[svlug] Expectations for Windows XP and Linux

[Tom Pilot]

Cool im feeling a lot more hopeful. 
Get open source drivers that dont suck and put them in the kernel or somewhere easily accessible (prefereably by an automated process) for the distribution.

Now as far as this statement:

"Consider a PCMCIA-format card (as opposed to mini-PCI, etc.).  You
insert it.  cartmgr recognises it, hotplug does whatever's required
to initiise it, and cardmgr modprobes the necessary driver (included in 
kernel through the regular development process).  A networking script
runs. " 

forgive my ignorance but is that process something that is already in place, say in
ubuntu 6 or is it just your idea of solving the problem?
If it is there already, is it "wired" to a sample open source wifi driver that
has already been developed?



Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote: Quoting Tom Pilot (hman_120 at yahoo.com):

> Ok fine, but my question would be, suppose hardware mfg would supply
> the drivers for linux as abundantly as they do for windows.

Honestly, you really don't want that.  Experience has shown that most
Linux drivers from manufacturers have been quite badly written, and
either source-available but poorly documented / difficult to maintain or
binary-only.  Therefore, we don't seek drivers from manufacturers, but
rather complete hardware technical specs and sample code.

_That_ results in drivers that don't suck and can be maintained, which 
get included in standard kernels and Linux distributions.  The same can
be achieved through reverse engineering, but more slowly.

> How easy would it be to install wifi cards? 

Consider a PCMCIA-format card (as opposed to mini-PCI, etc.).  You
insert it.  cartmgr recognises it, hotplug does whatever's required
to initiise it, and cardmgr modprobes the necessary driver (included in 
kernel through the regular development process).  A networking script
runs.  You're done.

> How can the drivers be integrated seemlessly in every distro of linux?

In the case of drivers produced the _right_ way, by the community:  the
same way they always are.

In the case of manufacturer drivers, if they're open source and somehow
fail to suck, then they can be likewise integrated into kernels and 
new distributions through the regular process.

In the case of proprietary drivers, they typically invent some wacky
installation process of their own.

> otherwise, if they are given as CDs....

I think you're sort of stuck in the proprietary model, there.


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