←back to thread

Remotely Compromising Android and iOS via a bug in Broadcom's WI-FI Chipsets

(blog.exodusintel.com)
387 points pedro84 | 1 comments | 26 Jul 17 19:51 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
thomastjeffery ◴[26 Jul 17 23:00 UTC] No.14861166[source]▶
Why does Broadcom insist on proprietary drivers?

How could it possibly be detrimental for Broadcom to have free software drivers?

This article is a poignant example that it is detrimental for them to continue to keep their drivers proprietary.

replies(6): >>14861174 #>>14861519 #>>14862058 #>>14863796 #>>14867469 #>>14871284 #
paulie_a ◴[27 Jul 17 01:56 UTC] No.14862058[source]▶
There is no benefit. They probably have an embarrassing code base that is full of garbage and a bunch of lawyers paranoid about IP. Why would any manager suggest to take that risk that has very little potential upside.

It isn't that it would be realistically detrimental, it just has no value to the individual attempting to change the established course of the ship

replies(2): >>14862334 #>>14870283 #
azernik ◴[27 Jul 17 22:32 UTC] No.14870283[source]▶
Judging from what I've seen of their drivers, yeah, their firmware/microcode is probably an embarrassing bug-ridden code base. But it also represents a lot of investment in low-level/low-layer features that they would prefer to hide from competitors (much more sensitive than the higher-layer logic in the driver proper).
replies(2): >>14872638 #>>14873290 #
1. paulie_a ◴[28 Jul 17 07:37 UTC] No.14872638[source]▶
While I can understand that sentiment and perspective. Those people are wrong, they are inconveniencing their competitors to a tiny degree and over estimating the value of those features due to the awful implenation.