[Freedombox-discuss] Freedombox mentioned on Slashdot

[Jonathan Wilkes]

Hi Stefan,
Have you seen Arkos?

https://arkos.io/
 It fulfills the purpose stated in your last paragraph, and it is relevant to the Freedombox list because it has clear documentation that hits all of your bullet points.

-Jonathan


On Wednesday, April 16, 2014 6:08 PM, Stefan Weiss <weiss at foo.at> wrote:
 
Hello.

(Apologies for starting a new thread; I just joined the mailing list and
don't have past messages available to make a proper reply.)

I'm one of the commenters on Slashdot who were puzzled by the whole
FreedomBox thing. I think I can (sort of) guess what the intention is
and how it's supposed to work, but I'd like to second Petter's
observation that the docu needs work.

From an interested outsider's viewpoint, what's most needed is an
overview section (or page) - more than just the vague "vision
statement". Among the questions that I'd expect answers to are:

- What are the parts (functional elements) that make up a FreedomBox?
   - Does it store files?
   - Does it have a calendar component?
   - Does it store my address book (contacts)?
   - Can it sync between different devices?
   - What "social" components are integrated?
   - Is there a Tor proxy included?
   - (etc)

- Is the FreedomBox...
   - a software collection?
   - a Linux distribution?
   - does it have a definitive hardware/firmware connection?

- Is FreedomBox intended for the masses? Or just for security-conscious
   power users?

- Where is the FreedomBox supposed to run? On a separate device in our
   homes? On our workstations? On a server in the LAN? On a remote
   server?

- How far along is the project? What can it do today, and what's on the
   roadmap for the future? How does it compare to existing (possibly
   commercial) solutions? As a software developer, a version number of
   0.2 doesn't scare me, but it also doesn't tell me anything useful
   (like, will the project be "beta" or "incomplete" until 1.0, or is
   nice and stable and useful at 0.2).

- Will non-technical users be able to use a FreedomBox? That would
   require things like a GUI, an automated backup mechanism, automated
   updates, etc.

Those are just ideas for an overview section; I'm not expecting answers
on this list, of course. The idea is that someone (like me) who reads
about FreedomBox should be able to get a good summary. Currently,
there's nothing like that on <https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/>, or
at least nothing that I could easily find. Links to video presentations
are nice, but they don't replace a short and concise introduction.

Personally, I'm very interested in this project. I've been discussing
the necessity of creating something like it with friends and colleagues
for years, and I'm delighted to find that it may already exist - if only
I could find out what the FreedomBox actually does.


regards,
stefan


-- 
LOAD"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!",8,1
RUN!

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