There seems to be a problem with all firmware being closed and proprietary when it comes to Wi-Fi. It would be great if we could have firmware that is free/libre software but until now I got the impression that it’s very far from happening.
Then I stumbled on something about “OpenWiFi” and now I am wondering if this provides a path forward:
That page claims the following:
OpenWiFi is a community-developed, disaggregated Wi-Fi software system, offered as free open-source software, that includes both a cloud controller SDK and an Enterprise-grade Access Point (AP) firmware , designed and validated to work seamlessly together.
That mentions access point firmware, not sure if that means it is irrelevant for the consumer device side, or if the project includes something about that too.
Hard to say. There’s a lot of waffle on that web site. My impression was that it isn’t relevant to WiFi client devices and hence not directly relevant to Purism’s most pressing challenges in the WiFi space.
If this project actually delivers something and if Purism decided to add a WAP to its product range then maybe there is some benefit.
3 minutes of glancing through the documentation didn’t tell me much about how it works. The Github page shows that a lot of dev work is happening, but I’m not sure which are the files for the OpenWiFi project specifically, since it is part of a larger project.
Sorry for digging this thread up, but I think there is something additional to put here.
I asked duckduckgo’s AI about the presence of free WiFi chips, and it says the OpenWiFi is working on making open firmware and hardware, currently aiming at matching WiFi6 standards. The project is still based upon FGPA, means that no standalone physical silicon chip for us, and production is a issue.
I went to their website, but things have changed. Telecom Infra’s site does not host OpenWiFi page anymore. Now the only thing related is a seems official OpenWiFi Github repo, and it is active. Seems like the ownership and focus of the project have changed since last time @Skalman and @irvinewade visited it