The TP-LINK TL-WN322G+ USB Wireless Network Card is supported very well in gnu/Linux with a builtin module zd1211rw now included in main linux kernel tree, thanks to the zd1211 project.
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Anybody up to writing good directory software?
Tue, 2007-02-20 11:17 — David JonathanSince the very beginning, directories (of any kind) have had a very central role in the internet. (I have recently grown fond of Free Web Directory. Even Slashdot can be considered a directory: a collection of great news and invaluable user-generated comments. As far as software is concerned, doing a quick search on Google about software directories will return the free (as in freedom) software directories like Savannah, SourceForge, Freshmeat and so on, followed by shareware and freeware sites such as FileBuzz, PCWin Download Center and All Freeware (great if you're looking for shareware and freeware, but definitely less comprehensive than their free-as-in-freedom counterparts).
Is better education the key to finding better software?
Sat, 2007-03-03 03:25 — Edward RusselI read David Jonathon's article Anybody Up To Writing Good Directory Software? the other day, which got me thinking about software directories in general. As David mentioned, many of the software directories one finds when doing a quick google search are free as in beer, not as in freedom. But what interests me is the software directories that already exist, providing a combination of both free as in beer software, and open source software. Sites such as Freeware Downloads and Shareware Download don't advertise themselves as providing free as in liberty software, but each of them have a good selection of open source software available... if you know where to look.
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J.B.Nicholson-Owens
3 years 21 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago
This device may require non-free firmware.
The ZD1211 USB WLAN Linux Driver website notes that ZyDAS has been very cooperative with the community. I'm glad to read this, far too many manufacturers are anything but friendly even with their own customers. Unfortunately it seems that the card might require what the site describes as "freely distributable firmware". Typically this means proprietary firmware which we can distribute at no charge.
Proprietary firmware is proprietary software and proprietary software cannot be used to run a computer completely in freedom. The FSF has a list of wireless cards and USB devices which work with the Atheros free software ath5k and ath9k drivers that require no firmware, thus posing no pressure to acquire and run non-free firmware.
I've run the ASUS WL-107g wireless LAN Card Bus adaptor and the SMC 2208USB USB ethernet (wired) adaptor on gNewSense GNU/Linux, so I'm sure they don't require non-free software to use. These devices are probably not the fastest network adaptors out there but most of the time I think most people need something akin to a 10-baseT connection for looking at websites and reading email. For that, these inexpensive devices (and many others) work fine.