[Ham-Computers] Take ACER Off your Linux-Friendly List

[kd4e]

Acer chooses with whom they sign contracts for sub-devices 
like wireless
nics.  If they had insisted on nics with Linux drivers they 
would have
received them.  Other companies have.  I already own 
Linux-friendly
b/g/n devices, so it is nothing bleeding-edge to do so.

There are drivers out there for Atheros b/g/n nics but I 
don't have the
time to chase them down and fuss with Alpha drivers - this 
laptop was
to be a productivity tool - right now it's a defective piece 
of hardware.

Since I told the salesman it was for Linux and was not 
warned it was
non-Linux compatible they will get it back.

Manufactures need to stop wasting the time of customers and 
give
us what we want - in this economy customers are getting 
harder to
find - and Linux use is growing like crazy.

 > Jeff Laughlin wrote:
> Vendors don't hate Linux, they just don't like it enough.
> 
> Usually wireless or other devices are unsupported by Linux because
> 1. Vendor doesn't care
> 2. Driver loads firmware or VHDL code or something at initialization 
> which the vendor has licensed from a 3rd party under restrictive terms
> 3. Vendor intentionally locks out FOSS drivers because of silly FCC 
> rules about frequency agility
> 
> It can be neigh on impossible to create clean room drivers based on 
> reverse engineering for stuff like that.
> 
> Anyway, while Acer is complicit, they are really just a middle man. It's 
> really the device vendor that is ultimately to blame.

-- 

Thanks! & 73, doc, KD4E
FS/Swap/Wanted: http://kd4e.com/swapn.html
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Personal: http://kd4e.com
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