Free Software: the reason Amazon Fire is Android 2.1

The Amazon Kindle Fire is out and looks to be the competitor to the Apple iPad that no one else could yet produce: it has a low pricetag and good hardware, and like Apple products, this one is tied into a store and is designed to keep you there.  Yep, the ebooks have DRM and 'lending' these books out is nearly impossible:

 only certain "lendable" books ("lendability" being determined by the publisher) can be lent at most one time, only within the United States, for a period of exactly 14 days. 

So, they've got that going for it.  I thought Big Media was learning its lesson about DRM, that it only hurts customers not copyright infringers (who get around the DRM); I thought this was the normal 2011 but I must be wrong.  In this alternate 2011 in which we're now living, DRM is back and higher prices for artificial scarcity is back.  Between this new Amazon Fire Tablet and the expensive, restrictive, limited-option Netflix plans, I'd bet BitTorrent gets a boost over the next few years.  MAFIAA Big Media has been set back by its own lack of vision and inability to maneuver in this new marketplace, where Free is the new Cheap, and Cheap is the new Everything.  They're blinded by previous profits in an unsustainable business model, and their only hope on this current path is to convince the US Government of their value and to have that government push other governments around until the whole world is ruled by US Copyright Laws, and then they can sue everyone at once.

OK, so anyways, the Kindle Fire: Amazon took the Android 2.1 software, which is what my phone runs, took out most of the Google stuff (including the Market), stuffed it with Amazon apps designed to get you buying, and has released it on the RIM PlayBook hardware.  This is great!

Ok, let me clear this up:  I am not a proponent of BigCorp controlling us or collecting our data.  I just recently got a PayPal account, a good 15 years late; I don't have FaceBook; Apple iDont.

But the idea that the Free Software produced by many of us, that you and I tested and reported bugs and put through the paces in our daily lives, and that software is out there for anyone to use — that is a powerful idea.  Amazon saw this, took the Android 2.1 software and made it their own, and now we can decide if we want to use it.  Personally, I am waiting for CyanogenMod version of Android to be released for my phone, so that I can upgrade MY software on MY device.  I would imagine this will be released for the Amazon Kindle Fire as well, eventually.

So we have Free Software, capable of being customized and deployed anywhere: Fantastic. The two drawbacks to the Free Software movement are due to greedy vendors and we must vote with out wallets; I am guessing no one will get the message.  The drawbacks are that vendors release their software, that you and I helped to build, but they don't release the code allowing us to build that software.  Google has been doing this with their more recent Android releases: only their changes to the Linux Kernel will be released, per that license.  The rest, we're screwed.  The other drawback is that, in trying to keep their secrets about our software, hardware has now changed so that we cannot install our own software onto our own hardware.  TiVo started this trend and caused the Free Software Foundation to release the GPLv3, but it hasn't been enough because customers aren't exercising their rights and we're getting more and more locked out of our hardware.

The Amazon Kindle Fire did what they could: took a 10-release-behind (!) version of Android and made it their own.  I wonder if that version, Android 2.1, already had the needed drivers for this hardware.  Or maybe they're that far behind in the product development.  Or maybe, its all Google would let them have of the software that you and I built.

Linux Hardware: Western Digital USB3 PCIe card

We got this Western Digital USB3 card for my work computer; it plugs into the PCIe 1x slot and it worked at first boot on my Linux 3.0.0 kernel in Debian Sid.  Works like a charm, so if you've got any USB3 devices you should check out this card for a nice speed boot over USB2.

http://amzn.to/r7bUok

They say that USB3 is 10x faster than USB2 but I've heard that disputed; its a change in the calculations to measure the speed increase that significantly.  However, USB3 is certainly faster and due to the easy installation of this card in Linux, I'd give this device a 5/5.

Western Digital  WDBFNJ0000NNC-WASN USB 3 card

Linux Hardware: Wireless-N on Linux (USB Device)

This little guy is smaller than a US 25¢ and is Wireless-N

I wanted to plug this great little device, a USB 2.0 adapter that gives good wireless performance:

Edimax EW-7811Un 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wireless Nano USB Adapter with 150Mbps Data Rates


This USB Wireless device gives me good speeds (limited by USB 2.0, not the device itself) and works out of the box with my Debian Linux (and Ubuntu should work) setups that are running the Linux Kernel 2.6.39 or higher.  This uses the Realtek RTL8188CUS chipset and the Linux driver rtl8192cu and this Wireless USB adapter has made my older laptops usable again.  I was tired of having poor wireless performance on my Linux laptops with older cards, or no wireless networking on some machines, and this USB adapter has changed all of that for the better.

Small extension wire
keeps it cool!

The speed is limited by the USB 2.0 interface and the radio power isn't awesome due to the incredibly small size, but overall I am quite pleased with the device.  It is inexpensive but not cheap and it works well.  EDIT: One thing I've noticed, on one of my older small laptops, is that this device can get very hot due to the location of the USB port, and the heat causes the connection to drop.  I've fixed this with a small extension wire, which keeps my Wifi USB device cool and also helps to boost the reception ever so slightly by raising the antenna.  Extension wire: 6 inch, 12 inch, 18 inch.


So, Linux users, if you need a good Wireless USB 21Adapter for your Debian or Ubuntu or Fedora or probably most any Linux distro, and you're current enough to run 2.6.39 or Linux 3.0 or newer kernels, I suggest giving this device a try.

What did I do with this perfect USB wireless card?  Check it out!