One more addition, as I've just seen the addendum of the review mentions that there is almost nothing in the user manual: the Manuals in the Mikrotik world only describe HW specific quirks.
You have to go to: help.mikrotik.com
Then study it for a few hours, days...
I love RouterOS and have been using it extensively for home and soho. And I absolutely agree: it can bee a pain to set it up. Every little part of it is complicated enough to spend hours on.
Setting up networks can take long long hours. But documentation has improved lately and you can also watch their own YouTube channel, which has some useful videos. Also you should try using their forum, which is full of helpful guys.
Don´t let yourself get scared, if someone gets very rough with you, though!
On the other hand you can tune it in endless ways.
It's got an AL32400. At least my exemplar, I have removed the heatsink once.
Also you normally don´t have to worry about the lifecycle of a Mikrotik product. Almost everything they released since they were founded is still usable and you can install a currently supported RouterOS version on it.
Thanks a lot for keeping grml alive for so long! I´ve started using it around 2006. I still am using it.
It does not get in your way if you need to save the day really fast, but has all the bells and whistles somewhere, if you need them.
As someone who actually hiked that trail: I think the author is just missing the point: yes the whole system could be improved, that´s correct, but that´s not IMPORTANT!
Collecting the stamps is just to motivate people, give them a feeling of accomplishment. You can opt for not getting a single stamp, but collecting them is just part of a tradition, which has it´s roots way back before the socialist era. Also note: this is whole thing is jut run by a bunch of volunteers in their free time, and they for sure spend their own money to do so.
BR
W
https://sandstorm.org/news/