[Cerowrt-devel] So how far behind is the embedded router world, still?

Dave Taht dave.taht at gmail.com
Wed Jul 25 14:50:31 EDT 2018


back in 2011, 2012 jim and I and others looked hard at the kernels and
software being sold then to end-users.

We concluded that the embedded router world was running 5-7 years
behind linux mainline, sometimes as much as 10, and that the embedded
linux world had been decimated by the great recession causing the
collapse of companies like montavista.

I recently took apart verizon FIOS's current firmware for one of their
more popular routers. It's still running 2.6.21, which shipped in
june, 2007. Overgeneralizing from this one data point, I am wondering
if the trendline for new routing products tracking current software
has got worse or better? I have generally assumed that "new wifi
features" was a fundamental driver for semi-newer kernel versions in
new products, and not much else. Edgerouters are still 3.10. I know of
more than a few pre-bufferbloat-era things going back even further
than that, but most hackerboards I've played with also don't go back
very far. Odroid C2 was still 3.10 last I looked.

There are still a few companies alive in this space (openrg being one
that I know nothing about), but...

-- 

Dave Täht
CEO, TekLibre, LLC
http://www.teklibre.com
Tel: 1-669-226-2619


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