Atheros releases free software wireless driver; no binary blobs

"This increased support of wireless drivers by Atheros is a major step toward our vision of a laptop that runs only free software and that boots on top of a free BIOS," says Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF.

The release of the ath9k driver comes shortly after Atheros hired Luis Rodriguez and Jouni Malinen, two important developers in the free software wireless driver community. The ath9k are now seeking inclusion in the Linux kernel. For more information on supported devices and chipsets visit http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/net/wireless/cards.html#ath9k.

More information about hardware that is compatible with fully free operating systems can be found in the FSF's hardware database, at http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw. To learn more about the FSF's vision of an all free laptop, read the paper "The road to hardware free from restrictions: How hardware vendors can help the free software community," http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/how_hardware_vendors_can_help.html.