[OpenWrt-Devel] Introducing the LEDE project

[David Lang]

You may be right that OpenWRT is doomed, but we have seen time and time again 
that OpenSource software is not a zero-sum game.

Yes, if OpenWRT does nothing, it will struggle, but that's unlikely to be the 
case.

For that matter, even with no new manpower, OpenWRT could just copy everything 
that LEDE does and still survive for a long time based on brand recognition 
(after all, people are still downloading OpenOffice, and that hasn't even been 
pulling improvements from LibreOffice)

There's no question that there is going to be disruption and a loss of progress 
in the short term, but before you count either side out, let them stabilize, and 
figure out what's really important to them going forward.

Revisit the question in 6-9 months and things will probably be much clearer.

Remember that the remaining OpenWRT folks haven't has weeks or months to plan 
what to do at this point. It will take them time for them to figure out what's 
going to end up happening. In the short term, they have to plug the holes and 
figure out if anything critical needs to be done to keep the lights on. Only 
after they are able to get past this short term crisis will they be able to 
really think about the larger issues and figure out what to do about them.

And the LEDE folks have a lot of infrastructure to setup (and there will be a 
lot of bikeshedding going on while they do this), so they are going to take some 
time to get everything going and get a release out.

David Lang