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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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149

As a linux user, do you know about/use openwrt? (self.linux)

submitted 9 months ago by mfat to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I have many nerdy friends who have been Linux users for ages. But most of them don't know such a thing as Openwrt exists or have never bothered to give it a try. It's a very fun piece of software to play with and can be extremely useful for routing traffic. Wondering why it isn't more popular/widely used.

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[–] lemmyreader@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago (5 children)

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.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 9 months ago

There was also some interesting thing from Cisco with their stupid Meraki cloud-managed devices.

I don't know if they still do it, but they used to give out free Meraki APs as "free trial". After that, the license would be deactivated and you'd be left with a paperweight, which meant you'd likely pay to keep using it.
Well, they could run OpenWRT. Free hardware!

[–] Hapbt@mastodon.social 3 points 9 months ago

@mfat @lemmyreader it’s a really nice firewall router too with every feature you’d want
I use pfsense now at work

[–] mfat 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Nowadays you can easily run it on a single board computer like the raspberry pi or any x86 mini pcs. You just need to hook up an access point for Wi-Fi which doesn't need to be able to run openwrt.

[–] TCB13@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

SBCs aren't routers, while they're great they might not be good for people who actually want to have WAN and LAN and decent networking performance. Routers usually include some switch chip that will do most of the heavy networking operations, handle VLANs and whatnot without adding CPU load.

[–] RandoCalrandian@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Linksys luckily still sells OpenWRT specific routers.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 9 months ago

Really? I just bought a device from Walmart

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I buy Linksys because it works well with OpenWRT and is cheap

[–] drwho@beehaw.org 1 points 9 months ago

Same. Flash the firmware, off and running.