[PLUG] Wifi drivers and open source

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Wed Apr 28 23:45:03 UTC 2004


A bit of information about Wifi drivers, and why there are few open
source ones.

Wifi cards are software-controlled radios, and regulated and licensed
by the FCC.  Being software controlled, it is quite possible to program
them incorrectly, to emit energy outside the permitted band, for
example.  Therefore, the FCC licenses the combination of hardware and
software.  If the drivers were open source, then changes would have to
be re-licensed.  Thus, all drivers for Wifi cards, even "open" linux
drivers, contain a binary module or two straight from the manufacturer,
code that is not supposed to be changed.  

Whether the FCC is a stalwart defender of the public airwaves, or a
paternalistic anachronism thwarting freedom, is more a measure of 
personal prejudice than objective fact.  Nonetheless, they don't want
us to be able to change the drivers.  Unfortunately, this also means
that the Wifi chip manufacturer must either write code designed to
port to both Windoze and Linux (yay, Prism!  yay, Atheros!), or else
engage in very complicated licensing practices involving two different
binaries.  So they have an excuse for not providing a Linux port. 

Of course, the fact that many manufacturers are greedy, incompetent
swine cravenly submissive to Microsoft doesn't help :-)

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom           keithl at ieee.org         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs




More information about the PLUG mailing list