Re: [Trisquel-users] laptop help !!!

[chris]

The new USB cards with Atheros chipsets do depend on non-free firmware. It's  
why we still use the AR9170 chipset. Atheros legal is reviewing a proposal to  
fix this. Still waiting for an answer although it *IS* under review so we  
should have an answer soon.

I don't believe any of the N Atheros PCI chipsets require the loading of  
firmware. The exception to this is the Atheros Bluetooth/Atheros Wireless N  
combo cards. The N wireless chipset on these cards is free software  
compatible. The Bluetooth portion is not. Hopefully we can fix this as well.  
We certainly have it in the plans to eventually try and solve this issue.  
That will occur if/when Atheros legal approves the release of the source code  
on the firmware for newer USB chipsets.