this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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what kind of computer? does it have wifi already? Its not usb but the ones I always get are the intel wifi+bt units. I bought a few wifi6e + bt5.2 recently each in different form factor for my laptop, desktop, and steam deck. apart from the deck which is soldered on and I don't have time for yet, the pcie and m.2 wifi and bt combo cards work out of the box on bazzite.
If its a laptop or desktop that has antenna on the motherboard io panel then it probably has an m.2 card that can be swapped for a bt integrated one and you could jump to wifi 6e at the same time. or wait for wifi7 and whatever bt version will exist then I guess.
It's a mini PC, no PCI or m.2 extension, it's connected to the internet through cable, but I also have WiFi dongle and a Bluetooth dongle that don't require proprietary firmware, but the Bluetooth version is only 1.1 which its limitations and I want to upgrade.
That's too bad. From what I can find online there are a bunch that have in kernel drivers but I can't personally vouch for any of them. I haven't seen any reports of linux compatible usb bt dongles above 5.0 so far but that might just be Google's fault for making internet searching garbage.
Just to clarify. In-kernel drivers is not the same as open source firmware. Most bluetooth dongles use the in-kernel driver, but require proprietary firmware to be loaded before they work. Most of that firmware is present in the linux-firmware packages/repository, but the setup would no longer be FOSS only.
Yeah, that's exactly the problem, thanks for the better wording.
Oh I didn't know about this. Is there an easy way to check if the current setup has proprietary firmware in use?