[FSF] Atheros releases free software wireless driver; no binary blobs

[Joshua Gay]

Atheros Communications has announced the release of free software
wireless drivers for ath9k.  The ath9k driver requires no proprietary
binary blobs and works on several chipsets and over a dozen wireless
devices.

"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>.