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FSF Certifies Atheros-Based ThinkPenguin 802.11 N USB Adapter
gnujoshua writes "You may recall that last Fall, the LulzBot AO-100 3D printer was awarded the use of the Free Software Foundation's Respects Your Freedom certification mark. Today, the FSF announced certification of the ThinkPenguin TPE-N150USB, Wireless N USB Adapter, which uses the Atheros ARAR9271 chip. The FSF's RYF certification requirements are focused on the software (not the hardware designs) of a product, which in this case was primarily the device firmware and ath9k-htc module in the Linux-libre kernel. (Disclosure: I work for the FSF.) There's also a cool story that is within this story... which is that the firmware for the Atheros AR9271 chipset was released as a result of a small device seller (ThinkPenguin) striking a deal with a large electronic device manufacturer (Qualcomm Atheros) to build a WLAN USB adapter that shipped with 100% free software firmware. This deal was possible largely because two motivated Qualcomm Atheros employees, Adrian Chadd and Luis Rodriguez, made the internal-push to get the firmware released as free software."
Looks like the price of freedom is pretty steep.
It's not like we are starved for wifi dongles that "just work" on Linux without NDISWrapper. We're not in 2003.
eg: http://dx.com/p/802-11n-150mbps-wifi-wlan-wireless-network-usb-adapter-53538 $10 bucks including shipping, and there are TONS cheaper than this. I just looked for one that specifically said "Linux compatible".
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
one thing i noticed last week on ThinkPenguin is that their adapters generally support Master Mode making it easy to build access points. i don't think this can be said for most adapters requiring ndiswrapper.
USB 1x1, 2.4GHz only? That's five bucks on eBay. Couldn't it at least be a dual-band radio?
Apparently the cost of freedom is not being able to connect to my network, I'm in a highrise and there are 40 APs fighting over three channels that I can see from where I sit, 5GHz is the ONLY way to get things done.
And, hey, why not fight for a 802.11ac radio? 802.11n is last year's tech, and these guys are going to have to go another ten rounds with Atheros if they want to be able to make another model. What was the rationale behind starting off with something that is soon to be obsolete?
Good to see a wifi device with free firmware. Freaking finally. The long-term implications of this are probably greater than even I imagine.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
I have used free software starting with inews on the extra tape archive on the SunOS (not Solaris) 1.X and 2.X 1/4" QIC cartridge boot tapes.
The FSF with its devotion to making everything it touches be free of copyright restrictions and to require you to publish any code that touches the FSF code has relegated itself to irrelevance. A $54 USB WIFI adaptor. Whoopdedo.
I have moved on. Most of the open source software i use has a far less restrictive Berkeley or Apache style license.
Was it the Chadd? No, the Chadd was great! Kudos dude.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Buy the way, any change you make would have to be certified by the FCC as being compliant and that can be expensive.
I'm pretty sure this is not true. I recently read a tech topic blog on the FCC site that states,
WLAN was originally designed and developed as a home networking technology for nomadic users to wirelessly extend an Ethernet equivalent local area network (LAN) using shared communications media among a group of users through a wireless connection that operates at relatively short distances. WLAN uses license-exempt spectrum bands regulated by FCC rules, 47 C.F.R. Part 15.2 The FCC originally conceived the license-exempt bands to provide a no-cost slice of public access spectrum with only two provisions. First, the transmitter could cause no harmful interference to any nearby licensed services, and secondly, any receiver in this band must be able to accept any interference that may be present. Subsequently, the first wireless LAN was developed by the IEEE 802.11 standards committee (widely known as Wireless Fidelity or 'Wi-Fi' and 'Radio LAN') in 1997. Interestingly, the Wi-Fi standards were a response on the part of industry to the relatively restriction free use of the license-exempt spectrum allocation and rules.
2: See http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_07/47cfr15_07.html for the Part 15 rules. Note that the letter versions of the standards are not chronologically consistent since version (b) actually came before (a)!
But, even if you were right, it's important to know that you don't have to hack alone. You can work with others. Let's say you are worried some change you want to make could lead to some malfunction which would boost the signal. You could file a feature request to the project and see if someone else will make the change and test it. Or, if you make the change in code and are worried about installing it yourself, submit the patch upstream and see if others can review the code and test it for you. Just because things could potentially go wrong doesn't mean we should live in fear and abstain from using, fixing, or customizing our software.
Control your hardware, don't let it control you. =]
I picked up a Think Penguin wifi adapter for my machine and am happy to support the cause because it is a worthy goal. It is not about "purity" as some put it, rather for technology as a whole to advance in a stable, more beneficial direction for all. Patent laws were originally used to encourage inventors to share ideas without fear of loss of credit. Those patent laws were subsequently perverted by corporations so they can litigate people out of their inventions and claim benefits for their own interests. A great article, "Land of Wizards" by Tom Wolfe describes how inventors are constantly swindled out of their creations and how the patent system is flawed. I read this after Stallman's excellent "Free Software, Free Society" and realized that the current rules hinder creativity and inventiveness. The FOSS ideals return the benefits of inventiveness back to the populace rather than just corporate cabals. I also picked up the Thinkpenguin ogg player. While the quality of that unit may not be up to snuff compared to its proprietary cousins, I hope my support will lead to better players down the road. I heard that development of the ogg format currently stalled, which would be a shame. Hopefully my small purchases and posts encourage development. I am tremendously heartened to see companies like Thinkpenguin making this stuff available and that great quality distros like Trisquel (which I use) exist. I hope other Libre distros pick up traction and get more developers to encourage the spirit of creativity and inventiveness for all.
"SO we bide our time, waiting for a purer kick to bloom and the future is still bleak, uncertain and beautiful" -GSYBE
Atheros make high end and low end chips. It's up to the manufacturers as to what they choose. They choose price. Sad, but true.
You can buy the higher-end 2x2 and 3x3 devices. The unit prices are more than the low end chips.
Driver support? It's up to the company you bought the laptop from, not Atheros. Atheros only makes the chips. We don't make the NICs or the rest of the device. Especially in the windows world, vendors have a habit of doing 'strange ass shit' here and there. Please don't blame QCA for the weird, cheap-ass, cost-cutting crap that goes on elsewhere.
I applaud the idea and implementation of the RYF certification; its nice to know that the software/firmware/drivers etc... needed to run a given piece of hardware are "verified" FOSS meaning that it is going to work just about everywhere (sometimes by default, like merged into Linux kernels, sometimes with a little work such as if someone wants to modify the damn thing to work in a special capacity). I'm even willing to a pay a reasonable amount more for RYF certified software/hardware. In an age where everything is obfuscated for the purpose of attempting to mine as much money and personal information from the populace as possible, we need principled, open entities out there certifying everything from respecting one's software freedom to respecting one's privacy (ie I'd like to see EFF, pirate parties, TOR etc...and other privacy advocates get together and certify the implementation of software and services as respecting one's privacy, being transparent with the "costs" associated etc..).
However, I have to say that for a large percentage of less hardcore uses, the fact that the first device certified via RYF is based on what is now older technology (combined with the extremely high price of the item in relation to others) it is going to appear that the FSF (and perhaps, Linux users as a whole) are glossing over the real-world usability and performance in favor of licensing. This 802.11N adapter for instance is based on 2x2, ~150mb max bandwidth, which is amongst the eldest of the now-old-hat 802.11N standard. On top of this, it is being sold for ~$50 USD! When one considers that a user could easily find a $5-10 similar USB adapter out there (that in many cases, will end up working on Linux) it is going to be hard to justify to all but the most fervent Free Software aficionados who have the skill and desire to put together a product that specifically benefits from RYF certification.
Considering that these days there are a variety of chipsets where the source is available (Intel, Atheros, Broadcoms) etc.. would there have been a better debut? I realize that it may be a bit much to ask as of yet for there to be a RYF 802.11AC chipset vetted (though, it would be awesome if the in the Asus RT-AC66U, could be RYF - given that the firmware is based on WRT etc...)would it be really difficult to find one of the most recent 802.11N 3x3 5ghz+2.4ghz Dual Band 450mb+450mb (or even 450+300? 300+300?) adapters instead? Those would be be more likely to be useful for typical wireless connectivity duties today (ie connecting to a share/streaming HD content...), and are relatively affordable ($15-45 or so depending. There are even some 802.11AC adapter that are even faster and are only in the $40-60 range!). Asking a user to purchase generations-older tech variants, for a high price, that may not have any directly visible benefit to said user, is going to be a hard sell indeed. It just seems like that there were likely a number of alternatives that could have been vetted instead and that the RYF certification, combined with a reasonable price, would actually inspire the community to seek out RYF certified parts and thus bring attention to RYF, FOSS, and eventually inspire manufacturers to see the market finds these feature desirable Was this truly the best/only piece of hardware to debut the RYF label?
As an ideal the RYF certification sounds great, but really hope its implementation isn't going to turn into something that is only interested to most license-savvy FSF follower instead of showing the benefits of Free software to the masses and thus, inspire future developments in FOSS and RYF certified hardware.