A bit late

Posted Sep 10, 2010 1:07 UTC (Fri) by rahvin (guest, #16953)
In reply to: A bit late by jspaleta
Parent article: Broadcom releases an open-source driver for its wireless chipsets

I doubt you will get anyone to commit to it, but I remember a tech interest story about a year ago that HP and IBM were beginning to dump manufacturers that didn't supply FOSS drivers because their corporate clients were demanding Linux compatibility and they had begun testing for it and adding it to specification requirements. Add to that a story only few months ago about Dell beginning to do the same thing and I did a little snooping out of curiosity.

IIRC Broadcom WiFi devices began disappearing from most laptops about 3 months ago (despite an apparent price advantage over Intel and Atheros). The Big OEM's Ink supply contracts infrequently (they don't like to disrupt major parts and carry multiple parts in their supply channel) but it takes about 3 months for a contract to hit the supply chain, particularly for manufacturers like HP that don't do JIT manufacturing. Dell part changes hit quicker, usually less than 30 days. And Broadcom was a big at Dell, holding court over almost every Wifi Sold by Dell for a number of years.

My laptop had issues over Labor day so I was looking at options at various manufacturers, one thing that surprised me quite heavily was the apparently complete lack of Broadcom Wifi at Dell now along with HP and others. Everything was Intel Wifi. This is especially surprising because in the past Dell has said there was a significant price advantage to Broadcom over Intel when questioned about Linux drivers.

I deduced that Dell has finally dropped Broadcom because of Linux compatibility, but that may not be the reason. Either way something has happened in the supply contracts to make Broadcom FOSS drivers, something big because they were adamant in the past they would never FOSS drivers. Maybe I'm over optimistic, but HP has been talking about Linux drivers being a requirement for a year or more.

A bit late

Posted Sep 10, 2010 9:03 UTC (Fri) by bangert (subscriber, #28342) [Link]

so this is the quarter where intel gets to harvest from its linux investment. hopefully they are aware of it...

A bit late

Posted Sep 11, 2010 8:31 UTC (Sat) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link] (2 responses)

Sounds strange to me: My Inspiron 8100 had Intel Wifi, my Inspiron 9100 had Intel Wifi and my Latitude C620 had Intel Wifi.

But then again, things might have changed since then (the C620 is three years old).

A bit late

Posted Sep 13, 2010 19:30 UTC (Mon) by rahvin (guest, #16953) [Link] (1 responses)

When I bought my 610 the Intel was optional for about $20 extra and the standard one was a Dell branded Broadcom chipset. Like me you probably selected the Intel chipset because of Linux. AFAIK the Intel's were always available as an optional "upgrade" (probably because Intel required it by contract).

When I bought the 610 and for several years later the default Wifi on all the Dell Laptops (that I I looked at) were Dell branded Broadcom chipsets. The typical upgrade cost as I mentioned was anywhere from $20 to $50 dollars. That's a hell of a premium on Laptop even when they still cost upwards of $1500 and it's astronomical with prices half that.

But as I said when I checked the other day (on the models I looked at) the Dell branded option isn't even there anymore (and that's astounding in itself given Dell's desire to Brand everything possible). I couldn't even find laptops with Broadcom Wifi chipsets (I didn't look that far, just at a few major models and Brands). That's a hell of a change from default on every laptop at Dell. This is anecdotal evidence at best but for me it's pretty conclusive when taken into account against Broadcom's earlier statements that they would release FOSS drivers when Hell froze over (I believe the actual wording was Never because it would reveal competitive information). I can't see any other reason they would release FOSS drivers other than as mentioned in the thread that they got tired of updating their drivers and want to pass the burden to the Kernel team.

A bit late

Posted Sep 14, 2010 19:57 UTC (Tue) by Los__D (guest, #15263) [Link]

You are probably right, there is a good chance that I chose that myself, and forget about it later (except for the 8100, which was a Centrino, those required the Intel Wifi for the Centrino brand).