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From: <eranian@chorus.fr> Date: Mon, 31 Jul 95 09:49:47 +0200 I have also been disappointed by the Ethernet Card. A few weeks ago, I purchased a Xircom PCMCIA Card. I thought it was supported by the Linux PCMCIA package from David Hinds, but apparently, it is not. There seems to be a problem with Xircom not publishing the technical information about their cards. Checking with the customer service, it seems that we have to buy a developpers kit ! The card does, of course, run under r DOS/Windows but it's useless for me. I think I'd better buy a simple (less efficient) D-Link card which it supported by both operating systems. Actually, buying a developer's kit is insufficient. The problem is that you must sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to get the information necessary to write the driver, which is inconsistent with developing a freeware driver that will be distributed in source-code form. This is a short-sighted decision on the part of XIRCOM and as a result they have completely shut themselves out of the Linux market. It may not be a large market, but revealing that information wouldn't change their market position relative to their competitors, so they have given up some sales without gaining a tangible result in return. If you want a good card that is fully supported in all of the environments that I know of, get the 3com 3c589.