Linux @programming.dev cm0002 @lemmy.world 4w ago

Linux's Sole Wireless/WiFi Driver Maintainer Is Stepping Down

www.phoronix.com Linux's Sole Wireless/WiFi Driver Maintainer Is Stepping Down

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Wireless is just a fad anyway /s

Many expressed their appreciation for Kalle's years of service to the Linux networking stack but as of writing no one has stepped up to take over the formal maintainer role. Thankfully there are other Linux WiFi driver developers out there working on the increasing number of Linux wireless drivers, just not any immediate leader yet to take on the maintainer duties.

Good to know :)

While I didn't use Linux back then, I heard the wifi situation was difficult to deal with. I assume this maintainer is responsible for fixing that over the years?
- I heard the wifi situation was difficult to deal with
  
  Understatement of the year LMAO nah it was terrible. Typically the top 3 biggest PITA common issues was GPU, WiFi and trackpad, in that order. Every. Time. Didn't have the right brand, you were SOL. If you had a Dell with that wonderful WiFi card whitelist the damn brands that worked were always off it or were crappy.
  
  Though I'd take WiFi driver issues over having to deal with that dam GPU bumble bee-thingy (idr anymore, the gaming laptop GPU "hot switching" thing)
  
  I'm going to go lay down and have my trauma flashbacks now...
  
  bumble-bee thingy
  
  I was going to say wrong transformer because the technology was called nVidia Optimus
  
  But apparently there's an utility named Bumblebee to deal with it.
  
  It's what happens when all the desktop hardware is designed for just one single OS's ecosystem. Running something else can be touch and go if you happen to have something slightly exotic, even if it has great specs.
  
  It sucks, but it's still how the market works now.
  
  And don't think that the few little companies selling Linux computers change anything. They just hand pick the Windows hardware that's known to work well.
  
  All in all, it has gotten better though. Nowadays, Linux is acknowledged by a lot of hardware companies. They design for Windows, but a number of them will make an effort to release some sort of data, or driver, or something to get the Linux side going. Back in the 90s, it certainly wasn't as easy.
  
  Sound, too, if you have anything better than just stereo.
  
  Typically the top 3 biggest PITA common issues was GPU, WiFi and trackpad, in that order. Every. Time.
  
  Nvidia drivers are literally the reason I keep going back to windows on my gaming rig. Any time I get a Linux install working the way I like it, within 6-10 months the graphics would shit the bed and I'd fight with it until I gave up and went back just to have a working is with minimal after work IT bullshit.
  
  All my servers are Linux tho. I'll probably try again later in the year when 10 goes EOS
  
  To be honest, wireless support in Windows has been shite, too. Terrible, unusable junk. Difference is that Linux has improved 🙃
- Back in the day it just worked because you bought a card with a supported chip.... or you had to do some ungodly things with ndiswrapper to get the Windows driver loaded.
  
  I think back then I was using wicd as well.
  
  It's come a long way.
  
  Omfg I remember ndiswrapper, how the fuck did that thing even work. Loading a windows driver on Linux???
- Dw the WiFi situation on FreeBSD is far worse
Okay, someone talk me down from the ledge here. I'm not techy, but I've been on Fedora for over a year, and dual booting since like 08. But the biggest hurdle back in the day for me was that my wifi was so hit or miss, even when it worked it was slow as shit. That and Netflix not working are what kept me from going full Ubuntu in like 09/10.

Am I going to have to go back to long ass Ethernet cords? Fuck, my laptop doesn't even have an Ethernet port :(
- It's not like the driver is going to stop working.
  
  Even if the OS gets updated?
- Dude chill it'll be fine. Why are you on the ledge after this post? Someone is obviously going to step up and take their place.
  
  That's not obvious at all..
  
  Maybe it is to people who are really deep into the Linux world but generally if there's only a single person in the world doing something, it's never obvious that someone else will start to do that if the first person stops.
- I know not all hardware is created equal, but my two cents are now that Valve has planted themselves squarely In the mobile Linux world, they'll continue to pace the way on innovation and I wouldn't be surprised if larger organizations continue to drive improvement. There's no way they would just let that die. Linux gaming is going to have staying power.
  
  That's what I think as well. Fingers crossed!
If it gets as difficult as it used to be on Debian and Ubuntu, I'm running back to Windows.
- Guess I need to put learning kernel C on a higher priority to prevent you from running back to Windows.
  
  Guess not. You will be running back in no time after the AI pesters you enough and makes you have to replace your CPU fans every 6 months.

29 comments