Free Software Drivers

Ubuntu works best with drivers that are themselves under the same license as Linux, the GPLv2. This means that anybody can improve the drivers, or fix a security problem when one is found, and also ensures that the drivers can be used on every computer architecture.

On this site we list vendors that have an excellent track record with free software drivers, either providing their own drivers under the appropriate license or enabling us to write them ourselves.

We strongly encourage you to buy computers that include components from these vendors!

Unfortunately, not all vendors recognise this, and some vendors will not provide free software drivers for their hardware. Others will not even provide specifications publicly or under NDA, to enable independent developers to write free software drivers.