Wow jeeze. This is such a different & bad look from the netgear I know. This is hard to see.
Netgear has been one of the main companies to go to if you care about using your hardware. They have had a spirited MyOpenRouter community[1] for their systems, with great firmwares & flexibile package-add-ons developed with assistance from their solid-gold readily-reproduceable GPL releases[2].
I just had a somewhat overlong thread about Broadcom chipset routers having headed towards being impervious & useless, resistant to any experimentation, & bereft of open source firmwares[3], & a general trend in wifi of routers getting less & less general purpose & user-centric hardware, under increasingly consumeristic teiring[3]. While hardware alternatives vanish. This news doesn't mean Netgear is going to go totally darkside & cut off the amazing innovation they've let grow under them, but it sure is frightening that it could be part of that wider scary course into darkness & ignorance that wifi seems to be heading down.
Own the means of production. Own the means of communication. Do not stop short, do not accept less.
Netgear has been one of the main companies to go to if you care about using your hardware. They have had a spirited MyOpenRouter community[1] for their systems, with great firmwares & flexibile package-add-ons developed with assistance from their solid-gold readily-reproduceable GPL releases[2].
I just had a somewhat overlong thread about Broadcom chipset routers having headed towards being impervious & useless, resistant to any experimentation, & bereft of open source firmwares[3], & a general trend in wifi of routers getting less & less general purpose & user-centric hardware, under increasingly consumeristic teiring[3]. While hardware alternatives vanish. This news doesn't mean Netgear is going to go totally darkside & cut off the amazing innovation they've let grow under them, but it sure is frightening that it could be part of that wider scary course into darkness & ignorance that wifi seems to be heading down.
Own the means of production. Own the means of communication. Do not stop short, do not accept less.
[1] https://www.myopenrouter.com/forum
[2] https://kb.netgear.com/2649/NETGEAR-Open-Source-Code-for-Pro...
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24521265
Edit: hopefully much ado about nothing; seems this change only applies to their cloud ️ services
> It appears the registration is only required for "cloud" features managed through Netgear's subscription service.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24530009