Re: [EXT] Re: [PATCH v3 00/22] wifi: nxpwifi: create nxpwifi to support iw61x

[Reto Schneider]

Hi David,

On 02.10.24 03:29, David Lin wrote:
> Mwifiex has been put in “Odds Fixes” state for quite some time.

What I read: NXP (who has taken over the Marvell BLE/Wi-Fi business) is 
not willing to maintain products once they have sold it.

> Now we have planned to add series of new chips and features.
> Although some of the codes are from Mwifiex, we do spend much effort to enhance the FW/driver interfaces and a few other areas
> Our proposal is, mwifiex continues support only existing devices.

mwifiex does not continue to do anything on its own, it requires 
continuous maintenance. And NXP is not doing that:

$ git log --no-merges --oneline drivers/net/wireless/marvell/mwifiex/ | 
wc -l
643
$ git log --no-merges drivers/net/wireless/marvell/mwifiex/ | grep 
^Author:.*nxp.com | wc -l
7

> New NXP connectivity chips and features will be added to nxpwifi only.
> We are also committed to regular QA and maintenance for nxpwifi.

What I read: NXP is eager to support new hardware, but does not take 
adequate support of hardware they sold in the past.

> May I know what is your concern on upstream this driver so we can better address it?

From my PoV as a potential customer: NXP cleaning up the mwifiex driver 
would give me confidence that whatever comes next from NXP will be taken 
care of adequately too. Also in the long term, which is a must when 
choosing components for products that need to be supported for many 
years to come.

Kind regards,
Reto