I’ve had some thoughts for a while now about a self-contained firewall appliance built from some sort of embedded-like hardware and Linux. I’ve used custom firmware distributions like SveaSoft and DD-WRT for several years now and I’ve been very happy with the results. However, I’ve found them somewhat limiting in various ways, especially in regards to the hardware they’re used to running on. I also have a lot of concerns about the SveaSoft business model, apparent GPL violations, and the way the lead developer treats people who disagree with him. While I’m impressed with the technical merit of both firmwares, I wanted to do something that IS based on GPL, free-as-in-beer software, wasn’t limited by the hardware provided by Linksys/Cisco models, would allow me to experiment with some different things easily, and…well…look plain cool.