Those prioritizing free and open-source technology and right-of-repair now have the opportunity to use OpenWRT One – a router designed for OpenWrt open-source firmware.
The makers of OpenWRT One are touting it as the first wireless router “designed and built with your software freedom and right to repair in mind.”
The joint announcement by the project and the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) said that the router sells for $89 (or $68.42 for the logic board with no case version). Its key features mean that, unlike the devices that depend on proprietary software, it cannot be locked down or “bricked” – i.e., made usable on purpose by manufacturers.
The idea is to bring back control and true ownership into this still-overlooked segment of the technology that people nonetheless use every day.
While considerable strides have been made over the last decade regarding operating systems and applications, firmware – software embedded in hardware – still remains a problem area for the free and open-source community of users.
As for the router specs, they include MediaTek MT7981B SoC, MT7976C WiFi, 1 GB DDR4 RAM, 128 MB SPI NAND + 4 MB SPI NOR flash, two Ethernet ports (2.5 GbE and 1 GbE), a USB host port, M.2 2042 for NVMe SSD, and mikroBUS expansion header.
The developers noted that there is a physical switch in the device that allows booting from a separate NOR flash, instead of the default NAND. And it is this that they call a “bricking-resistance feature” – NOR serves to provide a recovery option.
The Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit focusing on supporting free and open source (FOSS) projects, right-to-repair, and copyleft licensing, noted that OpenWRT One is copyleft-compliant with its source code.
But it is also fully compliant with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements. The organization makes a point that despite the widespread belief that right-to-repair and FCC tests cannot go hand in hand, this device proves that wrong – or as they put it, such claims are no more than FUD (“fear, uncertainty, doubt”).
That’s a misleading and manipulative tactic that has long been used by large tech corporations to disseminate actual misinformation about the capabilities and features of FOSS products.
