Linux users can now take full advantage of the 54Mbps wireless networking chipset in Intel's Centrino platform.
Windows XP has enjoyed full Centrino support since the platform was first launched by Intel in March 2003. Although Linux is not exactly a major force on mobile computers, the lack of Centrino support has given Linux users even less reason to spend money on Intel's premier laptop technology.
Speaking at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York earlier this year, the general manager of Intel's Software and Solutions Group, Will Swope, said at that time that Intel was reluctant to release the driver as open-source software. He said this was because the driver's inner workings might reveal intellectual property that Intel wanted to keep secret.
"What I believe will happen is we will end up having a Linux compatibility driver that is not open source at first, then designing future drivers in such a way that they are open source, but will not expose intellectual property," Swope said.
However, within months of Swope's statement, the chip giant had released a pre-beta version of the Linux driver for the 11Mbps 802.11b standard. On Friday, Intel published the pre-beta version of its 802.11g driver on a developer Web site.
However, an Intel spokesman warned that the drivers on the Web site are only for testing purposes by the open-source community.
"The pre-beta drivers are intended to provide the Linux open-source developer community an opportunity to evaluate the drivers in their own environment, and provide Intel with feedback," said the spokesman.
Additionally, the spokesman pointed out that some of the advanced features of Centrino will only be accessible to users of the 2.6 Linux Kernel, which was released earlier this year.
"Because the features and capabilities of Linux and Windows differ, there will also be differences in the features of the two drivers. For example, advanced power management capabilities will only be fully realised in the 2.6 kernel, due to limitations of the 2.4 kernel," the spokesman said.
CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.
Talkback
As device driver developer, I'm at moment working with Intel's e1000 chip/driver (Gigabit Ethernet).
I have on my desk big yellow book every page of which is stamped with big red (very annoying) signature "intel secret - confidential information" and that sort of things.
I'm more than eager to hear what kind of intellectual property/proprietary information Intel have inside of this chip/manual.
I have spent about 2 weeks with that manual - and I can see that only thing Intel has to hide is bugs. And that's not something new nor proprietary :-) Oh well - and omissions from documentation. But every H/W spec have seen in last five years has omissions - again property Intel cannot claim being proprietary.
I've been making plently of network device drivers for Linux last two years: if you have programmed one - you can easily program another one. It really doesn't matter is it Ethernet, FE, GE, ATM or HDLC. All pieces of hardware I have programmed have basicly same structure - some pretty simple (like Intel's e1000) some more complicated (like PMC's HDLC framer).
I'm ready to send bottle of (good German) beer to anyone from Intel who can show me a thing in their e1000 (8254x family) design , which is not present in other network equipment.
What is really secret/proprietary there?