[CentOS] CentOS 6 supported hardware

Thu Jul 7 10:23:37 UTC 2011
Mark Weaver <mweaver at compinfosystems.com>

On 7/6/2011 4:36 PM, Ned Slider wrote:
> On 06/07/11 13:32, Lamar Owen wrote:
>> On Tuesday, July 05, 2011 06:19:58 PM Ned Slider wrote:
>>> On 05/07/11 10:09, Ljubomir Ljubojevic wrote:
>>>> Broadcom has license restrictions so even ElRepo guys wont create rpms,
>>>> but there is howto, even for CentOS 5:
>>>> http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Laptops/Wireless/Broadcom
>>
>>> We (elrepo) certainly aren't prepared to create and redistribute binary
>>> "kmod-wl" RPMS given the Broadcom licensing restrictions.
>>
>> For Fedora the RPMfusion 'nonfree' repo has kmod-wl and friends.  An EPEL-based RPMfusion for EL is in testing, but kmod-wl and friends are not there yet.
>>
>
> Hi Lamar,
>
> Yes, I see a couple of other repos are shipping kmod-wl binaries. We
> noted that at the time we took legal advice to establish if we had
> possibly misinterpreted the License. They obviously don't share our
> concerns about the licensing terms for redistribution (or maybe they
> just didn't read them too closely) :-/
>
> Personally I'd rather try to find a way to pressurise Broadcom into
> doing the right thing by the Linux community rather than support (IMHO)
> draconian licensing restrictions... but somehow I doubt Broadcom really
> care that much. Other vendors find a way to license their non-free
> content in a less restrictive way that permits unencumbered
> redistribution. Shame, as Broadcom adapters seem particularly prevalent
> on AMD-based laptops. I bought an Intel-based laptop where pretty much
> everything works with CentOS out of the box :-/

It is indeed a shame because in my humble opinion the AMD processors are 
much better than Intel. What's interesting though is that none of the 
distros I've previewed on this laptop have had any trouble with the LAN 
chipset in that it is able to connect to the network. It's mostly just 
the WLAN mini-card.

Given the choice I'll take an AMD over and Intel processor any day 
whether it's a server or a desktop. All my servers, save one, have AMD 
Opteron chips in them and those servers I've been deploying for clients 
where its possible have AMD Opterons in them. (Dell R415 is an excellent 
example.)

-- 
Mark Weaver
Computer Information Systems & Services, Inc.
mweaver at compinfosystems.com
(717) 512-9718