Agreed but my point was not that the card was not supported but that
Netgear changed the chipset on a product and didn't release it as a
different version. Okay the prism v2 card does not have v2 on the card
but it was marketed as such. This - in relation to Martin's point made
it very difficult to base your purchase on research as the v2 card is
listed as supported with the prism driver in most places (or was when I
bought my Marvell one).

>> Unless, of course, you know that the Marvell chipset is supported by
>> OpenBSD?
> 
> Indeed - see http://www.openbsd.org/i386.html, and my other mail.

Yes our posts must have crossed.

>> On a side note and maybe a little OT: I notice you said OpenBSD
>> "supports" the cards - I guess I never thought of it that way around. Do
>> the group consider a card working with Linux to be "supported by" or
>> "supporting" Linux? I usually say the latter but of course as the
>> drivers are more often written by the community it's probably more
>> likely the former.
> 
> I personally would say the former. The Operating System contains the drivers
> for a bit of hardware. Saying hardware is 'supporting' Linux implies that the
> hardware manufacturer is encouraging people to use Linux, or at the very least
> has written their own driver. For the most part, this isn't true - at best the
> manufacturer releases specs for their hardware, and someone else does the
> driver-writing grunt work: hence the bit of kit is supported by (passive), not
> supporting (active) the OS.

As said I suspect I need to adjust my thinking. Yet with all "Designed
for Windows XP" stickers all over devices it would seem that the buying
public is being led down the path that hardware should support (active)
the OS :o). It kind of ties up with this weird idea I have that
(certainly peripheral) hardware should work with a range of software and
not restrict the buyer to one OS. :o)

Cheers
Ryan
-- 
Ryan Cartwright
http://www.cafamily.org.uk/oss
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