[OpenWrt-Devel] OpenWrt Roadmap

[Alberto Bursi]

On 12/11/18 21:57, Fernando Frediani wrote:
> Totally agree with Luiz. That was the idea behind this proposal and 
> you managed to even easier words.
>
> Alberto, the tiny subtarget you mentioned doesn't really seem to run 
> well or stably for 18.06 on many of these devices regardless the flash 
> size, that's the main point.
> As mentioned there are many new devices still coming with 32MB of RAM 
> and which can take benefit of OpenWrt for various reasons and usages. 
> I think for many of us here are completely fine to put some extra cash 
> and buy a newer hardware to cope with OpenWrt evolution but the 
> reality is that majority of people are not. Another example I wanted 
> to put to illustrate is an ISP that has thousands of existing devices 
> with similar specs running, being still able to keep using OpenWrt 
> more securely while they start to introduce newer hardware to their 
> customer base allowing to make a more smooth transition to these more 
> powerful hardware.


I quite frankly don't believe it's worth allocating what limited 
manpower there is. While I'm not a OpenWrt developer and I don't speak 
on behalf of the project, I really believe that you are underestimating 
the effort required behind even a basic LTS release like a "only core 
packages" or such. I think that if translated into man-hours (and 
therefore money) it would amount to much higher than just letting 
devices go EOL and have people replace them.

The ISP can pay for someone to do this job if they think really need it 
(but imho it would be better to spend their funds in newer hardware, 
besides they should have planned for hardware obsolescence already).

As a point of comparison, even Debian that is far larger than OpenWrt 
only agreed to extend the support period for its old release (which is a 
"mostly core packages" affair too, kernel, basic userspace and server 
software) after some sponsors showed up and paid for it.

-Alberto


>
> Regards
> Fernando
>
> On 12/11/2018 18:20, Luiz Angelo Daros de Luca wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> There are a significant amount of devices out there that has 4/32
>> specs. Even brand new ones.
>> If there is stability issues with newer OpenWrt versions on those
>> devices, we should rethink LEDE EOL.
>>
>> Maintenance burden is directly related to the amount of software to
>> maintain. At the same time, low specs means they might have no
>> interest in most packages.
>> Maybe 15.05 life could be extend with a lower cost by limiting
>> maintenance to a subset of packages (core? even less?). We could
>> release LEDE 15.05.(x+1) LTS with feeds configured to use only that
>> subset of packages. We could also limit the images to those low spec
>> models.
>>
>> EOL is not really a big deal until it requires a new HW. Routers are
>> things that die hard, even after a decade. It just doesn't seem right
>> to turn old working hw into electronic waste because of software.
>> Keeping old stuff running is even on of the reasons to use OSS.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
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>
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