FreeBSD Announces Intel Approval for Redistribution of Wireless Firmware

The FreeBSD project has received approval from Intel to redistribute firmware for several Intel-based PRO/Wireless devices in the base FreeBSD operating system.

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) March 7, 2007 -- The inclusion of firmware for popular Intel wireless devices means that users of FreeBSD will have native wireless support for many Centrino-branded Intel PRO/Wireless devices without downloading additional software. This approval includes firmware for the Intel 2100, 2200BG, 2225BG, 2915ABG, and the 3945ABG devices.

"These changes have already been committed to the development branch of the FreeBSD source code repository except for firmware for the 3945ABG, which is expected to happen fairly soon once that driver is ready for inclusion," said Florent Thoumie, a FreeBSD developer working on this project.

In order to use the firmware provided by Intel, FreeBSD users must first agree with the license. FreeBSD developers have added a simple mechanism to the operating system to agree to the license by defining an easy-to-use
system variable.

“The FreeBSD project frequently works with software and hardware manufacturers that want to provide support for their products on open source platforms while protecting their intellectual property and complying with various government and industry regulations,” said Matt Olander, CTO of iXsystems, a server manufacturer that offers systems pre-installed with FreeBSD.

About FreeBSD
FreeBSD is an advanced operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution of UNIX and is world renowned for its stability and reliability. FreeBSD is in widespread use at large ISPs, enterprise corporations, and government organizations.

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