README: port to 21st century

The README is no longer important to only developers but also users.
Reflect that by adding valuable information for everyone new to OpenWrt!

Sunshine

Signed-off-by: Paul Spooren <mail@aparcar.org>
[remove trailing whitespace and empty line at EOF]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>

1 files changed, 87 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..652fe9cd44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+![OpenWrt logo](/logo.svg)
+
+OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. Instead
+of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully
+writable filesystem with package management. This frees you from the
+application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and allows you
+to customize the device through the use of packages to suit any application.
+For developers, OpenWrt is the framework to build an application without having
+to build a complete firmware around it; for users this means the ability for
+full customization, to use the device in ways never envisioned.
+
+Sunshine!
+
+## Development
+
+To build your own firmware you need a GNU/Linux, BSD or MacOSX system (case
+sensitive filesystem required). Cygwin is unsupported because of the lack of a
+case sensitive file system.
+
+### Requirements
+
+You need the following tools to compile OpenWrt, the package names vary between
+distributions. A complete list with distribution specific packages is found in
+the [Build System Setup](https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/build-system/install-buildsystem)
+documentation.
+
+```
+gcc binutils bzip2 flex python3 perl make find grep diff unzip gawk getopt
+subversion libz-dev libc-dev
+```
+
+### Quickstart
+
+1. Run `./scripts/feeds update -a` to obtain all the latest package definitions
+   defined in feeds.conf / feeds.conf.default
+
+2. Run `./scripts/feeds install -a` to install symlinks for all obtained
+   packages into package/feeds/
+
+3. Run `make menuconfig` to select your preferred configuration for the
+   toolchain, target system & firmware packages.
+
+4. Run `make` to build your firmware. This will download all sources, build the
+   cross-compile toolchain and then cross-compile the GNU/Linux kernel & all chosen
+   applications for your target system.
+
+### Related Repositories
+
+The main repository uses multiple sub-repositories to manage packages of
+different categories. All packages are installed via the OpenWrt package
+manager called `opkg`. If you're looking to develop the web interface or port
+packages to OpenWrt, please find the fitting repository below.
+
+* [LuCI Web Interface](https://github.com/openwrt/luci): Modern and modular
+  interface to control the device via a web browser.
+
+* [OpenWrt Packages](https://github.com/openwrt/packages): Community repository
+  of ported packages.
+
+* [OpenWrt Routing](https://github.com/openwrt-routing/packages): Packages
+  specifically focused on (mesh) routing.
+
+## Support Information
+
+For a list of supported devices see the [OpenWrt Hardware Database](https://openwrt.org/supported_devices)
+
+### Documentation
+
+* [Quick Start Guide](https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-quick-start/start)
+* [User Guide](https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/start)
+* [Developer Documentation](https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/start)
+* [Technical Reference](https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/start)
+
+### Support Community
+
+* [Forum](https://forum.openwrt.org): For usage, projects, discussions and hardware advise.
+* [Support Chat](https://webchat.freenode.net/#openwrt): Channel `#openwrt` on freenode.net.
+
+### Developer Community
+
+* [Bug Reports](https://bugs.openwrt.org): Report bugs in OpenWrt
+* [Dev Mailing List](https://lists.openwrt.org/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel): Send patches
+* [Dev Chat](https://webchat.freenode.net/#openwrt-devel): Channel `#openwrt-devel` on freenode.net.
+
+## License
+
+OpenWrt is licensed under GPL-2.0