ACX100 Firmware Licensing

[Jay Moore]

On Wednesday 27 October 2004 11:16 am, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> Compared to other types of hardware, the support for wireless cards
> is lacking on *BSD because many vendors don't provide documentation
> or the cards require the upload of a binary firmware image that,
> absurdly as it sounds, may not be redistributed.  Well, some people
> are working on improving this situation step by step and you can
> help by writing to the hardware vendors.
>
> Specifically, there already is a FreeBSD 5.x driver for the Texas
> Instruments ACX100 802.11b chipset (DLink DWL-520+, DWL-650+, and
> others), which is currently maintained externally:
>
> http://wlan.kewl.org/modules/mantis/main_page.php
>
> However, a firmware binary blob must be uploaded to the card, and
> since TI doesn't allow redistribution it can't be included with the
> driver, rendering it useless.

< mucho snippo >

A few comments/questions:

1) The only driver I've tried is: 
	http://acx100.sourceforge.net/
It worked pretty well for me. As I recall there is a script to download the 
firmware - I don't recall from where it was d/l, but I don't remember having 
to "check off" any license agreement forms during the process. Pretty 
painless... I never realized it was an issue 'til I saw your post.

2) Wouldn't voting with your pocketbook be more persuasive than whining? I 
recently bought two WiFI cards that use the Prism chipset 
(seattlewireless.net) 'cause they've got better support in the systems I use. 
This purchase represents a loss for TI & the mfrs who buy their ACX100 chips, 
and a gain for Intersil and their customers. The free market is pretty 
effective at sorting these things out.

3) As far as 'activism' goes, I think you and the other merry men would be 
heard much more clearly if you each bought a single share of TI stock (it's 
real cheap right now :) and used your status as shareholders to submit 
motions or resolutions to TI's Board of Directors. Better yet, attend the 
annual shareholder's meeting, and let your voices be heard! 

Good Luck,
Jay