On 2020-10-12 12:46, Daniel Golle wrote:
On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 11:59:17AM +0200, Bas Mevissen wrote:
On 2020-10-12 11:40, Bjørn Mork wrote:
> Bas Mevissen <ab...@basmevissen.nl> writes:
>
> > Nice work, but does it make sense to add a device that is already
> > EOL'ed by the manufacturer? I guess the installed base is also rather
> > small.
>
> Definitely!
>
> IMHO, it should me enough that there is one user with enough interest to
> actually do the work, submit it and - hopefully - maintain it for a
> while.
>
The latter, maintenance, is my biggest question mark. Technically
keeping
the sources compile is the smallest task. You need someone to actually
use
recent builds all the time and preferably in multiple use cases to
catch
regressions. Otherwise, it might give a false impression that the
device is
supported and working.
> In addition,
> - each supported device serves as a template and example for
> similar devices, simplifying support for other products.
It is not really an unique product. It looks like it was (just)
created to
be a showcase at CES2016.
To me it makes sense to support this device because it's easier to do
than MikroTik or ubnt devices with 802.11ad which have their special
quirks for EEPROM extraction and such (but yet those are very
interesting targets imho!). Starting with a TP-Link device which more
or less implements a plain reference design is a very good start for
802.11ad in Openwrt.
OK, good point. I'll buy a few when the price drops :-)
Obviously, my concern about maintenance remains when there is support
for a more popular equivalent device.
> - OpenWrt support is good for the environment by increasing the usable
> lifetime of a device
True in itself. I have a very old TP-Link TL1043ND V1.x running (for
which
support will be removed soon because it gets very difficult to keep
them
going with current software sizes).
> - you can still buy this device new, despite the EoL announcement
>
But should you? I would be very reluctant with buying EOL devices,
especially when being a "first" and with the price still up.
I think that OpenWRT should be careful not to spend resources on
devices
that have no large install base nor any chance of getting it. In that
respect, I would prefer to prioritize on low RAM / low flash devices
instead
as they are everywhere and mostly running outdated insecure software.
With
things like ZRAM and an external flash drive, there life span could be
meaningfully extended.
>
> Bjørn
Bas.
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