Linux's Sole Wireless/WiFi Driver Maintainer Is Stepping Down - Phoronix
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They claimed to have problems and need to order their wifi part form a specific manufacturer yet claimed to have built their machine themselves
Why would building a rig yourself preclude you from needing to order parts? When people say build a rig it's usually always them ordering parts isn't it?
If you built your rig yourself then there's 0 reason you'd need a specific company's wifi card. Even if you buy a prebuilt then there shouldn't be, even
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So two thousands and ten eleven
twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twentyone twentytwo twentythree twentyfour twentyfivetwentynine is the year of Linux on desktop! -
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Should I be worried?
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They were doing this all by themselves?!
There's lots of developers contributing to the wifi drivers, there's just no "lead maintainer" now
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Bingo.
Contributing and/or maintaining a FOSS project < not getting murdered by my wife for "playing on my computer instead of spending time with my family."
It could be some of the most mission-critical work imaginable, but she'd still see it as goofing around because I'm not getting paid, and she requires attention. And I love the hell out of my wife, so happy wife indeed equals happy life.
Make linux your wife and then everyone will be happy.
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And this is how I see Linux quickly unravelling and planned insecurities creeping in over the next decade or so.
Jeeze. Not everything is doom. Someone else will step up.
These things happen periodically.
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Well, "maintainer" is usually a single person job. They didn't write all the code or whatever, just were the gatekeeper to what got added and making sure shit works.
So I mean, it's not great nobody is stepping up, but it's also not like they magiced up the entirety of linux's wifi support single handed, either.
Other people stepped up like within a day.
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I used to daily drive Ubuntu some years ago for work/personal use but have been back on Win 10 primarily for the last 4-5 years. I was considering trying to go back due to how much Windows sucks (despite some proprietary software only being available on it) but remembering the trouble I had with some networking/printer drivers and troubleshooting those issues and then seeing this article Is definitely making me reconsider..
They have already adjusted the team.
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Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2347/
Btw, you can embedd the image like that:
It will look like that:
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And this is how I see Linux quickly unravelling and planned insecurities creeping in over the next decade or so.
You're being dramatic, the world will collapse before this becomes a problem
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You're being dramatic, the world will collapse before this becomes a problem
I always say the doom of humanity won’t be wars or something sudden. It’ll be something that’s been silently happening: the extinction of species and ecosystems one by one that’s been accelerating in the last 50 years. And now with global warming, it’ll only get worse because environments are changing and forcing species out of their homes.
And this is something I don’t see getting better at all. Social media just seems to have made people even more egocentric and selfish and actionless too, because ranting about problems online makes people feel like they did their part.
We’ll just witness the world falling apart one disaster after another and watch it as “entertainment” on TikTok and Reels, until it’s our turn.
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It's demographics. Linux contributors & maintainers skew heavily to the older end of the spectrum (and, although not relevant to this point, also skew heavily male).
People who can contribute time to a project for free tend to be older because they are financially and career settled by the time they hit 50s. Raising a family tends not to leave a lot of spare time.
Yeah but the issue with the guy leading Asahi Linux, which is probably the other one mentioned, has nothing to do with him being old.
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What is up with all the maintainers stepping down lately?
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What is up with all the maintainers stepping down lately?
Original creators and maintainers are hitting retirement age.
And not many good younger people are available to take the mantle.
This is the long-term cost of how persnickety FOSS maintainers are when it comes to accepting outside contributions to their work.
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Btw, you can embedd the image like that:
It will look like that:
Oddly xkcd's image has no signature or other information identifying the creator.
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Great! FreeBSD needs help with WiFi!
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Debian? Ubuntu?
Because those use old kernels (okay, maybe ubuntu
patches in newer versions of in kernel drivers)
Recent kernel updates got many new supported wifi chipsets:https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/USB_WiFi_Chipsets.md
I'm talking about the newest version of Mint I installed last month that is useless because it can't use the drivers for the wifi dongles I own
I had to search that exact list last month and then wait a month for this specific wifi adapter to ship to me when I assumed I could use my brand new realtek usb wifi adapter
If you read through the list you will see the company in the article has the only wifi adapter that claims to actually have support
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I'd like it if Valve steps up to do the job. They're making hardware that needs WiFi, might as well go all in.
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Oddly xkcd's image has no signature or other information identifying the creator.
Unless you get one of the day's 10'000, it'll be recognised by any tech people.
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Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2347/
Just shut it all down, Nebraska guy. The world doesn’t appreciate you.
