[Freedombox-discuss] Foundation's 0.1 release

[Jonathan Wilkes]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Nick M. Daly <nick.m.daly at gmail.com>
> To: Jonathan Wilkes <jancsika at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org" <freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org>; Ian Sullivan <sullivan at freedomboxfoundation.org>; Markus Sabadello <markus.sabadello at gmail.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 8:12 PM
> Subject: Re: [Freedombox-discuss] Foundation's 0.1 release
> 
> Hi Jonathan, 
> 
> Jonathan Wilkes writes:
> 
>>  Does the 0.1 image include Tor?
> 
> No.
> 
>>  If not are there plans to include Tor?
> 
> Yes.
> 
>>  Are Tor hidden services currently leveraged to make Freedomboxes "just
>>  work"?
> 
> No.
> 
>>  Are there (immediate) plans to leverage Tor hidden services to make
>>  Freedomboxes "just work"?
> 
> Kinda.  There are plans, they're less immediate.
> 
>>  Does the 0.1 image have a web server included?
> 
> No, it currently has a web-proxy server.
> 
>>  Is there currently _stable_ software or a combination of _stable_
>>  software other than Tor that can traverse the Big NAT Boss?
> 
> Not in the image, but yes.  See I2P, GNUnet, and Freenet.

I heard Len Sassman say that I2P was broken, plus I couldn't get it to work.
I tried GNUnet _with_ port forwarding and couldn't get it to work.
I haven't looked at Freenet in a long time and see a lot of messages
in Google about problems behind NATs, but I'll take another look.

But I should have qualified my question-- I'm specifically curious about
privacy-preserving software that a) traverses a NAT at the click of a button
(e.g., Vidalia) and b) allows mortals to access content hosted through
that software through the click of a button (e.g., Tor Browser Bundle).

I see Tor listed as part of the base system on the FBX wiki (I2P is also there).
The drawback of Tor's speed is listed, but to me that's a red herring.  If
one of the design goals of FBX is to package/enhance pre-existing
software to meet the users' privacy/data-control needs then I don't see
the alternative.

> 
>>  Will it eventually be possible to plug in a FBX and click a button on
>>  a browser web interface to run a web server as a tor hidden service
>>  and display a simple web page that says "Hello World"?
> 
> We could do that, though something more interactive might be a fun
> demonstration of a working FBX.  The PDP-10 (or some other old system)
> had a game you played that ran your system through it's paces to make
> sure your system was in working order, but I can't find it now.

That's fine, but I guess what I'm asking is this: once you have your image
developed to the point where a non-expert can take a FBX with the FBX
software on it, plug it in, and access a basic UI, what is the first basic service
that the box will provide for that non-expert that will help them to do something
that they couldn't otherwise do without the box?

-Jonathan

> 
>>  I apologize if I'm missing some obvious documentation somewhere.
> 
> Some, it's kinda scattered and still less organized than it should be.
> 
> News: http://freedomboxfoundation.org/
> 
> News: 
> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/721744279/push-the-freedombox-foundation-from-0-to-60-in-30/posts
> 
> Wiki: http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox
> 
> I'm always hoping folks will take the wiki to task and reorganize it a
> bit.
> 
> Nick
>