Sidenote: Further discussion about collecting usage data should go into a separate topic.
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Sorry for the late reply, I did not see that the thread was still active.
My sense of the most recent posts on download data and phone-home MACs was to determine which devices had the most downloads and extrapolate that to a target device.
Earlier I suggested that a project like this could focus in on devices that the developers felt had good code quality and were well supported upstream. In terms of an old axiom about making a silk purse out of a sow's ear, how about letting the developers pick the ear/silk?
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Mostly the same as yours. I was in the market for an OpenWrt capable device and was impressed by how difficult it was to load on some devices, specifically the Xiaomi 4A. It was clear that the Xiaomi hurdles were placed by the manufacturer, loading OpenWrt voided the warranty and that a large number of people were buying that device soley to put OpenWrt on it. Also, all the effort seen in the forums and by the developers put into the 4A is not benefiting the project, just Xiaomi.
I had a similar reason for wanting such a device and I thought maybe there is a market for it. So I'm working on an open-source wireless router/AP which I'm going to try to sell, first via kickstarter. I've been tinkering with it for a while but it's only recently I was able to get the 802.11ax card to work because the drivers were not available. It'll come preinstalled with OpenWrt, VyOS and a few Linux distros and it'll probably be a bit over €100.
Once I have a website and repo I'll post a link, since a few of you in this thread seem like the target audience.
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Why not charge some extra money and offer better specs like 2ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 8 POE ports. I am pretty sure people do not mind paying a little extra for a better open source router.
It's pretty powerful – a dual core J1900 with 2GB RAM. It's overkill for many people, but actually that's the cheapest SBC I could get that would work with an external WiFi adapter. However not so many ports – that I am thinking of doing later if I can get traction. A 6 port option would be about 30 euro more.
Why not go for an 8 port POE from the start (powering Raspberry Pi). I dont mind paying extra 50 for it.
That's good to hear, but I think going for a device that's commercially competitive means keeping the costs as low as I can. But what 8-port POE device are you referring to -- Do you have a link?
I meant using Raspberry Pi and using ethernet cable to power it. If there are eight POE ports on the back of the router it would be nice, that's what I meant. In the beginning you can launch a reasonable priced device and later on a more expensive for larger homes.