As you may or may not know, embedded Linux distributions sadly don't follow the standard Linux roadmap and what we were given with the development kit was a working version of OpenWRT, albeit far from finished for a retail product. We've had to work with Cortina and QCA to get Wi-Fi working properly on the platform and we've worked with ASMedia to get their drivers onto the platform.
These are things that are normally already part of the package when you get a reference design for a product like this, but as Cortina doesn't offer a complete solution with Wi-Fi etc. this wasn't part of their standard development platform.
On top of this we've created our own user interface, local sensor/device control and SDK among many other things. We've updated several applications that came as part of OpenWRT as well, as some of those were not suitable for our needs, or as in the case of OpenSSL, there was a "small" bug...
The HA part has also required a lot of additional work as the current platform is quite different in terms of its peripheral interfaces and we've had to do a lot of changes here, as well as for the LCD UI, including writing some new drivers from scratch for the touch screen. Keep in mind that we had to redo the entire LCD UI, as we went from a 320x240 display to a 480x320 display. We're still making improvements with regards to how some things work here to try to make the user experience as good as possible.
Yes, the ARM processor is a lot more powerful, but it has very little to do with the development process, as the software is being developed on PC's, not on the router itself. What it has allowed us to do is to build a router that will be a lot more capable in comparison to the original Almond+. For example, it'll be very possible to replace a home NAS with it, as the USB 3.0 performance is exceptionally good, but more on that soon.
Keep in mind that we're still a comparatively small company, but as an example, when we switched to OpenWRT, our UI developer had never coded for Lua/LuCI in his life before and it took him a mere three weeks to create the initial version of of NutsOS. That said, we've refined it and improved since then and it still need some additional spit and polish, but it has nothing in common with the standard OpenWRT UI.
I know you guys are getting frustrated, but believe me when I say that so are we. In hindsight maybe we should've done things differently and we could've had the Almond+ with you earlier, but I'm not sure it would've been as a unique product as what we have today. Yes 802.11ac routers a commonplace today, but the Almond+ is not a run of the mill router. If you just want a router, then the Almond+ is most likely going to be overkill for your needs, but for all of those of you that are interested in getting a unique product that can do so much more than just shuffle data between your devices and the internet, the Almond+ is something that none of our competitors can offer. We're only scratching the surface of the home automation side of things and we're here to work with you guys to make this a great product. In fact, I believe our work has only started once we've shipped the Kickstarter units, as that is when we'll be getting proper feedback and requests from everyone.