cjcliffe/CubicSDR

CubicSDR is a pillar of the open-source RF community, evidenced by its 11-year history and 2.2k stars. Its primary moat is its integration with the SoapySDR ecosystem, which provides plug-and-play support for nearly every consumer and professional SDR hardware device (RTLSDR, HackRF, BladeRF, LimeSDR, etc.). Writing high-performance, real-time RF visualization (FFT/waterfall) using OpenGL and C++ that remains stable across Windows, macOS, and Linux is a significant technical hurdle that creates a barrier to entry for new developers. Frontier labs (OpenAI/Google) have zero incentive to enter the specialized hardware-interfacing GUI space, making frontier risk exceptionally low. However, the project faces displacement risk from newer, more modern alternatives like SDR++, which offers higher UI performance and a more modular plugin architecture. The 0.0 velocity suggests the project is in a deep maintenance or 'feature complete' phase, which often precedes a slow decline in favor of more active challengers. Despite this, its status as a 'standard' tool for ham radio and signals intelligence (SIGINT) practitioners gives it high 'data gravity' in terms of tutorials, community support, and documentation.