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Date:      Tue, 3 Jan 2012 19:38:40 -0500 (EST)
From:      Daniel Feenberg <feenberg@nber.org>
To:        Da Rock <freebsd-questions@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Realtek RTL8191SEvB Linux driver?
Message-ID:  <alpine.LFD.2.00.1201031922400.26468@nber4.nber.org>
In-Reply-To: <4F038F8F.3090701@herveybayaustralia.com.au>
References:  <CAFpTYWM3ppJsVo-qZC=OXWHW1U5zAt3y5m==6hFw3JQNH%2B5NAg@mail.gmail.com> <4F02A3CE.7020404@herveybayaustralia.com.au> <20120103071028.4964dd33@scorpio> <4F030E00.5020806@herveybayaustralia.com.au> <Pine.GSO.4.64.1201031101580.7621@age7.nber.org> <4F038F8F.3090701@herveybayaustralia.com.au>

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On Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Da Rock wrote:

> On 01/04/12 02:10, Daniel Feenberg wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, 4 Jan 2012, Da Rock wrote:
>> 
>>> On 01/03/12 22:10, Jerry wrote:
>>>> On Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:44:30 +1000
>>>> Da Rock articulated:
>>>> 
>>>>> On 01/03/12 11:15, Jeffrey McFadden wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Don't ndis(4) ndiscvt and ndisgen(8)  essentially accomplish what the OP is 
>> requesting? See the handbook section 12.8.1.1:
>>
>>     http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html
>> 
>> or the man page for ndiscvt:
>>
>>   http://www.gsp.com/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=8&topic=ndiscvt
>> 
>> 
>> While doing the conversion looks a bit beyond what we would expect of an 
>> end-user, it does seem to offer a path for using hardware whose 
>> manufacturer does not support FreeBSD. Is there anything beyond licensing 
>> issues preventing such drivers from being included in the distribution, or 
>> made downloadable in FreeBSD form?

> Oh yes, it is possible, just not probable :)

At

   http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/ndiswrapper/index.php?title=Category:USB

almost 800 compatible devices are listed. Not everything, but I have found 
that a willingness to spend a few dollars on a different card helps 
immensely in enjoying FreeBSD and Linux. For me at least it is easier to 
find a compatible card than to write a compatible driver.

I would also observe that most people involved with computers, whether as 
users or developers, have little symphathy for people with different needs 
from the device. This is a great impediment to progress. It is a mistake 
to assume that because you don't need something, another person's desire 
for it is illegitimate. In this case, I fully agree that it is an 
injustice that hardware vendors do not supply FreeBSD drivers, but that 
does not mean that users requiring such drivers are immoral or of poor 
character, and therefore to be ignored or insulted. There is little that 
FreeBSD coders and users can do about that injustice directly, however it 
is within their power to mitigate it with the NDIS wrapper. If that 
wrapper allows another user to enter the FOSS world, that will (in the 
fullness of time) contribute to reforming the vendor.

Daniel Feenberg




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