[GRLUG] ELS

[Tim Schmidt]

On Nov 28, 2012 1:23 AM, "Josh" <leapole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I noticed once I sent the message, I should have said Openwrt is a linux
like system but it is not the same linux.  It does carry a better
networking stack and I like the way it loads a filesystem image, but as for
running a server you will end up limited quickly due to the
driver libraries are different, and some of the lib are just not there or
written differently.  I seem to run into the same t hing with android,
 they all say its linux  but its not quite the same.
>
> The thing I find most important and unique to linux is the ability to
compile and create a new system from scratch using only onboard tools.  I
have managed to compile stuff on android but have yet to get a native thing
out of openwrt also I have not really tried hard.  So i just find it odd to
call these embedded systems linux.

While Android employs a truly odd driver model not shared with the mainline
kernel, OpenWRT runs a very stock Linux.  I've compiled OpenWRT - the whole
thing, packages included - for a few targets, and the process includes
configuring the kernel.  With very little effort, I could boot an OpenWRT
userspace on a Debian kernel, or vice versa.  I've done it.  The OpenWRT
x86 kernel is just like any other x86 distro kernel.  So I don't know what
you're talking about with respect to 'driver libraries'?

The OpenWRT ar71xx branch has 3400ish packages.  For comparison, even a big
distribution like Fedora only has about 4x that many.  OpenWRT is closer to
Fedora or Debian in terms of completeness than I suspect this distribution
is.  So again, huh?

I suspect you haven't understood my question, which was essentially:

Why would I use this 'lightweight' distribution, when I could use OpenWRT
and get all the apparent features this distribution claims, _and more_?

--tim
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20121128/32d7b630/attachment.html>