[NNagain] 25 years of embedded linux based wifi and wireless routers

[Dave Taht <dave.taht@gmail.com>]

I have been reflecting on the era we had spent inventing the first
embedded Linux wifi routers, back in 1998.

https://the-edge.blogspot.com/2010/10/who-invented-embedded-linux-based.html

I am building slowly to try to explain why software is not simple and
that it is vastly easier to cut down from a well tested base than
build up from scratch, which was a key insight we gained from that
project. Also, working with a MMU and other memory protections, is
fiercely desirable, a lesson I painfully relearned a few years later
with a ucLinux based IP PBX...

I also need to straighten out the historical record some, as so many
have contacted me over the years with their personal stories, and in
particular a fellah by the name of Elmer Joandi (based in Europe) was
arguably the first to make the concept work, beating us by at least 6
months. Dozens of others hit the mark within weeks of each other.
Stuart Chesire has shared his stories privately with me about Apple's
AirPort adventures (and creation myths) that I guess he cannot tell
before he retires. :(

(between us we won the above patent case but for all I know there was
more -  the court records are sealed)

I am happy our teams have fixed at least some of the problems
introduced by wifi4 and wifi5[1] and wish they were deploying faster -
especially into the cafes that I love to work out of so much - as well
as I wish we could tidy up more than a few left over problems from the
make-wifi-fast effort...

But I hope wifi7 and later are going to be someone else's problem.

...

I still remember vividly, sitting on my rooftop, that December, 1998,
in the rain, wondering where the wifi technology would go.

[1] https://lwn.net/Articles/705884/

-- 
Oct 30: https://netdevconf.info/0x17/news/the-maestro-and-the-music-bof.html
Dave Täht CSO, LibreQos