The Wireless Edge: Linksys WRT54G Part Duex

Here's an update from my column last week about Linksys' popular WRT54G wireless router.

Since our story last week about Cisco/Linksys changing the WRT54G Wireless-G
Broadband Router from a Linux-based system to a WxWorks-based system,
Linksys contacted us to say it will maintain the Linux-based system under a new
model number of WRT54GL. The company's statement was, "We are honored
by the overwhelming loyalty of Linux users to our products, and this dedicated
SKU is our way of saying thank you for the support this community has given
to us and our products."

We are pleased that the Linux-based version (current equivalent to WRT54G v4)
will remain available for those who desire it. However, we're still not happy
about the apparent quality and performance issues of the currently shipping
WRT54G. Also, it's a little unusual to create a new SKU for an existing product
and to use the old SKU for, effectively, a new version of the product. However,
it does mean that Linksys/Cisco can direct its huge volumes of this product's
sales, estimated at hundreds of thousands per month, to the version that
costs the company less to manufacture. Hopefully, Linksys/Cisco can quickly
address the problems with this version so that these hundreds of thousands of
users don't have the unfortunate experience I had.