[arch-dev-public] Wlan Linux Broadcom binary drivers

[Aaron Griffin]

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM, Tobias Powalowski <t.powa at gmx.de> wrote:
> Hi
> http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
> just found this on the net, would you guys like to see this drivers in core?
>
> If a native english speaker could look at the license of the binary blob on
> redistribution, we could integrate those drivers.
>
> I don't have such hardware, so someone else would need to test functionality.
> your opinions on it?

Looking at it, I noticed this in section 2.3 (b):
2.3.	Restriction on Distribution.
Licensee [snip] agrees to defend and indemnify Broadcom and its
licensors from and against any damages, costs, liabilities, settlement
amounts and/or expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred in
connection with any claim, lawsuit or action by any third party that
arises or results from the use or distribution of any and all Software
by the Licensee except as contemplated herein.

That's a little bit scary, to me. And I also thought we wanted to get
away from binary blobs and things like that, especially in core.

Is there anything that this driver does that ndiswrapper does not?

Something about that clause seems a little goofy to me. I'm fine with
this, but I think we should steer away from it in core - only because
ndiswrapper already covers this as far as I know.

Opinions?