1. There is literally no stock left of the revision of the TP-Link router in
any significant quantities anywhere. I checked pretty much every source
imaginable: China, Europe, and the United States. I didn't check sources who
calimed to have less than 10 of the model, nor did I check routers that
exceded the price we're selling them at. I also check similar routers with
this board, but also ran into the same issue.
2. The Buffalo router your referring the works with LibreWRT is not as free
as once thought. LibreWRT is free as LibreCMC, but the bootloader required
for booting on the Buffalo router is not free.
I'm not the developer and I may from time to time error slightly. However I'm
constantly communicating with the lead developer and have a pretty good idea
whats going on from the free software aspect.
3. This is a BASIC wireless router. At this point that's all we've been able
to do without there potentially being issues. We're still investigating
gigabit boards and higher end wireless routers.
4. For the critics I say this. If you don't care about free software or are
too obsessed with performance than don't be surprised when your no longer
able to tinker with it because digital restrictions were added. Don't be
surprised when its revealed the NSA's had a backdoor in all consumer routers
from major suppliers. Don't be surprised when data has been 'stolen' you've
never even transferred over the internet.
5. One last thing. There will be no 802.11ac router in the near future as
it'll require significant effort to get Atheros (or another company designing
wireless chipsets) to release enough code/specs to make it happen. We were
successful with ath9k-htc (modern USB N chipset) in large part because of two
very pro-active free software activists within Atheros.
To that I say you can poke someone who is listening, but it's much harder to
poke someone who isn't. We've been poking people ever since and it only goes
so far if they don't make themselves available to be poked. As it stands
those who remain at Atheros have been resistant. I would love for someone to
actively participate in the community @ Atheros, but that just isn't
happening right now.