In my Clevo Laptop with @novacustom@mastodon.online and @3mdeb@fosstodon.org Coreboot firmware I now have replaced another proprietary part!
The Intel AX200 previously installed waits for a new use case, while I swapped in the Qualcomm Atheros Y8512 pci-e Wifi card, which has #blobfree drivers and thus runs fully on Linux, not just on some #nonfree kernels (that basically break the open source philosophy by including proprietary code in the single most critical root binary on your system)
It works great, just downloaded a Firefox release. zip over wifi without a single stutter!
Je ne sais quoi, “blobfree”?
I can’t read the first part of your comment, but I think you’re asking why blobfree is?
Blobfree means that the hardware can run with completely open source drivers, without the inclusion of any self contained proprietary “black box” code AKA “blobs”
Merci!
Without a blob, of course
Ah, bien.
I am guessing modern wifi features and speeds aren’t important to you. Note that using an 802.11n device on a network with ac/ax devices will slow down all other devices traffic
Do you have an alternative blobfree card?
Our router is old and other devices here are too. Thats not a worry for me.
There are no blobless cards newer than wifi 4 afaik, wifi 5+ seem to be complicated enough they need updatable firmwares
I’m pretty sure this still has proprietary firmware baked into it
