What's the difference between openwrt and the original firmware or OS
based on what parameters ?
In general
open source vs closed source.
bug fixes, features and new/additional functionality in openwrts ring corner.
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Best is subjective and you're asking this on a OpenWRT forum.
However, along with points frollic mentioned. OpenWRT is much more conscious of security patching. Also, openwrt extends the longevity of many devices by supporting them beyond the vendors typical life cycle.
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would you like to tell some example of this feature and ,do they exist on the original firmware
You didn't mention the device. Not all OEM firmware is identical. All features offiered by different OEMs aren't identical.
E.g. an x86_64 could have ran Windows...Linux...BSD...
Tell what?
If an old device is no longer supported and OpenWrt does, what fruther needs to be explained?
The old firmware wouldn't exist anymore (well, it would
be antiquated).
are you writing something for school ?
boot openwrt of a usb flash drive on your computer, compare the functionality provided and
installable, with any random router you have access to.
whatever is available for your computer, is also available for all supported routers, assuming
the hw support it, and there's flash space and RAM enough to host, and run it.
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TL:DR
• Openwrt supports a wide range of routers
• The support for openwrt of those devices support for a longer time than the closed source os
• provides a performance boost over the stock firmware
• many features : openwrt package manager for installing openwrt packages (like app store),adblock,vpn,Hw&SW offloading etc
•since the supported drivers of the routers are fully open sourced they are regularly updated. To try out these features you can try the nightly aka openwrt snapshot builds.. By default the release channel of openwrt updates are sometimes monthly or 2-3 months..
Open source openwrt repository:
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If you want to know more whether your router will support openwrt or not do tell us router model name at least...
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Just to add some additional color:
OpenWrt is amazing because it is extremely flexible and capable, up to date (security, features, etc.), and actively supported. This is better than most vendor firmware approaches which are inflexible, and often out of date with support that ends after a few years.
Another great thing about OpenWrt is that it is (largely) consistent across various bits of hardware. While there are device specific nuances (typically most noticeable in the network and wireless config files), most of the system (including the interface and the majority of the configuration methods) is the same across pretty much any device running OpenWrt) which means that you learn it once and apply the knowledge across a large range of devices.
OpenWrt supports a huge number of devices, but obviously it doesn't support all. And, there are some devices that have poor support for certain features (i.e. older routers brcm43xx have wifi limitations due to the closed source nature of the original drivers, sometimes hardware offloading can be missing on some devices for similar reasons, and only a few DSL modems are properly supported).
On the flip side, if you are looking for a highly integrated configuration method for large deployments ('single pane of glass'), there are offerings from Ubiquiti, TP-Link, and others that do a really good job here -- probably better than you'll find on OpenWrt (although there are projects for OpenWrt that are working towards this goal and are apparently quite good). Also, for corporate/enterprise/institutional deployments, it can be useful to use products with paid support offerings and among other things (although, again, OpenWrt can be used, but you have to know what you are doing and select hardware appropriately).
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what is the best wifi chip that work well with openwrt, is mediatek better than atheros ?
Browse this section for hardware questions/recommendations
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When lede-project/wiki was launched there was an entire page listing the reasons to use OpenWrt over stock firmware. @tmomas @bobafetthotmail -- where did it go?
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MediaTek FiLogi Mt7612 Mt7621 Mt7622 Mt7615
And for Qualcomm Qca9880 is a good option...
But go for MediaTek it's a good option over Qualcomm.
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MediaTek FTW if you want AX support, now.
As i understood probably for the forseeable future also the only soc with ax support that's opensource friendly. As was explained earlier on.
We know that for qualcomm targets ath10k(-ct) is dependend on closed source firmware, and as i understood this is even worse for ath11k.
As for broadcom, the folks at ddwrt where always able to support their socs under an nda. But even ddwrt now seems to be throwing in the towel as far as wifi-6/ax wifi broadcom soc support goes.
So basically, with my very limited knowledge, i'm a bit pessimistic regarding future foss/openwrt support and "modern" soc's. Mediatek seems to be the only vendor willing to play nice with the opensource community. broadcom and qualcomm are problematic, intel/lantiq always was a no-go, and for marvell, well, i don't know if they even have a wifi-6/ax product portfolio.
Am i being too pessimistic here?
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Marvell sold their wireless business to NXP. The latter isn't really in a hurry to open source them it seems.
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On my router I run Tiny Proxy and Acme Certs.
This allows me to use my router as a proxy server, so that I can also look like I am surfing the network from my home. And to not have to deal with "Your connection is not private" issues in the browser.
I can also use my router as file server.
These are all things that I don't think I could do with the standard software.