[OpenWrt-Devel] Why OpenWrt sucks?

[José Vázquez]

2015-03-09 23:28 GMT+01:00, David Lang <david at lang.hm>:
> On Mon, 9 Mar 2015, José Vázquez wrote:
>
>> OpenWRT is a linux distro oriented to networking so the kernel and
>> drivers are important, but you must not forget that the init process
>> (procd and related after AA) is one of the cores of this distro and
>> makes it work. The most relevant packages are oriented to networking,
>> but with the feeds you can make anything that you want, making it very
>> versatile.
>> Also we must take in mind that OpenWRT works with GPL drivers and code
>> (only few are proprietary); I think that one of the main advantages of
>> use them is that anybody can contribute, and IMHO, are easy to
>> maintain.
>> One of the performance penalties come with the network drivers: while
>> proprietary drivers are tightly coupled with the hardware, the drivers
>> developed by OpenWRT guys and collaborators should not be so
>> "complicated" because when the kernel version is changed they can
>> generate a lot of problems and headaches, while more "generic" drivers
>> do not take advantage of all the hardware features, overloading the
>> cpu with tasks that in stock firmwares are managed by specific
>> subsystems that are faster for those specific tasks.
>
> there is no reason why the open drivers need to be slower than the
> proprietary
> ones. History has shown that with sufficient information, the open drivers
> end
> up being as fast, or faster than the proprietary ones. But it does take time
> and
> cooperation with the manufacturer to do this with the latest hardware.
>
> Open drivers can be modified along with the kernel to take advantage of the
>
> newest features in the kernel. Proprietary drivers are either written for
> one
> specific kernel, or with a shim layer that limits how well the driver can
> work
> with future kernels.
>
> David Lang

Sorry, big mistake. :(
You are right, open source drivers do not mean bad and/or incomplete drivers.
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