Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 19:49:53 -0500 From: Mark Felder <feld@FreeBSD.org> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [rfc] removing the NDISulator Message-ID: <1382575793.17670.37780829.71DE6DE7@webmail.messagingengine.com> In-Reply-To: <CAJ-VmokS-MniCLW2WSEqNxCOOqnY9Ko6p47rngWXabY9biBgPQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <5265878B.1050809@yandex.ru> <201310212146.r9LLkqZ1044966@fire.js.berklix.net> <CAJ-VmomzydOD-M1oePMuqrgdBCFMTXKCZcGVwu%2BLFTnHTGg0Kw@mail.gmail.com> <CAF6rxg=H_zf2nBSreQqMUgG5kizvPaAeR5H0hVPmfcA661UMTQ@mail.gmail.com> <52684E48.20709@unsane.co.uk> <CAJ-VmokS-MniCLW2WSEqNxCOOqnY9Ko6p47rngWXabY9biBgPQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On Wed, Oct 23, 2013, at 19:11, Adrian Chadd wrote: > On 23 October 2013 15:31, Vincent Hoffman <vince@unsane.co.uk> wrote: > > > On 23/10/2013 18:35, Eitan Adler wrote: > > > > On Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 6:29 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org> <adrian@freebsd.org> wrote: > > > > If there are drivers that people absolutely need fixed then they should > > stand up and say "hey, I really would like X to work better!" and then > > follow it up with some encouraging incentives. Right now the NDISulator > > lets people work _around_ this by having something that kind of works for > > them but it doesn't improve our general driver / stack ecosystems. > > > > I doubt most people prefer to use the ndisulator over a native driver. > > However, many people don't have the skills, time, or money to provide > > the incentives you are talking about. At this point ndisulator > > provides a means to an end: working wireless and it isn't causing > > significant strain on the project in terms of development effort. > > > > Our end users are not always developers and I think removing this > > feature will hurt more than it will help. > > > > > > > > As an end user, the main issue I have is that according to the manpage it > > supports ndis 5.1 > > According to > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Driver_Interface_Specification this > > is the version supported by > > Windows XP <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP>, Server 2003<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Server_2003>, > > Windows CE <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_CE> 4.x, 5.0, 6.0 > > > > As you might guess most new devices wont be coming with drivers for XP, so > > does this mean I wont be able to use drivers for a recent windows version > > (my understanding is that it will but happy to learn differently) > > If this is the case and there is no active development on it, a gradual > > depreciation over the 10.x series is probably a good idea. If however its > > likely to support current drivers/devices it does have a place (I've used > > it once or twice in a pinch.) > > > > This is why I'd rather us bite the bullet now and deprecate it, versus > have > it in there and put in the work to upgrade it to handle NDIS 6.x drivers > with the Microsoft wireless extensions stuff. > 802.11AC adapters claiming Windows XP support: (very quick search) http://www.asus.com/Networking/USBAC53/ http://www.asus.com/Networking/PCEAC66/ http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wireless-adapters/ultimate-wireless-adapters/A6200.aspx#two http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=100_TEW-805UB&cat=202 If these idiots would quit making drivers for XP you might have an easier battle ahead, Adrian.
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