Non-opensource drivers

[Hubert Figuiere]

Colin Watson wrote:

>   madwifi: (dual-licensed) GPLed driver, but requires the HAL blobs
>   which have a no-modification licence. These are firmware, though
>   shipped as objects which end up as kernel modules.

ath_hal is NOT a firmware. It is code that run in the kernel. It
*taints* the kernel, it is at risk of posing stability and security
problems inside the kernel. That make the whole madwifi driver non-free.
It also make the driver unmaintainable by regular developers when new
hardware is release. Want to know about it? Read
http://madwifi.org/ticket/1001 about supporting the new chipset.

Why do you think it is not in the main kernel tree?


Hub