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Open source router firmware project OpenWrt ships its own entirely repairable hardware
(www.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Whilst that's a nice slogan, in Electronics "open source" doesn't mean anywhere as much as it does in Software because it's generally just knowing which components go into the circuit, which is but a fraction of the work (laying out the board is a massive chunk of work, in some cases most of it, and at high enough clock speeds circuit design is an art in itself).
Mind you, I like the Orange Pi and Banana Pi guys, and the idea of an SBC designed for being an open source router is pretty appealing, though nowadays maybe pfSense would be a better choice than OpenWrt.
Finally this thing having only 2 ethernet ports + WiFi makes it little more than a regular $70+ SBC board + a box - something easy enough to put together by any technically inclined person - which isn't exactly exciting.
I heard pfSense had a hard time with wireless radios, and that's where OpenWrt shines comparably. Is that not true?
Yes, FreeBSD doesn't handle many wireless cards. Same applies to OPNsense, my preferred version.
Open hardware (by oshwa definition) would include the board layout