Trisquel 5 and Belkin n150 usb wireless

Are you certain the firmware is Free software? I really, really, doubt it is...

According to Debian it is not.

This is not something we should be encouraging. There are plenty of wireless cards that work with free software.

Hmm.. The driver is listed at wireless kernel org (rtl8192cu). Are you sure it is non free stuff? If it is I will flush the dongle down the toilet :)

The firmware is not free. Here is its license:

Copyright (c) 2009, Realtek Semiconductor Corporation
All rights reserved.

Redistribution. Redistribution and use in binary form, without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

* Redistributions must reproduce the above copyright notice and the
following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution.
* Neither the name of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation nor the names of its
suppliers may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
software without specific prior written permission.
* No reverse engineering, decompilation, or disassembly of this software
is permitted.

Limited patent license. Realtek Semiconductor Corporation grants a world-wide,
royalty-free, non-exclusive license under patents it now or hereafter
owns or controls to make, have made, use, import, offer to sell and
sell ("Utilize") this software, but solely to the extent that any
such patent is necessary to Utilize the software alone, or in
combination with an operating system licensed under an approved Open
Source license as listed by the Open Source Initiative at
http://opensource.org/licenses. The patent license shall not apply to
any other combinations which include this software. No hardware per
se is licensed hereunder.

DISCLAIMER. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS
OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.

Thanks, it is not easy for an accountant like me to always choose the right hardware..

I wonder if this piece of wlan dongle is *free software* certified?
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-80211g-usb-wireless-network-adapter-w-linux-gnu-support

Anyone?

Yes, according to the description, this should work with free GNU/Linux distros like Trisquel. In fact it says it works with Trisquel out of the box. Although I think at $44 it's way overpriced. You should be able to get one for under $10.

There is a website called h-node that contains hardware compatibility with distros. You can find a little about it on the wireless card documentation page under the section checking for compatibility. If you go to the wireless page on h-node and filter by what works you will get a list of all the cards that will work. You can filter the system down even further by specifying what kind of card you want (USB, PCI, ect.)

http://www.h-node.com/home/index/en

I should also note they list other hardware items besides wifi cards. The site is user maintained so it would be helpful if you would submit your hardware data to the site and let people know what works and what doesn't. Even submitting what doesn't work is helpful because it lets users know what hardware to avoid.

I am biased here (CEO of thinkpenguin.com) although I wanted to point out a few things.

* Operating a business on no-profit is difficult if not impossible. Trisquel, the FSF, and other free software projects rely on companies like ours for donations. While a non-profit may be able to do it partially on donations most successful non-profits with long term endeavours have financial relations of some sort with businesses. Most businesses are not doing it out for the sake of non-profits mission.

* Most companies do not invest in free software. Not ones that sell at these $10 prices. At the $10 price point for a similar adapter there is no profit. There is no reinvestment. There is no support. There likely would be a loss for us to do so. They sell based on numbers to a larger market from parts of the world with very low standards of living. There is definitely no end-user GNU/Linux support, free software support, or quality in the transaction (no refunds if things don't work, etc.)

* Where there is free software compatibility today there won't be tomorrow. Where Atheros, Realtek, Ralink, and others have released chipsets with free software drivers/firmware and/or documentations they have not done so in many of the most recent chipsets.

There are no Bluetooth / Wifi MiniPCI combo cards on the market for instance. There are no recent generation 802.11N USB wifi chipsets in ANY USB wifi adapter that support free software and end-users. The only cards that even support free software now and end-users come from us. We are sadly not yet able to inflict change here. We can probably produce more of the same though provided demand goes up a bit more.

I repeat- nobody else is producing cards with the older 802.11N chipsets that are free software compatible. It is remaining stocks which you are buying now.

I have been told the 802.11G USB cards may be a problem soon as well. Stocks are running out from the few others with the same compatible chipset and they won't be producing more. We will likely be the only supplier of 802.11G USB wifi cards on the market in the near future with free software compatibility. We stocked up on the 802.11G USB wifi cards about a month ago in anticipation of this issue. We are waiting on a new batch which are being manufactured and shipped. We will likely run out before we have a new batch.

If anybody questions this. Go look for an 802.11N USB wifi adapter with antennas that support free software. There is very little for under $100 that you can find and definitely nothing new. We have purchased a small batch of what remaining stock is left. We will probably try and get more before all stocks are depleted completely. That is provided our finances allow.

You have to demand free software support and buying from the lowest possible source or company with a broader interest (Dell, HP, etc) is not going to give any company an incentive to inflict change. Lower prices are possible. Just not now. Demand has to rise before that will happen.

I am running Trisquel 4.1 LTS but my internet is currently wired to an 802.11n router running DD-WRT. If I do go wireless again and want to stay in the FSF mentality, I would probably get https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-80211n-usb-wireless-network-adapter even though it is more expensive than an older Ralink dongle I own running the RT2870 firmware.

I am running Trisquel 4.1 LTS but my internet is currently wired to an
802.11n router running DD-WRT. If I do go wireless again and want to stay in
the FSF mentality, I would probably get
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-80211n-usb-wireless-network-adapter
even though it is more expensive than an older Ralink dongle I own running
the RT2870 firmware.

I am biased here (CEO of thinkpenguin.com) although I wanted to point out a
few things.

* Operating a business on no-profit is difficult if not impossible. Trisquel,
the FSF, and other free software projects rely on companies like ours for
donations. While a non-profit may be able to do it partially on donations
most successful non-profits with long term endeavours have financial
relations of some sort with businesses. Most businesses are not doing it out
for the sake of non-profits mission.

* Most companies do not invest in free software. Not ones that sell at these
$10 prices. At the $10 price point for a similar adapter there is no profit.
There is no reinvestment. There is no support. There likely would be a loss
for us to do so. They sell based on numbers to a larger market from parts of
the world with very low standards of living. There is definitely no end-user
GNU/Linux support, free software support, or quality in the transaction (no
refunds if things don't work, etc.)

* Where there is free software compatibility today there won't be tomorrow.
Where Atheros, Realtek, Ralink, and others have released chipsets with free
software drivers/firmware and/or documentations they have not done so in many
of the most recent chipsets.

There are no Bluetooth / Wifi MiniPCI combo cards on the market for instance.
There are no recent generation 802.11N USB wifi chipsets in ANY USB wifi
adapter that support free software and end-users. The only cards that even
support free software now and end-users come from us. We are sadly not yet
able to inflict change here. We can probably produce more of the same though
provided demand goes up a bit more.

I repeat- nobody else is producing cards with the older 802.11N chipsets that
are free software compatible. It is remaining stocks which you are buying
now.

I have been told the 802.11G USB cards may be a problem soon as well. Stocks
are running out from the few others with the same compatible chipset and they
won't be producing more. We will likely be the only supplier of 802.11G USB
wifi cards on the market in the near future with free software compatibility.
We stocked up on the 802.11G USB wifi cards about a month ago in anticipation
of this issue. We are waiting on a new batch which are being manufactured and
shipped. We will likely run out before we have a new batch.

If anybody questions this. Go look for an 802.11N USB wifi adapter with
antennas that support free software. There is very little for under $100 that
you can find and definitely nothing new. We have purchased a small batch of
what remaining stock is left. We will probably try and get more before all
stocks are depleted completely. That is provided our finances allow.

You have to demand free software support and buying from the lowest possible
source or company with a broader interest (Dell, HP, etc) is not going to
give any company an incentive to inflict change. Lower prices are possible.
Just not now. Demand has to rise before that will happen.