That's a lot of good information, thanks.
The driver that i've installed IS indeed free (as in libre) software (see the
rest of this post).
Correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying that there is non-free firmware blobs
built into the device that make it a non-free device regardless of the driver
software (free in this case) that is used?
Depending on what that firmware could possibly be doing I may or may not care
about it. This appears to be one of, if not the best wifi antenna on the
market in its price range/class. I'd rather not downgrade to a lesser
performing antenna if it can be practically avoided. Not to mention the
hassle of selling this antenna and buying a new one.
I will definitely look into buying that "libre" pcb main board for the
antenna if it offers any real advantages for my needs and has a reasonable
price.
The driver:
Its the fifth driver from the top of the list. This is the same driver
version thats on the premieretek website:
http://www.mediatek.com/_en/07_downloads/01_windows.php?sn=501
Driver download page:
From
"http://www.mediatek.com/_en/07_downloads/01-1_windowsDetail.php?sn=5016":
"
This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
MediaTek Inc.
Address : 5F., No.5, Tai-Yuan 1st St., Jhubei City,
Hsinchu County 302,Taiwan, R.O.C.
(c) Copyright 2002-2013, MediaTek Inc."
