4 ms·

Sincere question: why would someone trust a closed source OS for their router?

• Arnt 5y ago
  I tracerouted to a host across the world now and poked at the routers along the path. All of the routers whose vendor or OS I can identify use closed source. So whatever the answers to "why?" may be, it's a common thing to trust.
• wmf 5y ago
  Because open source hasn't caught up.
  • _joel 5y ago
    OpenWRT is outstanding (for my needs) on Microtik hardware, not sure what you mean?
    • wmf 5y ago
      OpenWRT doesn't run on higher-end routers.
      • _joel 5y ago
        It can run on bare metal x86, surely you could get enough grunt. Do you still need ASICs for packet mangling?
        • wmf 5y ago
          x86 router: 1 Tbps for $30K ASIC router: 10 Tbps for $10K And the efficiency also scales down; ASICs should be faster for any budget above $2K.
          • deleted 5y ago
            [deleted]
    • q3k 5y ago
      For your needs.
• core-utility 5y ago
  Any ISP-provided gateway will be closed source. Cisco products are closed source. Netgear products are closed source. TP-Link products are closed source. Aruba products are closed source. To my knowledge, the only viable open-source project is that one Linksys router/AP combo, and that doesn't necessarily fit the features someone might be looking for. While it's nice to think everything could be open source, in the hardware/firmware world it's just not common.
  • _joel 5y ago
    I've flashed a number of devices with OpenWRT, for a number of vendors.
• new_realist 5y ago
  As soon as your router hands off packets to your ISP, packet handling is either closed source software, or closed source hardware, anyway. Even if your gateway is open source, the chips it uses are not.
• MikusR 5y ago
  Do you perform a full audit of your open source rooter?