On Wed, 24 Jan 2024 09:43:58 +1300, Peter Reutemann quoted:
'OpenWrt, the open source firmware that sprang from Linksys' use of open source code in its iconic WRT54G router and subsequent release of its work, is 20 years old this year.'
This linked item <https://tedium.co/2021/01/13/linksys-wrt54g-router-history/> is a good summary of how it all began. Linksys was using a chipset from Broadcom, who had outsourced the software development to a developer who had based it on Linux and BusyBox without telling them. So by the time Cisco acquired Linksys, it would have been difficult for any reasonable amount of pre-acquisition due diligence to pierce through all the layers to uncover what had happened. But that didn’t let them off the hook for GPL compliance, of course. Linksys (now owned by Belkin, which in turn has apparently been acquired by Foxconn) still sell routers which are direct descendants of that original WRT54G model, and which still support open-source firmware. Why? Because it has become a selling point.