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> there is a good chance several devices/peripherals will fail to perform as intended For the record, I use Trisquel and it didn't recognize my wifi adapter. I
by disadvantage 5y ago
> there is a good chance several devices/peripherals will fail to perform as intended
For the record, I use Trisquel and it didn't recognize my wifi adapter. I went to the forums and someone said you need special libre wifi adapters that work with Linux. However, my internal network adapter worked fine. It plays well with most ethernet adapters thankfully.
- marcan_42 5y agoThe vast majority of WiFi adapters work fine with Linux and linux-firmware. You only need special "libre" ("firmwareless"*) WiFi adapters if you want them to work with linux-libre and distros that use it like this one, since it cripples support for anything that requires firmware. * Most "firmwareless" devices have firmware ROMs anyway. The FSF only believe it counts as nonfree if the users can see the firmware in /lib/firmware; they are happy to endorse products with hundreds of kilobytes of nonfree firmware ROM as "respects your freedom", since users can't see the blobs.
- not2b 5y agoYes, the FSF thinks a device becomes more free if you destroy the ability to update the software that runs on it. WiFi presents a particular problem for free software because to sell a product that emits radio waves, it has to be certified (by the FCC or other national authorities), and they won't certify something that could be trivially reprogrammed to exceed legal power limitations or broadcast outside licensed frequencies. It's easiest for them if the user can't change those details at all.