Real World Computing

Products with open source inside

There are now several hardware products, particularly in the networking arena, which have open-source software making them work. Rather than employing proprietary closed-source embedded operating systems like Cisco's IOS, such products incorporate an open-source operating system that's almost always Linux based. The best-known example in this area is Linksys' WRT54G, a small ethernet-to-wireless router with simple firewall capabilities.

This router was launched in 2003, and it's interesting because despite it being based on Linux the source code for the router software wasn't at first released. After some community pressure, Linksys did finally release the source code for the device: according to some websites, Linksys may even have been unaware that its router ran open-source code, which it had bought in from someone else. The device seems to originate from Asus, which used to sell it under its own label as the WL500g, but there are versions from other manufacturers including Buffalo and Netgear. Before you buy a WRT54G, beware that there are many different hardware variations - in particular, some later versions have less flash and RAM, which makes them less capable of supporting third-party versions of the firmware. There's a WRT54GL, which was specifically designed to support third-party firmware when the main product line moved to a closed-source firmware system.

So what do these open-source versions offer over the original software? Well, it depends where you look, because there are five or more separate projects offering different versions, including ones designed for implementing hotspots, for corporate networking with VPN, and net-extending ones that offer mesh services. If you're interested, check out projects such as DD-WRT, OpenWrt, Sveasoft and Tomato. Having said that, Linksys planted the idea of using open-source software in its products, as can be seen by a quick visit to the firm's open-source pages at www.linksys.com/gpl. Here you'll find that many of the products are based on open source, which leads me into the next big arena that employs open-source products: NAS (network-attached storage).

As regular readers will know, Ian and I have our own favourite open-source NAS software - the ever-improving FreeNAS, which allows virtually any old PC chassis to become a NAS - but there are a number of other NAS devices on the market that are based on custom hardware running an open-source operating system. The best known of these systems are Buffalo Technology's LinkStation and TeraStation boxes. On their own, these devices are already pretty good: a few hundred pounds buys you from several hundred network-attached gigabytes up to a couple of terabytes. But since they're based on Linux, as with those Linksys network routers a small industry has arisen producing customised versions. These provide extra facilities, such as NFS for use with Unix and Mac systems as well as command line access. All in all, you can end up getting many more bangs for your buck.

Moving beyond the world of networking, there are other products that now use open-source software inside, a good example being Lego's Mindstorms toy. This has led to a collection of projects that allow different operating systems to operate on the Lego hardware.

Products improved by open source

Often it's the case that while a product itself may not have open source inside, it may have some form of interface onto which other people can hang open-source software. All it really takes is an API, plus a little effort to allow third parties to make improvements. A particularly good example is Garmin's range of satnav products, which have a well-documented API that's been used by various firms to load their routes into Garmin hardware.

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