[Freedombox-discuss] the cloud desktop

[Joseph Annino]

I have been thinking about a lot of the same issues as Freedombox since 
last LibePlanet where RMS presented the "Who does that server really 
serve?" paper.  The reaction from the crowd seemed to be "but I really 
like all these Google, etc, cloud services, how can I keep using this 
kind of thing?".  These services I sort of think of as being a kind of 
"desktop in the cloud".  They provide a simple easy to use consistent 
interface that will work anywhere.  That is the huge appeal, but they of 
course have all the pitfalls of central control currently.  I wanted to 
try and make a free equivalent that gives people back choice and control 
over their data.

This seems to be a little different than the discussion of Freedombox is 
see at the moment, being more focused on making a linux distro out of 
existing parts.  That is really important, but I think the next step is 
to to make a free cloud desktop, a sort of "gnome for the cloud".

I have been working on something like this for a while, which I have 
called "Pick Our Your Cloud".  You can link to its gitorious repository 
from yrcloud.com.  I've made it all AGPLv3.

I haven't shared this project with many people, all the work on it so 
far is just me, and just in whatever spare time I can find.  It is far 
from complete.  I have started with a gmail equivalent, since that is 
where Google started, and messaging serves as a good central point to 
branch out from.  It is implemented as a Django app that communicates 
with a JS/jQuery frontend via JSON-RPC calls.  I am hoping that over 
time it can grow into a sort of desktop that lets you get at several 
apps that can share some common facilities and integration.  Think of 
how all the various services Google offers all work together via your 
Google account.

I was originally targeting virtualized clouds, like Amazon's new micro 
instances.  This code should be able to run fine on a variety of low end 
hardware, so long as it can have a reasonable amount of flash storage.  
Certainly an Atom (or equivalent) box could handle it.  I also want to 
try this out on some of the $100 variety of ARM plugs, like the PogoPlug.

So I know I am doing a lot of plugging my own project.  I could use some 
advice and collaboration on it, and maybe someday it could sit on top of 
the Freedombox OS.  But regardless of what happens with my project, I 
wanted to open up the discussion about a "cloud desktop", how do we make 
a user experience that is useful to a wide audience.

I live near Danbury CT, so I can always get down to NYC if anything is 
ever going on.  This is an exciting project and I would like to help out.