Concerned about lack of support for Broadcom Wifi cards.

[irv]

I am not sure if it is just Ubuntu or if support for Wifi cards are done through the kernel? But the lack of support for the Broadcom Wifi cards is a bad thing because of the fact that there are so many out here that have them. I found a way to install the right firmware to get the 4311 going in my laptop and also others have found ways of getting the 4212 and a few other going, but there are some that will just not work like the 4218 and I believe there are others.

I have people coming to me with Windows machines that are full of viruses wanting me to install Linux on them. The problem is trying to get machines that have Broadcom cards installed to work without trying to fine firmware fixes.

I guess the question I have is, Is someone ever going to address this problem and fix it?

[cariboo]

Broadcom drivers for older wifi devices are closed source, but I recall that the drivers for newer devices have been open sourced. See here (http://www.osnews.com/story/23786/BREAKING_BROADCOM_OPEN_SOURCES_WIRELESS_DRIVERS).

That being said, I've never had a problem with broadcom devices, I've been using them since about 2001. The first device I purchased needed ndiswrapper and the Windows 98 driver to work, but since then I've had zero problems with them. I currently have three systems running with Broadcom devices, all of them work without any problems. Two of them work with the b43 driver, and the third needs the wl driver loaded after install.

[aysiu]

I've actually had better performance with "unsupported" Broadcom in Ubuntu than with "supported" Intel.

[irv]

The Broadcom 4318 I couldn't get to work at all. I actually ended up installing Win 7. I don't like doing that because Open source is much better. I have a 4311 in my laptop, and it doesn't work out of the box, but I can load the b43 driver and get it going. That does not work with the 4318. I run into a lot of Dell laptops and that is where the problem comes in because many have the Broadcom cards installed.
Maybe I should just stock a few cards that work and change them out.
By the way what is the best card to use if I do this?