rt2800usb on trisquel
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the one thing that keeps me from migrating to trisquel (or any other fsf-approved distribution) is the fact that i use a linksys wireless adapter that is a part of the ralink rt2870 chipset, which to my understanding is a rather common ralink variant.
when i tried migrating to debian, i had to set up the staging drivers (an annoying step, since i was without internet connection, and had to locally install the firmware-ralink package).
when i migrated to arch, i found out that the replacement for it: rt2800usb was merged into the kernel, and as a result, i didn't require any additional setup. when i tried this on the trisquel live disc, i was without internet.
what do?
I am not an expert, but I think that is it because Trisquel uses linux-libre not linux. Linux-libre removes non-free firmwares from linux.
I understand your problems, but the goal here is to be as much free as we can. Sometimes our lack of knowledge or money make thinks difficult. But know that you know when you will choose your next computer you will have the knowledge to choose free hardware.
So if you have to use non-free software for a (preferable short) period of transition or you don't have the money or the knowledge (to code a free firmware in your case) it's not a crime ;-)
Using non-free software on Trisquel just defeats the whole purpose of using Trisquel in the first place.
I only have two PCs (a laptop and a desktop), and BOTH require proprietary firmware for their wireless chips . . .
You are right, I agree with you.
It's just that if you cannot do otherwise dont beat your self up.
It's better to use the maximum of free software that you can that saying "ok a give up I go back to Windows".
Access to Internet is also a freedom, so if you have to choose between internet and free firmware it's your values. Maybe people from the west it's easy they choose both for 20 dollars, but in Africa or Asia 20 dollars is a month salary so they will choose a crappy slow internet with non-free software everyware because they dont have the money and the knowledge.
I am a member!
Africa is a big place. Not everybody is living in complete poverty. There is a growing middle class. Our sales to Africa are tiny compared to Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United States. However they greatly exceed our sales to China. I would say sales to Africa match sales to Japan. There is demand in South America although delivery is difficult due to trade barriers, slow/corrupt postal system, etc. Particularly for larger items like laptops.
"Maybe people from the west it's easy they choose both for 20 dollars, but in Africa or Asia 20 dollars is a month salary so they will choose a crappy slow internet with non-free software everyware because they dont have the money and the knowledge."
I wouldn't say that is a smart move. They are trading their nation's economic freedom for a slightly cheaper hardware which will benefit themselves only. You know why $35 chips like Raspberry Pi aren't succesful? Because they do not run proprietary software. Same thing for other mobile hardware. Unfortunately very few people can envision their actions' consequences in long term future.
Raspberry pi does feature proprietary software in their video API according to Wikipedia.
Having said that, I agree with your conclusion. However, I think this is a hard ethical dilemma.
You know the specific proprietary software I'm talking about that broke all the hardware industry.
W _ _ _ _ _ S
EDIT: AFAIK microcode is not portable (or doesn't make sense in being so), even if they are free, so they are of lesser importance on this specific subject.
I am a member!
Nobody here will help you to install non-free stuff in your system. If you put convenience above Freedom, Trisquel is not for you.
If you can afford it, you could buy a 100% Freedom-friendly piece of hardware from http://libre.thinkpenguin.com (it sets a cookie to show you only Freedom-friendly hardware, and to donate 25% of the profits to Trisquel). People here use to recommend this type of hardware from other places also, but I know only ThinkPenguin.
Also, probably, you can use an Ethernet cable without problems.
I want to point out that the "libre." isn't what causes all hardware to be freedom-friendly; the site never shows you hardware that is not freedom-friendly. What the "libre." does is cause some of the profits to be donated to Trisquel and only shows information that doesn't lead you to nonfree software (for example, some case badges for GNU/Linux distros that are not fully free are no longer listed, and some links to the website of a not fully free distro are removed).
I also want to point out, because it isn't obvious from GustavoCM's post, that you can get a USB wireless adapter or wireless card from Think Penguin; you don't need to get a whole new computer.
I have a Ralink card as well with that chipset (WUSB600N), but I don't use it anymore. It will not work with Trisquel and the Ubuntu support is spotty.
It is spotty because the rt2800usb firmware and driver in Ubuntu has performance issues in speed and frequent disconnects. If it has to be used, the rt2800 driver needs to be blacklisted and the rt2870 driver has to be compiled from source with each new kernel upgrade. No fun.
ThinkPenguin offers G adapters and hopefully the Atheros N adapter will be ready soon for Trisquel.
You can also try the very latest Linux-libre kernel version to see if there's support.
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