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Oh, the horror. I bought a Compaq/HP nx9110 a year ago, and recently upgraded my Mini-PCI Wireless card from non-OSS friendly Broadcom 11b to an 11g card. It's an HP Laptop. According to their marketing, I shouldn't have had to buy non-HP parts to be linux compatible.

The HP BIOS for most models of laptop now have a whitelist of allowed Mini-PCI cards that can be installed in the laptop. If your new WiFi card isn't on the (very small) list of allowed cards for that specific model of laptop, then your laptop won't boot.

So I can't upgrade my laptop. I can't replace the card if it's out of warranty. I can't put in a card that is supported by non-Windows OSes. In effect, I don't have a personal computer. I have an appliance licensed for specific tasks. Imagine my joy when I realised what I had paid that extra money for. Good old HP quality.

Next stop: Hacking your BIOS for fun and profit.