WLAN/Wi-Fi

[duga]

My suggestions for what a Power PC laptop released 2016 should have regarding wi-fi:

Bare minimum:
802.11n 2.4 GHz (including b/g)

Nice to have:
802.11n 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz (including a/b/g)

Very nice to have:
802.11ac (including a/b/g/n 2.4 + 5 GHz)

[nemesis]

Very nice to have:
802.11ac (including a/b/g/n 2.4 + 5 GHz)

+1

[jgospodaric]

My vote for first version is only:

802.11a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz

5 GHz is not taking over market as it should so for next version you have space or something for upgrade.

[Carlos]

Very nice to have:
802.11ac (including a/b/g/n 2.4 + 5 GHz)

+1

+1
Something like that:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/dual-band-wireless-ac-7265.html
~20€
It also uses the M.2 slot

[bastian94]

Very nice to have:
802.11ac (including a/b/g/n 2.4 + 5 GHz)

+1

[cyrano]

You shouldn't be thinking hardware, but software!

Which supplier has a driver for Linux/BSD, preferably GPL source code. You'll find that there are very few. IIRC, there is just one...

In this case, a mini-PCI wifi card could be a good idea.

[Carlos]

Could you name one?

[cyrano]

Not really. I'm trying to remember from reading about it on several Linux dev lists, but I can't. The problem is various Wifi chip makers have been bought by the big guys. And I didn't really follow that.

It shouldn't be too hard to find out as there are only three or four manufacturers remaining...

[Carlos]

About the AC 7265, maybe it is a possible candidate?
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000005511.html

[cyrano]

If you can buy those in smaller quantities, as a startup, it is definitely a candidate.

Intel is a hairy company to deal with, however. I fear that they might be deaf for your calls because there's no Intel processor in this machine.

Broadcom has had a driver for the brcm80211 in the Linux kernel since 2010, and I think the source is open.

There's an overview on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_wireless_drivers

I don't know if it is current...

[Carlos]

Yes. There I found "iwlwifi" that supports almost all "802.11" modes.