Mac drivers for Clearwire WiMAX coming in August, Linux DIY code to follow
By Vlad Savov 
posted July 22nd 2009 10:25AM
posted July 22nd 2009 10:25AM
posted July 22nd 2009 10:25AM
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jesus christ how hard is it to make linux drivers? i'll answer it not hard an all. industries need to stop being so lazy.
LOLUMAD?
Effort vs. reward. Over 99% of laptops have some version of Windows or are Macs. Most manufactures don't want to address the approx 1% of Linux, especially when it's a bunch of different flavors where stuff isn't always in the same place and you need a distro specific installer for the average guy.
I've worked in Software Dev for a long time, and worked on countless business cases for new software projects. Development of the initial software rarely accounts for more than 40% of the cost and usually more like 20%. The rest is support and ongoing maintenance.
Until they can produce a business case that proves that they will make money selling to Linux users, it won't happen. And don't forget opportunity costs - it's not just the expense to produce the Linux drivers, it's also what they aren't doing with the resources that are on the Linux project.
Most likely someone in the Linux community will take a look at the Mac driver and create a Linux one based on that.
It's trivially easy to write drivers for Linux, and in fact if you speak to the right people ahead of time, it's entirely FREE of charge: http://kerneltrap.org/node/7636
@CraigJ
But look at the emerging netbook market. WiMAX would be extremely useful on those.
Easy it may be, but who's gonna support it?
Last report was that only 4% of netbooks had Linux on them, and netbooks are a small percentage of the overall note book sales...
For better or worse most people prefer Windows XP.
It's actually pretty smart. Clearwire taps into the huge crowd of software developers in the Linux community. The Linux guys may put improvements into Clearwire's open source driver, and depending on the open source license, Clearwire may re-incorporate those improvements back into their Windows and Mac drivers.
There has been native wimax support in the linux kernel since 2.6.29?, courtesy of intel or whoknows, but whats up with this clearwire / sprint ordeal?
http://www.linuxwimax.org/
So, if AT&T wanted to announce a tethering plan, they should do it before August 17...
Seeing as the Linux community at its core is programmers I suspect they would welcome source code to aid in developing the drivers for it. It saves Sprint/Clearwire from paying programmers to support a single digit percent of their users and gives those very users what they need. Once they create the working drivers they can easily be ported to any distribution and packaged for the less technical Linux user.
Exactly. I'd go even further and suggest that when both first- and third-party drivers exist, the third-party ones tend to be more efficient and reliable. The Linux community is perfectly happy to produce their own drivers if companies like Clearwire provide the required specs. Considering almost every driver issue that has held Linux back was the result of closed-spec hardware, we have a lot so smile about with promises like John Saw's:
"Linux users have nothing to smile about here, unless they consider Clearwire CTO John Saw's promise to release code from which to build their own drivers a reason to cheer."
I think it's a big enough step to offer the specs. We've spent enough time wishing manufacturers would do that... it's enough to make the community happy.
How about they work on getting MMS un-banned from every iPhone line? Then they can trouble themselves with offering an overpriced tethering plan.
-Desperate
Don't we have an iPhone app to create those drivers?
Great........too bad I live in a rural area.
Because I live in a rural area, Clearwire is the only internet I can get (besides dial-up or satellite).
But then people would see me using a Mac in public and assume that I'm a douchy hipster and I can't take that risk.
Based on the snark factor of your comment you are already douchy in public, so no risk of being further exposed in that regard.
I dunno, Tones Jom, I'd give Chris a high-five.
I always stay at least 10 meters away from such people. There's no telling when they might throw an iPhone on you or start lecturing about how evil MS is.
Wishful thinking really but I hope WiMAX would take off. Compared with UMTS/HSDPA, WiMAX adapter is cheap as chips.
Another issue is the frequency, it seems like in Asia 2.3 GHz spectrum is used while in the US it's 2.5 GHz. Then there's planning to deploy 3.5 GHz elsewhere. And here we've got nothing in the UK.
if its any where as quick as they say it is, and you often find yourself in wimax cities, and it doesn't DEVASTATE battery life, the 30/mo is a better deal than as much/more for the carriers' 3g connect cards
the irony is that in their pictures on flyers they have a person surfing the internet with clearwire on a MAC lol
Why do you capitalize Mac? I've never understood why people think that's correct.
but im still coding my USB toaster!!!
Has anyone actually tried clearwire or any other kind of wimax service? How's the experience? Is the connection good? What's the pricing like? Is it expensive? How does it compare to current mobile broadband tech like those 3G cards from sprint or att? Do you think wimax will become the standard for mobile broadband?
I have clear here in Atlanta. I am at the edge of coverage at home so I get about 4-5 Mbps. However if I go up the road to the shopping plaza then I get 6-8 Mbps. I have both the home box and the usb dongle. I am pleased with them both so far. (two months service) at 55 a month for both the home and mobile it is a lot cheaper then anything else here.
FAST, cheap, clear.
I am on Clearwire's 3.5G/Pre-Wimax/whatever you want to call it. I am technically outside their coverage area, so speed is not the best. I get 1.5-2mbps on a good day, despite being on the 3mbps plan, and upload is under 300kbps. We do get four out of five "bars" on the modem, but it took a lot of tweaking to find a spot where it works reliably. To bad they don't offer modems with external antennas. Ther used to sell them, but apparently they stopped because people were getting hurt trying to install them on their roofs. Mobile service would not work here, but it might be OK in town. It costs extra if you just have a home plan, though. It is FAR better than anything the cell phone companies have to offer, though. It is cheaper, faster, and not capped at 5gb. I'm sure there is a cap, but I haven't hit it.
I think all the cell phone companies are going with LTE for 4G. I don't know if it has been deployed anywhere yet, and I don't know if it is supposed to be technically superior or not. If there is coverage outside of just metro areas, that would be a benefit by itself.
3 comments:
1. You're using the wrong Clearwire logo for the true WiMax service. They use their 'Clear' logo for the new network.
2. That $30 price is for home (large Motorola modem) service running at 4Mbps.
3. To use Sprint's 3G network and Clear's WiMax, the plan starts at $80/mo.
For anyone that cares, I subscribe to the home service running at 3Mbps, and stream Netflix flawlessly; Hulu too, but flash software does a bad job of buffering data, especially with all those ads inserted in shows/movies. This is where Adobe Flash fails against Microsoft's Silverlight.
But macs don't NEED drivers. Everything just works! They can talk to Japanese cameras!