Hello Sam, Thank you for your comments, which clearly took some effort on your part. However, I regret that I still do not understand how it is that there is a common reluctance to write "I use a <name here> network card successfully under gNewSense". As I have indicated before, I wanted to use free software but was held back by my existing network card; so, when I had some time, I bought a couple of cards, flipped a coin, chose a card, and, lo and behold, got lucky the first time - it worked. Hence:
I use a D-Link DGE-530T (wired) network card successfully under gNewSense. I realize that this is a very small piece of information; I cannot even tell you which driver is in use - but it is already in gNewSense 2.3. I have informed hardw...@fsf.org dajo > > d...@frii.com schreef: > > This thread of mine just preceded another thread "Converting people to > > free software" and I find this juxtaposition interesting and what is > > happening somewhat curious. I want to use a free distribution; I have > > arrived here via websites for fsf and gNewSense, and a "get help" link. I > > got help, for which I am very grateful, in divining the problem - a > > non-free network card - but when I ask the almost trivial question "which > > of the 40 or so acceptable cards listed on the fsf site probably will work > > with gNewSense?" (alternatively: "which card do you use?") I get complete > > silence. That is very frustrating, very puzzling; and, in the context of > > a discussion about attracting people to free software, very confusing. I > > do not even need to be "converted", but I cannot get some simple hardware > > recommendations! > > I understand that this is frustrating. I often get frustrated with not > finding good hardware myself. There are several issues involved here: > > - The non-free must be separated out from the free. This is what > gNewSense/Linux-libre do. > - Find out which chips work with free drivers/firmware. This is enabled > by the first step: users can run/install either and report if stuff > works and post lspci output. The many similar "Works in Ubuntu!" reports > on the Web are useless, because they don't say if the software > supporting it is free. > - Mapping consumer hardware (model no. etc.) to chips/drivers/firmware. > This is the information you'd like to take to the store. Because of the > multitude of devices out there and the lack of information from > manufacturers this step takes a lot of effort from many users. Sadly, > only a small fraction of users take part in this. Most complain when it > doesn't work, but keep silent when it does work. > - Mapping stores to consumer hardware. Typing a device model number into > a search engine often leads to some US based company that requires a > credit card to pay and only ships to US and Canada. Local shops around > here often have lesser known (or lesser tested) brands or have crappy > (or even no) websites which are out of date. So this great device I want > only exists in theory for me. A good worldwide directory would be useful > for this, but pretty much impossible to build and maintain. > > So if more users were helping in building a hardware database then > hardware recommendations would indeed be simple. But as it is now we > just have to make do with the information we have in the FSF list and > some other resources (I believe our wiki does have some hardware reports). > > > I still would like to get recommendations for network cards; I leave for > > the computer store, for something else, in an hour or two 8-) > > The 8139too driver has been around for years, so anything based on that > should work. I'm not sure it that's still sold (or even modern), though. _______________________________________________ gNewSense-users mailing list gNewSense-users@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users