Linux

I've been using it for years and now I basically can't live without it. I consider OpenWrt compatibility in all of my router purchases. Currently using a Netgear R7800 and a Belkin RT3200, both are going strong.

It isn't as widely used because it can be finicky to flash sometimes, and that's if it's even compatible in the first place. Even if it works, you may experience a drop in performance unless OpenWrt supports using the routers hardware acceleration features. If there's no support, OpenWrt basically uses the onboard CPU to do routing and they're usually not all that powerful.

I know about it but definitely prefer Opnsense for my x86 router.

I've used OpenWrt, DD-WRT, and Tomato firmware on the various routers I've had. I don't think I've ever kept the stock firmware on any router I've owned.

I use pfSense at home now, but I've been considering switching to OPNsense. I still run OpenWrt on a portable router that I use when I'm traveling though. I won't ever buy a router that I can't run open source firmware on.

I know about it, but I prefer Asuswrt Merlin firmware for my routers, because I mainly use ASUS routers (powerful, modern (WiFi 6E etc) , easy to find second-hand models for cheap) and Merlin firmware is very well integrated with the routers and uses the same UI as the stock firmware, but provides additional features like a package manger etc.

In fact I believe ASUS themselves have started to use some of Merlin's patches in their firmware, which goes to show how professional Merlin is.

As a seven-plus year Linux vet I've known about OpenWRT for some time but only made the switch about 3 months or so myself to breathe some life into an aging Linksys.

I'm very impressed with the kit so far, it runs well (snappy even) and the amount of options provided are a bit overwhelming at first. Eventually I'll move on to prosumer hardware, but this is a nice middle ground in the interim.

I do know about it, but I don't even have internet at home.
Though I do use DD-WRT on my WRT160NL which I use at school. For me it acts as firewall + setup-free VPN + DNS Ad blocker (NextDNS). I also have separate passwordless guest network on it if someone wants to use my router. Separate subnet, unbridged with net isolation and AP isolation enabled. And also QoS set to "Bulk" while my network is set to "Maximum". And also forced DNS redirection enabled, so that everyone who doesn't use DoT or DoH uses NextDNS.

It cannot run modern versions of OpenWRT.

OpenWrt was relatively popular back in the day when Linksys routers could run Linux. At some point iirc Linksys sadly replaced the default Linux based firmware by a closed source OS, and also decreased the amount of memory for the firmware. A few years ago I saw that there was an option to install OpenWrt in an lxc container, I briefly played with it, nice nostalgia.

Interesting. I have heard of it but so far I didnt bother since my router is quite versatile.

My biggest fear is that it borks itself and I sit there at 10 pm on movie night without a network or internet to troubleshoot.

If if I chose to use it I would need to have the current router as a fallback either running 24/7 or on a dead man switch.

In my experience it's because it's finicky as fuck and requires very specific (and often more expensive) router models, and even then it still crashes just as much as a proprietary os router.

I know about it. It's pretty popular, so much in fact that you can buy a wide range of routers with it preinstalled.