mikeb mikeb has posted comments on this change. ( https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/31225 )
Change subject: src/mainboard/lenovo/g505s/Kconfig: disable DRIVERS_INTEL_WIFI by default ......................................................................
Patch Set 2:
(1 comment)
https://review.coreboot.org/#/c/31225/2//COMMIT_MSG Commit Message:
https://review.coreboot.org/#/c/31225/2//COMMIT_MSG@13 PS2, Line 13: have a much better software freedom status and are the preferred choice.
Again, the comment about firmware free Atheros seems to predate all ath9k […]
Sadly after Qualcomm bought Atheros I found it impossible to get any support or even a human reply from them, it seems that Qualcomm does not care about the opensource. E.g. despite my best contact efforts, no one from Qualcomm ever gave a reply to my datasheet requests for AR8161/8162/8171/8172 chips (would've been helpful for KolibriOS driver). And the scope of their developer portal topics is extremely limited, it's mostly for some devboards and Internet of ShitThings related.
Personally I think that all ath9k are fine. I may be wrong of course. Still, when I have to choose between "maybe contains the non-free firmware but hopefully not (Atheros ath9k)" VS "guaranteed to contain the non-free firmware (Intel)", of course I will choose ath9k because it is more likely to be free and also is more ethical (haven't been made by the same company that first put a ME inside their CPUs). Although Qualcomm ath10k is much worse than Atheros ath9k, and I hope that Qualcomm will be bought by someone else who is better (of course not by Broadcom or Qualcomm will turn from not caring about opensource to hating the opensource).
Back to the topic, it is hard for me to find any reasons why any coreboot'er would consciously choose Intel over Atheros ath9k especially at this AMD-based computer. So I hope that this change will make into the default configuration some day, at least for "remove kebab" -err- "remove Intel" reason ;) Meanwhile I'm going to submit a "disable DRIVERS_INTEL_WIFI" change for Emulation boards like QEMU... Wish you a nice weekends