[kgiori]

Several good points. Only one aspect made me laugh. Even if I can "opkg install <pkg_name>" to run the Mozilla WebThings Gateway, I'm lazy. I'd rather buy a box that maintains my privacy and is updated periodically with security and feature enhancements. What made me laugh is that I don't fit your stereotype. I first used ddwrt around 2003 then switched to OpenWrt and convinced QCA to adopt it as the basis for QSDK when 11ac routers came out. And if all goes well with my daughter-in-law, I'll become a Grandma in 2-3 weeks. But I am looking forward to easily installing apps, especially those that respect my privacy. :)

[hathawsh]

Congratulations on becoming a grandmother! Sorry I didn't think of a better example of the kind of user I'm thinking of. "Bob the accountant", mentioned by someone else, is probably a better example.

I've also run several generations of OpenWRT and I've decided it doesn't make sense for me to spend time maintaining it. For example, I'm interested in installing something like Zulip (an open source team chat service) on my router, but I know from experience that anything special I install in OpenWRT requires custom configuration and will need regular manual maintenance and upgrades. It's a big time commitment and I have to be careful with my time.

In a better world, I would tap to install Zulip on my router, automatic upgrades would be enabled by default, and I would be prompted to also sign up for a Zulip-oriented encrypted backup subscription service. Having spent only a minute or two to install Zulip, I would gladly pay for the backup service since the developers proved that they respect my time. I would no longer feel the need to sign up for another cloud service. Privacy would win!

[kgiori]

Your desire not to have to admininster OpenWrt yourself is legit. I don't either. The Mozilla WebThings Gateway integration work is being done by Mozilla so that they can offer the result to OEMs who would sell a product with it already installed, and the Mozilla team would maintain the sw. So consumers at any tech skill levels won't have to be sysadmins in order to achieve the privacy and security protections they deserve.