Well, if you demand nobody use anything that their ideological opponents produce, then anticapitalists can't use anything ever produced by a company (like this router), and libertarians can't use anything ever produced by a government (like the internet). Then only apolitical flexible people are allowed to even get online at all...

Said router is probably as much a product of DARPA and other government subsidized research as whatever organization produces the actual machine itself. (Anybody who thinks a pure economic system is possible, whether libertarian or socialist, is a naive fool.)

Which makes it even more important that alternative organizations be created that produce what we need. All you're saying is that capitalism has taken over pretty much everything and enforced particular hierarchies and relations upon us. You're stating how urgent the situation really is.

Thanks for doing that!

IIRC, Linksys originally used a Linux variant for its firmware (I've forgotten the details of the transitions that the "L" model line went through.)

So... not entirely a "capitalist corporation" product.

Also, having spent a number of years in the seat at one of those corporations, I was not infrequently pissed at how often / how much they were taking a "free ride" on "free" software products without contributing back to the respective software projects, in code/support nor in dollars.

A "capitalist" is not infrequently a self-serving opportunist. Some of the more obnoxious of them thinking that "they" are the "magic factor", rather than all the shared wealth they rest upon.

EDIT: My mistake, it was the "G" line that was originally based on Linux:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series

The "GL" and similar are a subset of this line, that provided Linux support after they switched the "G" line to vxWorks. I don't recall and don't feel like digging up all the details, but I seem to recall there was some tension in their initial use of Linux that may have ultimately contributed to the "G" line being and staying as open, firmwarewise, as it has been.

Anyone, feel free to correct me on my deficiencies of memory and/or understanding.