hiya calmstorm, i'm not chris but he's been filling me in on the details:
basically those are 802.11ac wifi adapters that you're seeing... and there
*is* no libre firmware for 802.11ac wifi adapters... period. chris is
investigating at least two different channels to bring libre firmware to
802.11ac but the problem with qualcomm is the... {insert appropriate
swearword}s .... at qualcomm have moved all the critical bits *out* of the
linux kernel and *into* the wifi firmware... and then not released the
source, because the entire team that worked with chris on the TP150N (AR9271)
stuff all left qualcomm, totally new management and engineers, and they are
just utterly clueless.
so _sure_ feel free to buy those 300mbps and 450mbps wifi dongles with
proprietary firmware, but don't call anyone to complain if there's a buffer
overrun in the proprietary firmware that overwrites kernel memory,
compromises your system and lets people do drive-by WIFI malware installs
just because you're in range and you are forced to do regular pings as part
of the 802.11 protocol.
*but*.... that all having been said, if i'm wrong and there are other
companies selling 802.11ac adapters that *have* got libre firmware released,
please tell us straight away!! :)
