Installing DDWRT *never* requires a Windows box. Or did you mean something else? Note that most "advice" on stuff comes from Windows users, so it's easy to be misled.

And a standard feature of pretty much *any* router with Tomato, DDWRT, OpenWRT, etc.. is that it can act as a basic AP, router, or gateway device. That's nothing new -- I even have/had things with factory firmware with the same capabilities, including a little DLink gizmo here which has an external switch for it.

Cheers