I’m excited about the new RYF-certified routers from ThinkPenguin

I just learned that on Wednesday, the FSF awarded the RYF certification to the Think Penguin TPE-NWIFIROUTER wireless router.

I didn’t find this information directly published up front, but simply: It is a re-branded TP-Link TL-841ND modded to be running libreCMC.

I’ve been a fan of the TL-841/740 line of routers for several years now. They are dirt cheap (if you go to Newegg and sort by “cheapest,” it’s frequently the TL-740N), are extremely reliable, and run OpenWRT like a champ. They are my go-to routers.

(And they sure beat the snot out of the Arris TG862 that it seems like everyone has in their homes now. I hate that thing, it even has buggy packet scheduling.)

So this announcement is doublytriply exciting for me:

• I have a solid recommendation for a router that doesn’t require me or them to manually install an after-market firmware (buy it from ThinkPenguin).
• If it’s for me, or someone technical, I can cut costs by getting a stock TP-Link from Newegg, installing libreCMC ourselves.
• I can install a 100% libre distribution on my existing routers (until recently, they were not supported by any of the libre distributions, not for technical reasons, but lack of manpower).

I hope to get libreCMC installed on my boxes this weekend!