The day when WiFi cards "just work" under Linux may be fast approaching. WiFi software stack specialist Devicescape has released its "Advanced Datapath" 802.11 driver stack to the open source community under the GPL, and the Linux kernel developer community appears to be working to adapt it for mainline inclusion.
The Devicescape WiFi stack was previously only available to device vendors, under license.
WiFi card support is currently spotty in Linux, at best. Bright spots include Intel"s Pro/Wireless or "Centrino" radios, and lots of essentially obsolete, difficult-to-find cards such as those based on Prism chipsets.
Devicescape specializes in selling WiFi stacks to device vendors, and it says that Linux"s poor WiFi card support is limiting Linux uptake in wireless multimedia devices. It hopes its contribution will help developers quickly adopt the latest WiFi silicon technology into their wireless product designs, without having to wait for silicon vendors to release Linux drivers.