On Jun 22, 2018, at 9:31 AM, Mark Tinka <mark.tinka@seacom.mu> wrote:
On 22/Jun/18 15:05, JORDI PALET MARTINEZ via NANOG wrote:
I’m not really sure “you get what you pay for” … compare with OpenWRT … you have frequent updates, even in days when some important security flaw is discovered, as it happened a few months ago with WiFi. You can even develop yourself what you want or pay folks to do it for you.
No one disputes that, but there is a reason why operators are paying for MikroTik instead of taking a white box and flashing it with free code from any number of sources.
They could either spend time developing free code on white boxes to a level where it does everything they want, or they could decide for what MikroTik offers for an integrated solution (hardware + software), the time and effort are outweighed by the cost, as a function of traditional alternatives such as Cisco, Juniper, Nokia, Brocade, e.t.c.
Joe Average has neither the experience nor the inclination to flash whatever box he has with OpenWRT. You and I do (well, I've grown lazy, so...). Copy & paste for FTTH service providers dealing with thousands or millions of customers who want to pay nothing for 1Gbps to their house, and you quickly see why this is not an easy problem to solve.
I’ve found most folks doing Tik need the GUI, etc to interact with the devices. I can’t say I blame them in some ways either. Have you tried to upgrade an IOS-XR device before? One-click updates in Tik are much easier. Even UBNT it’s fairly straightforward. Personally I use Tik for layer-2 stuff, be it media converters or switches where there’s not some other alternative that makes more sense. I’m comfortable with a CLI, but most people I’ve tried to say “hey, use this it’s better” say “I can’t http/https to it, the learning curve is too steep”. - Jared