[VOTE] Endorse the creation of OpenWrt One

[David Woodhouse]

On Wed, 2024-01-17 at 16:25 +0100, John Crispin wrote:
> OpenWrt One will be a wireless networking device designed for free and 
> open source software enthusiasts, encouraging people to tinker with and 
> learn about embedded development and Linux networking.
> 
> OpenWrt One is intended to benefit OpenWrt as the project shall receive 
> a share of the revenue for each unit sold.
> 
> Our intent is to build a unit with OpenWrt friendly hardware 
> specifications which makes it well supportable and serves as a potential 
> role model for manufacturers - it will receive the same level of 
> community support as other OpenWrt capable devices, there will be no 
> priority tier, no paid support channels and no dedicated OpenWrt 
> flavours or similar. The device support shall be fully upstreamed into 
> vanilla OpenWrt.
> 
> OpenWrt One is a private voluntary initiative led by me (John Crispin). 
> The initial R&D cost for the ODM design is privately paid for by me, 
> without utilising any OpenWrt funds. I will not be making any profit 
> from this. To reduce liabilities, time to market and burden on 
> individual developers or the project as a whole, I propose to co-develop 
> the OpenWrt One PCB together with the ODM behind the Banana Pi 
> community. The OpenWrt One will reuse design aspects as well as the form 
> factor of existing Banana Pi PCBs and enclosures.
> 
> 
>   OpenWrt One is *not* intended to be:
>    - A contender for commercial off-the-shelf Routers or APs.
>    - A wired router achieving gigabit NAT speeds
>    - A bleeding edge Wi-Fi 6e/7 access point
>    - A Network Attached Storage device
>    - A high speed ethernet switch
> 
> The "One" rather aims to be:
>    - As open as possible and fully compliant with all copyleft and other 
> FOSS licenses it uses
>    - An educational platform for tinkering with/learning about open 
> hardware and Linux
>    - A way to donate to the OpenWrt project while receiving a nice 
> gadget in return
>    - Provide expansibility through mikroBUS, GPIOs and PCI/e M.2
>    - Software unbrickable and easily recoverable without additional means
>    - The satisfaction of achieving an overdue personal objective
> 
> 
> By starting this vote, I am asking fellow developers of the OpenWrt 
> project to:
>    a) Endorse the usage and mention of the OpenWrt trademark and logo
> for the OpenWrt One hardware device, allowing the ODM to print the 
> OpenWrt logo on the silk screen and enclosures as well as branding the 
> resulting device "OpenWrt One" and marketing it as such. Software 
> Freedom Conservancy (SFC) agreed to take care of the legal agreement 
> with the ODM if the vote succeeds.
>    b) Authorise SFC, Inc. to register an IEEE MAC Address Block Large
> (MA-L) on behalf of OpenWrt. The required one-time payment will be 
> covered by private, non-project funds.
>    c) Agree that SFC will receive a percentage of the revenue of each
> unit sold by the ODM, on behalf of OpenWrt with the received funds being 
> directed towards the OpenWrt project under the existing fiscal agreement 
> in order to cover future expenses. Right now I am aiming for a share of 
> around 10% with an expected price tag of around 100$ per unit.
> 
> 
> The vote shall be concluded within 10 days.
> 
> In case the vote succeeds, the next steps will be:
>   - Finalise the hardware design with the silicon vendor (MediaTek) and 
> ODM (Banana Pi) - expected to take 4-8 weeks
>   - Receive engineering samples (15 units) and distribute them to 
> interested parties
>   - Provide samples to SFC for copyleft/FOSS license compliance 
> verification.
>   - Once the engineering samples are confirmed to be working, the ODM
> will start producing the initial batch of units
> 
> Please understand that until the vote succeeds I do not have the 
> mandate/authority to further any discussions with the involved entities 
> on behalf of OpenWrt. Final technical and legal details will be 
> clarified once the consent is given through this vote.
> 

+1

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