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TFA links to http://lwn.net/Articles/163266/

On that page we read:

Weird factors come into play. The BlueZ project used to have a very nice list of working hardware, but that list was pulled down as a result of objections from the "Bluetooth Qualification Administrator."

On that page there are two mailto: links - mailto:bqa@bluetooth.com and mailto:member.relations@bluetooth.com

See that @bluetooth.com bit? That's called a domain. Since these bits of email are going to people @bluetooth.com it is safe to assume that they are involved with the website that appears at http://www.bluetooth.com/ - let's go there, shall we?

There is a very prominent link "about the SIG" that appears on this page. Since TFA was about "a registered member of the Bluetooth SIG" it is fairly probably that this is the SIG in question. Let's click on the 'about the SIG' link, shall we?

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a trade association comprised of leaders in the telecommunications, computing, automotive, industrial automation and network industries that is driving the development of Bluetooth wireless technology, a low cost short-range wireless specification for connecting mobile devices and bringing them to market.
The Bluetooth SIG is a privately held trade association and is not publicly traded. The Special Interest Group, whose name was inspired by the Danish King Harald Bluetooth, known for unifying Denmark and Norway in the 10th century, was founded in September 1998. Now, in the 21st century, unification is a guiding principle of Bluetooth wireless technology, as it connects innovative products and companies to consumer aspirations.
The Bluetooth SIG has established its global headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, USA . The staff is comprised of Executive Director Michael Foley, Ph.D., Marketing Director Anders Edlundand a small staff of Marketing, Engineering, and Operations professionals. In addition to the Bluetooth SIG Staff, volunteers from member companies play key roles in running the Bluetooth SIG organization.
The Bluetooth SIG includes promoter member companies Agere, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Microsoft , Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba, and thousands of Associate and Adopter member companies.

http://tinyurl.com/e4olu

The list is still there. From http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/devices.ht ml:

"I am keeping the features document, because it has nothing to do with Linux. These products are available on the market and thus all of them should be qualified. If the HCI Version field is filled in this table, then this device should also work perfect with Linux."

The "features document" can be accessed at http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/features.h tml. Just look for an entry in the "HCI Version" field to verify the device works with Linux.

The list is still there. From http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/devices.ht ml:

"I am keeping the features document, because it has nothing to do with Linux. These products are available on the market and thus all of them should be qualified. If the HCI Version field is filled in this table, then this device should also work perfect with Linux."

The "features document" can be accessed at http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/features.h tml. Just look for an entry in the "HCI Version" field to verify the device works with Linux.

Or, straight out of the article, he'll still be updating this list and he says as long as the HCI field is filled in, the product should work fine . . .

So why haven't I improved things?

Simple. Even though I'm a pretty technical Linux user, I've been unable to really feel confident going out and buying 802.11g stuff with WPA, because the existing documentation on the net is pretty bad.

I'm waiting for the mythical "someone else" to set up a nice, straight-forward site that says "here are the cards you can buy at store X which support Linux and don't require binary drivers, patched kernels, and other crap" Sure, there are lists of chipsets, but the actual stores don't list the chipset in particular products often, and the vendors often have multiple versions of the same card with different chipsets.

I think a lot of the problem is the actual hardware industry itself. 802.11b wasn't hard to get Linux support for, but because of the software controlled radio in 802.11g chipsets, it's a bit tricker legally.

And don't get me started on Bluetooth. I got a new phone which has it, and I'd love to buy a little USB Bluetooth dongle so I can play with it, but right now the main Linux Bluetooth page has been asked to take down their list of devices known to work under Linux, because someone in the Bluetooth SIG complained the devices weren't technically qualified. (link) What a load of crap! So instead of getting a dongle which might not work, I'm just not going to get one at all. Everyone loses.

PCMCIA Firewire card is marginally easier, but again, trying to track down and actual card for sale which matches the user-reported specs and models is pretty damn hard. I spent conservatively 3 hours online and in Fry's reading before I got a card which works great until you eject it and panic the kernel.

I guess where I'm going with this rant is that wireless security (in the non-Windows world) would probably be better if the "standards" followed went a bit deeper and were more open to allowing outsiders to confidently buy products. All I'm asking for is a label or a sticker on the box telling me what chipset and version the device uses. It's not hard, and it shouldn't be a secret. Anyone technically savvy to make a purchasing decision based on chipset is technically savvy to figure out what chipset is in a device once they've bought it and spread the word.

Wow... my first rant. Sorry about that....

for uncompressed "CD quality" audio, what enables these new headphones and this new sunglasses are the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, which compresses the audio using the low complexity lossless Sub-Band Codec. These devices usually also support a profile that enables you to play, pause, forward and rewind, or, if paired to a telephone too, to mute the audio when a call is received. This all seems very nice, I just wish these profiles get supported in Tiger (and Longhorn, or Windows XP new Bluetooth stack, to be fair). Can't wait to get some more wireless audio.

for uncompressed "CD quality" audio, what enables these new headphones and this new sunglasses are the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile, which compresses the audio using the low complexity lossless Sub-Band Codec. These devices usually also support a profile that enables you to play, pause, forward and rewind, or, if paired to a telephone too, to mute the audio when a call is received. This all seems very nice, I just wish these profiles get supported in Tiger (and Longhorn, or Windows XP new Bluetooth stack, to be fair). Can't wait to get some more wireless audio.

I take it you've been through the all the Bluetooth HOWTOs that are out there and still aren't having any luck? What exotic hardware are you trying to use?

• 
  bttv/v4l patch
  
  bluez kernel patch (bluetooth)
  
  matrox frame buffer patch
  
  alsa 1.0.1 kernel patch
  
  hostap (accesspoint sw for prism hardware)
  
  qc-usb (quickcam express driver)

I just had a look around and there seems to be plenty of different bluetooth adapters availible, both for pci, usb and PCMCIA. Starts at around 50/us$.

Couldn't find a card or basestation with both 802.11b(/g) and bluetooth though.

It does seems to be possible to connect to linux through bluetooth.

I'm guessing you mean you want a Bluetooth dongle you can plug into your USB (printer | scanner | keyboard | mouse | HDD | joystick | pressure cooker) and make it work -- since this is the kind that seems hard to find.

Bad news -- it doesn't exist, and probably won't ever exist. If it does, it will be a hack that will cause a whole generation of telephone support personnelle to commit suicide (similar to the invention of parallel port scanners and other hack-job peripherals).

All is not lost, though. You can at least get rid of some wires. They make Bluetooth Parallel adapters and Bluetooth Serial adapters, some of which even have Linux drivers available! While not a complete solution, it is a (good?) start.