XORP 1.0 Released

Mark Handley writes "XORP is the eXtensible Open Router Platform - an open-source router software stack for FreeBSD and Linux. It's designed from scratch to be extensible, so you can write your own router applications that play nicely with the existing routing protocols. We just released XORP 1.0! There's also a Live CD if you want to try it out without reinstalling your machine. More details in this CNET article."

Comments

License vs Proprietary forks

[Gopal.V]

For the time I've looked at routers (briefly) , I've already noticed the BusyBox Hall Of Shame - where router vendors have refused to comply to the license. But I sincerely fear that all this work might get "embrace and extend and sell" by a company - like what happened for the BSD TCP/IP stacks (ok, do an nmap -O on your favourite MS box).

But this is good for colleges and other places where the concentration of "guys who can stop by and fix the router" is high. Also not to mention the tinfoil factor of a readonly-livecd router (but does it have remote logging).

Re:License vs Proprietary forks

[ffsnjb]

But I sincerely fear that all this work might get "embrace and extend and sell" by a company - like what happened for the BSD TCP/IP stacks (ok, do an nmap -O on your favourite MS box).

The BSD folks look at this differently than you do. As long as Microsoft complies with the license for the BSD tools they use in Windows (tcp/ip stack, ftp.exe, etc.), and they have, everything is just peachy. BSD folks just love to see their code used (superiority complex?), and generally don't care as long as the copyright remains; even if every penguin-worshipping-codemonkey's most hated evil empire uses it.

important project

[e**(i pi)-1]

This is an important project:

• keeps vendors like Cisco on their toes evenso it can not compete with their products.
• could allow developing countries to build a better and cheaper internet infrastructure
• could prevent the development of more great firewalls or find ways around it.
• pushes research and will in the long term also improve commercial products.

Quagga

[Paul Jakma]

There's also Quagga, a fork of the GNU Zebra (thanks Kunihiro), which is further along, more mature, in much wider use than XORP (I've not heard of anyone actually using XORP in production, while GNU Zebra and Quagga most definitely are) and, most importantly, not written in C++ ;).

NB: I'm biased.

Can't have been a BSD license...

[argent]

If it was a BSD license it couldn't have been taken over. A BSD license can get a commercial fork, but the original code remains freely redistributable.

Re:Performance is pretty reasonable

[!ramirez]

Uhm. Not everyone lives in a carrier hotel, and not everyone has easy/simple/cheap access to Metro Ethernet, or UDF, or anything closely resembling a RJ45 connection. I work for an ISP - Bellsouth delivers our PTP DS3s via RG58 coaxial DS3 out of a fiber shelf they installed - asking for a DS3 interface isn't really that exotic, or outdated. You assume that everyone who would want to use routers has access to MANs/Metro Ethernet/RPR/whathaveyou - this is extraordinarily shortsighted.

If you have a campus (large business, research, or education) network with existing ATM, it's now cheaper for you to rip out everything you have and replace it with switched or routed gigabit ethernet than it is to maintain your existing kit.

How is ripping out your existing infrastructure cheaper than continuing to use it?

No offense, I don't see a Linux router manufacturer stepping up to help me troubleshoot why my BGP sessions keep dying mysteriously, or why not all of my IGP routes that I've designated in a specific prefix-list are being injected into BGP - something that I'm more than willing to pay Cisco for, because their stuff just plain works.