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Comment by miohtama | Hacker News Reader

Can you recommend Western companies that would be able to produce similar hardware at the same price point?

MicroTik is European (Latvian) and makes some affordable routers. Their own RouterOS is closed source, but many models are supported by OpenWrt (no experience). If you are willing to spend more, OPNsense (Netherlands) also sells hardware. In the old days one could also recommend PFsense hardware, but they are becoming more and more closed (though you can usually run OPNsense on the same hardware).

QNAP is Taiwanese. Their QHora routers use closed software, but I think most models are supported by OpenWrt.

I would like to avoid Mikrotik at all costs since they are not only running questionable proprietary software, but has a history of GPL violation.

Currently they provide sources for GPL components this way, what a joke of a company:

>To get a CD with the corresponding source code for the GPL-covered programs in this distribution, wire transfer $45 to MikroTikls SIA, Ūnijas iela 2, Riga, LV-1039, Latvia.

I really love their Switches, Routers and directional radio link stuff.

But: Mikrotik has problems with end-user Wifi - Their APs are old and weak.

Mikrotik devices compete in the mid-tier commercial and prosumer markets (the same market Unifi compete in).

GL.Inet are firmly in the personal and budget enthusiast market.

The price differences between those two markets is almost 2:1.

What devices are you comparing? I don’t see anything near those price differences.

In the absence of PC Engines (RIP) Swiss design made in Taiwan, there is the South Korean ODROID from https://hardkernel.com.

Compulab in Israel has some customizable IoT boards, https://www.compulab.com/products/sbcs/sbc-iot-imx8-nxp-i-mx...

QNAP in Taiwan has QHora routers, but much higher price points.

The irony here is that it's the US who has been proven to break into allied networks and infrastructure and done both political and industrial espionage against their allies.

If global manufacturers would get with the program and ship blob-free hardware with mainline Linux support, owners could pick their desired firmware and software poison. Until then, we have Cambrian hardware innovation, old kernels and mystery firmware from Shenzen, which can be compromised by a broad spectrum of hostile actors.

I hope it isn't a surprise that every country with sufficient resources and motives will do it to everyone else.

The west is now split, I have the same trust in China, as in US based companies.

https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/all-cloud-gateways/produ...

4x 2.5GbE (one of them even a PoE port)

1x 10GbE SFP+

WiFi 7 with MLO

$279

Ubiquiti gear is great, but does not use open source software like OpenWrt Two. And I think most modern Ubiquiti routers are not supported by OpenWrt.

Quite a few Ubiquiti APs can be reflashed with OpenWRT.

I don’t see how ubiquiti not being open source is relevant here, as the original question was

> Can you recommend Western companies that would be able to produce similar hardware at the same price point?

Besides, I’m yet to see any open source routing software that’s half usable as a complete package. With the sole exception of VyOS, it’s all hot garbage, OpenWRT and pfSense included.

Ok, you may be in the wrong thread. This is a product for people who consider OpenWRT support to be a positive selling point. The OpenWRT One and OpenWRT Two are not products aimed at people who consider OpenWRT to be "hot garbage". They're not trying to produce generically good router hardware; they're trying to produce good router hardware for use with OpenWRT.

When somebody in this context is asking for similar hardware, it's reasonable to assume that OpenWRT support would still be considered important, or at least worth mentioning.

Oh that's surprising! Why do you consider VyOS to be less "hot garbage" than the others? That's a hell of a take!

Mikrotik sells also bare boards. They come with their RouterOS platform (Linux based, closed) but some can run OpenWRT. Also Olimex has really interesting and open products, but they're not primarily aimed at networking.

https://mikrotik.com/products/group/routerboard

https://www.olimex.com/

Similarly, I'd like one from outside both american/european AND chinese influence. I think you'd be absolutely insane to trust either of them.

Honestly, if we're ever going to have a decent open hardware movement, I think it's going to come from a place like Nigeria or Peru, not a wealthy country.

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