For 'open mesh in the US that isn't LoRa toy-grade,' the actually-deployed answers: B.A.T.M.A.N.-adv + OpenWrt — Linux kernel L2 mesh routing, runs on commodity 802.11 hardware (any OpenWrt-supported router). Used in production by Freifunk in Germany (tens of thousands of nodes), Guifi.net in Spain, NYC Mesh in the US. Fully open, no proprietary anything. Real, scaled, multi-year operational data. Yggdrasil — IPv6 mesh routing layer, addresses are cryptographically derived from your public key, so IP collisions are impossible by design (directly addresses the openMANET complaint). Runs over any transport: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, packet radio, even Tor. LGPLv3, mainline-quality Go code. Production-deployed by several hundred-node networks. cjdns — older spiritual predecessor to Yggdrasil, same cryptographic-addressing idea. Battle-tested via the Hyperboria network for over a decade. GPLv3. Babel — if you want a more conservative L3 routing protocol, Babel is mainline-Linux and used in real ISPs. Pairs with Bird or FRR. On Reticulum: the protocol itself is MIT-licensed and fully open — what's worth objecting to is specific LoRa hardware products that wrap it. Reticulum over TCP / packet radio / serial / TNC is completely vendor-free, runs on any Linux box. Worth separating the protocol from the hardware sold around it. 802.11ah HaLow is the emerging long-range license-free option (902 MHz Wi-Fi variant), but tooling and FOSS firmware support are still thin in late 2025/2026. Watch the Morse Micro and NewracomChipsets — Linux driver maturity is the bottleneck. Adult deployment plan for the US: OpenWrt routers running B.A.T.M.A.N.-adv at L2 over commodity Wi-Fi, with Yggdrasil layered on top for L3 routing and end-to-end crypto. Cryptographic addressing, no IP collisions, no single vendor, decade-plus of operational experience behind every layer.