How cool is open source?

An old computer joke goes like this:

"There are 10 types of people: those that understand binary, and those that do not."

Funny stuff, a variation on that joke could go like this:

"There are 10 ways to do things: the open source way and the wrong way."

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A strange thing happened when Linksys built their WRT54G WAP/Gateway/Firewall on a Linux kernel- the community held their legal feet to the legal fire of the General Public License. Linksys was forced to release the sourcecode for the unit! This, in turn, led to open sourced firmwares being developed for it. You can put any one of numerous firmwares on this model of hardware. Afterward, you're no longer limited by what the folks at Linksys will allow you to do.

Outstanding!

So, check out this screenshot of OpenWRT's Kamikaze 7.09 running on a WRT54G-



Does your proprietary OS give you drink recipes out of the box? No way!

A more robust OS with a sense of humor? You can't beat that!