---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Dave Taht <dave.t...@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Nov 8, 2023 at 5:44 PM Subject: 25 years of embedded linux based wifi and wireless routers To: Network Neutrality is back! Let´s make the technical aspects heard this time! <nnag...@lists.bufferbloat.net>, Greg Retkowski <g...@rage.net>
I have been reflecting on the era we had spent inventing the first embedded Linux wifi routers, back in 1998. https://the-edge.blogspot.com/2010/10/who-invented-embedded-linux-based.html I am building slowly to try to explain why software is not simple and that it is vastly easier to cut down from a well tested base than build up from scratch, which was a key insight we gained from that project. Also, working with a MMU and other memory protections, is fiercely desirable, a lesson I painfully relearned a few years later with a ucLinux based IP PBX... I also need to straighten out the historical record some, as so many have contacted me over the years with their personal stories, and in particular a fellah by the name of Elmer Joandi (based in Europe) was arguably the first to make the concept work, beating us by at least 6 months. Dozens of others hit the mark within weeks of each other. Stuart Chesire has shared his stories privately with me about Apple's AirPort adventures (and creation myths) that I guess he cannot tell before he retires. :( (between us we won the above patent case but for all I know there was more - the court records are sealed) I am happy our teams have fixed at least some of the problems introduced by wifi4 and wifi5[1] and wish they were deploying faster - especially into the cafes that I love to work out of so much - as well as I wish we could tidy up more than a few left over problems from the make-wifi-fast effort... But I hope wifi7 and later are going to be someone else's problem. ... I still remember vividly, sitting on my rooftop, that December, 1998, in the rain, wondering where the wifi technology would go. [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/705884/ -- Oct 30: https://netdevconf.info/0x17/news/the-maestro-and-the-music-bof.html Dave Täht CSO, LibreQos -- Oct 30: https://netdevconf.info/0x17/news/the-maestro-and-the-music-bof.html Dave Täht CSO, LibreQos _______________________________________________ Starlink mailing list Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink
