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The Pi is still limited by its Graphics driver (I have the old 256mb model which makes it worse) Using them as much as you might think as interactive systems is hard. I use mine mainly as remote console and a Command Line coding system. Even running Wireshark takes a long time on my node. With a combination of a remote server and my node I do however do most of the Ubiquiti programing from a Pi. Pi's are great, one just has to evaluate how you use them. I bought mine hoping they would be more flexible, but for user interaction its not been so great (in my opinion). For the cost of a full pi setup with monitor, keyboard, mouse, sd card, etc, I would recommend grabbing a cheap laptop it is likely to perform better at similar cost and more portable. Pi's do however work great if you just need to play MPEG2 video using hardware accelerated playback and beat some of my large systems in this regard because of the GPU in the chip. Pi's can make decent remote servers to host files (as long as you don't need super performance), store operations plans, host remote information, access some basic websites (JavaScript is a resource killer), be distribution systems, BBS servers, etc. (The biggest limitation is the Graphics support --- which I know is getting better but will take time) So yep, love my Pi, but not as great as I had hopped --- Eventually ill make one into a repeater controller and data logger, etc.
Linksys gear is still made and sold as the WRT54GL (see Amazon) however for similar cost you can get Ubiquiti ( -30c to 75c OR -40c to 80c (depending upon model) OUTDOOR rated as compared to Linksys 0 to 40c INDOOR only)
We are starting to see networks replace their Linksys nodes with Ubiquiti now that we have a working release.
The Ubiquiti gear has an up to 10dbm extra receive sensitivity and up to 10dbm extra transmit power meaning you can have another 20dbm across an RF link with Ubiquiti compared to Linksys. I've heard of a story where 2 directional antennas were needed because the Linksys gear couldn't see an Omni at a remote site, replacing the remote side with a NanoStation it was able to connect reliably to the Omni because of its better receiver so the directional was re-purposed to work on a backbone uplink to another site.
Ubiquiti Hardware Samples:
http://www.ubnt.com/airmax#airMaxHardware Some are meant to be put on an antenna (bullet and rocket) with no/very little feedline loss. some even have an antenna built in (AirGrid and NanoStation) meaning you take a node put it on a pole, zero feedline loss, run a cat5 cable for power and internet, and you are setup.
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