[wmf]

SONIC is less mature but it's free and open source with the benefits and drawbacks that entails. For example, SONIC runs on a variety of different hardware so you could take advantage of that diversity without having to learn different NOSes.

Ten years ago switches were using 800 MHz single-core PowerPCs which was adequate to run Linux (although many were using VxWorks or whatever). Now the $400 switches are still wimpy but more expensive "disaggregated" switches are using Atoms or low-end Xeons.