* Reyk Floeter <reyk@openbsd.org> [2008-07-28 09:53:58]:

quoted text
> 
> Actually, I'm confused.  It carries an ISC license with an Atheros
> copyright.  Luis Rodriguez (madwifi/ath5k) and Jouni Malinen (Linux
> Prism2 HostAP) are working for Atheros now.  The code seems to include
> open source HAL-code, there is no binary blob.
> 
> The only missing thing is the documentation, but even the existing
> driver might help to port it to OpenBSD.  Actually, the ath9k stuff is
> very similar to ath5k which is indeed based on my ar5k driver (OpenBSD
> ath(4))... too bad that Atheros did not decide to use a copyright like
> 
>   Copyright (c) 2008 Atheros Communications Inc.
>   Copyright (c) 2004-2007 Reyk Floeter <reyk@openbsd.org>
> 
> They neither apologized for all the trouble nor give me any credits
> for my work.  ath9k would not exist without my work on the OpenBSD
> ar5k driver, it was a door opener, the base of the ath5k port, and
> Atheros' way into the Linux kernel.  It was the reason why Luis
> Rodriguez got his new job.  It might help Atheros to gain market
> shares again, after they lost so many to more open companies like
> Ralink Tech.
> 

Didn't someone mention they even used license.template?  What's up
with that?

Why is this code ISC licensed anyhow?  I suppose it's a bit off-topic
but I was under the impression that Torvalds only _wants_ *wink*
GPL code.  Perhaps they're keeping ISC around to placate Reyk or
perhaps make themselves feel less guilty?  Despite the licensing,
I'm sure it will be bundled with every linux distro out there
regardless.  Most of those guys just don't seem to care what the
license is let alone actually understand it.  Perhaps it's less of
an open source push than it is for market share.  That might explain
the choice of ISC--more adoption, albeit painful if you don't like
magic.

Atheros must like magic, they could have just seded the explicitives
out of their docs and put them on an ftp.  They would not have
needed to pay anybody and it would have taken less time.

This has nothing to do about opening up--they want more market
share.  Incidentally, how many 802.11 stacks does linux have now?

-- 
Travers Buda