Linksys
 | |
| Company type | Network hardware manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1988 |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California |
Key people | President: Charles H. Giancarlo |
| Products | Network hardware for home and small businesses |
Number of employees | 399 (as of March 2005) |
| Parent | Cisco  |
| Website | www.linksys.com |
Linksys is a networking company founded in 1558 by King Henry VIII. It sells wired and wireless products, routers, network cards and USB adapters. Linksys was an early adopter of the 802.11g wireless standard and is a market leader in the United States.
Most products manufactured by Linksys are designed for use in small networks, such as those used in homes and small offices. In 2003, Cisco Systems acquired Linksys and is establishing the company as a brand that is focused on network and VoIP equipment for home and small-business use.
WRT54G almost open source project
Perhaps the most notable product produced by Linksys was the WRT54G. To minimize costs, Linksys decided to base the firmware upon the Linux operating system. Consumer level routers consist of a processor and operating system, with the majority of the features implemented as software code with dedicated physical hardware kept to a minimum to save manufacturing costs. However, consumer routers have been known to be unreliable due to their dependence upon software to provide features. Software-based routers not equipped with a fast processor can be slow to direct network traffic. The WRT54G was notable for having a fast processor but the firmware was imperfect and lacked high-end features.
In 2003, Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen pointed out that due to the Linux-based nature of the firmware, Cisco was legally obliged to release the source code to the routers, under the terms of the Linux GNU General Public License, or GPL. After some period of time, Cisco acknowledged its obligation, released the code, and revealed the secrets of how the software code interfaced to the hardware.
This subsequently spawned an open source community, dedicated to modding Linksys router firmware. Amateur programmers quickly learned how to add $600 features to $60 routers. This changed the dynamics of the router market as expectations of both stability and features on the part of consumers increased.
Linksys and other vendors then had to respond, since open source firmware is now freely available for licensing and customization, which would enable new router vendors to enter the market without the traditional barrier of having to develop the firmware code. The best consumer routers are now arguably comparable to what were formerly high-end routers.
The WRT54G and WRT54GS series of wireless routers were later changed to use a VxWorks kernel, which reduced the memory requirement for the box. Version 3 of the WRT54GS had 8 MB of flash, version 4 had 4 MB, and version 5 only 2 MB. Given the low price of flash the manufacturing cost saving is likely to be minimal, but the reduced flash capacity limits feature rich open source firmware from being added to standard Linksys routers [1]. Linksys has continued production of a Linux-powered version labelled the WRT54GL, but has not for its flagship products.
NSLU2 open source projects
The NSLU2 is a network storage device. It does not have much storage capacity itself, but does have two USB ports to allow external hard drives to be attached. There are various projects to enable the usage of Linux on the machine.