Engineers are weird (I'm including myself here). Part of the job is actually looking at all possible solutions, so often the next shiny thing is looked at. That's not a problem, because if that next shiny thing makes the overall solution simpler and easier to maintain/debug then it's part of the keeping it simple.
That reply is very civil and useful. Thank you.
That bit is very surprising. Did you ever try OPNSense?
OPNSense is firewall and routing. 802.11 is wifi. very different jobs, they operate at different levels of the TCP/IP stack.
The problem is further down. OPNSense is a FreeBSD distribution that packages the basic OS with pfsense (the firewall) and a nice install/management GUI. But the 802.11 stack is broken more fundamentally in AP mode. And what I do mean here is: I did put a PCI-based WiFi card into my server, put it into AP mode, and ran an antenna out of it.
Did you try IPFire? I have used it as an AP and I know it works.
That's perfectly possible as long as you only use plain win32 API and don't use any feature that didn't exist in Win95. If you ever wrote some GUI program using only win32, you know why people typically don't do that. And once you're using libraries, versions that are still supported will typically require Windows versions that are still supported. Plus restricting yourself to the featureset of Win95 is very restrictive of course.
glibc uses symbol versioning, so sure this can be done (and is done sometimes). It's just a C library though, so most stuff written about Windows above applies here as well.
I'm just trying to clarify any misunderstandings and it looks like your sarcasm may have lost its tone in text to some.
Not sure if I agree with this. Microsoft definitely does indeed support their stuff for a long-ass time. I mean XP was supported for like 20 years; Apple though, not so much. I should know, I'm an iOS developer. They suck with supporting anything beyond like 2 years. Just recently, I upgraded to Ventura and realized it no longer supports prior Xcode versions. Like seriously? Xcode 13 isn't even that old (September 2021). Moreover, it's one thing to just drop support and let us "use at your own risk", but no.... what they decide to do is COMPLETELY disable and prevent the program to install at all! If that's not forced obsolescence, I don't know what is. This is also probably one of the principle reasons why corporations, in general, shy away from Apple stuff and use Microsoft instead. Microsoft just has 100x better track record when it comes to LTS.
Not just free software, I just showed you how terribad Apple is with the example above.
In my opinion, FreeBSD is one of the better ones as far as LTS goes.... Go over to the Linux land and it's a crazy town out there. Hell, some of the distros don't even have ANY concept of LTS. It's almost like moving over to the new hip stuff is their MO. Just look at this list over the years: GNOME3, systemd, pulseaudio, bunch of tools like ip, ss, etc.
I started with the Apple Airport, because I already knew it well, it is super easy to administer, supports bridge mode, and there is an Apple Store about 20 minutes from home.
Funny, I could never make a go with TP-Link hardware... even the more expensive stuff tends to crap out on me after just a few weeks. I had to get Netgear replacements, those lasted a really long time (like 10+ years, and the reason I had to de-commission a router was because its huge WPS indicator light just turned on, and wouldn't blink/turn off. The router itself was actually fine, but that huge light not turning off was too much).
You don't have a roll of duct tape or electrical tape?
I do, I tried that. The light was too bright, and end result looked too ugly. Besides, it was an N router. I was kind of in the market for something that provided better coverage for my house, so replacing a 10-year-old N router with a newer AC device was kind of in the cards anyway. That unmanageable light (and the ugly-looking remediation options) was kind of the push that was needed to get up-to-date stuff.
5 years of good use so far with a then-brand-new Asus wifi router. Oh, and the entire time, I stuck with DD-WRT, I don't care that it's Linux - if it does the job of unlocking the usability of my router, and can be installed, I'll friggin' use it. 
What you have to read, I have been registered for many years in this forum, participating but not often, either reporting bugs or helping users questions in the forum. You can not fight against the current of those who want the system to be only for server by default, and not for graphical desktop environment, where is the majority of the world for the use of the system that is the end user.I do get the impression that LucNix and teo were just trolling. Why else would both issue a challenge "Sell me on FreeBSD and how to use it!" while clearly displaying no intent to be sold on FreeBSD?
Neither of those two were very responsive to coaching...
drhowarddrfine did have a very good sardonic response:
FreeBSD derivatives
The perception of the user that have tried to use FreeBSD in graphic desktop has been disappointing, lack of software for their hardware, lack and incompatibility of software for the use of their day to day things, software that is becoming obsolete that when trying to use the resources of the...forums.freebsd.org
I have only two versions why this topic has not yet been shortened: (1) the highest degree of friendliness and democracy of this community and/or (2) the great sense of humor of those who could do it. I suspect that you are joking too (the passage about Skype and editing documents in Office gave you away a little, be careful). Well, I edit documents exclusively in texlive and communicate via mail/xmpp - does anyone use them? No need )
