[Freedombox-discuss] the cloud desktop

[Matt Joyce]

That's awesome sir.  Got details on that somewhere?

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 1:56 PM, Joseph Annino <joeaguy at joeaguy.com> wrote:

> This is a very interesting proposal. I have seen a lot of talk about how we
> need something better than smtp/pop/imap. That is a hard nut to crack, but I
> think it is really important. Just look how facebook is supplanting emai for
> some kinds of communication.
>
> My project includes abstract service, sender, and receiver classes. There
> is no reason why it couldn't act as a client for your service, among others.
> Right now I just wrote basic pop and smtp classes, but again, other classes
> can be added in.
>
> I think we need to support the protocols people are used to and expect
> well, but freedombox, etc, should grow into a platform that also offers
> better alternatives and makes them easy and attractive to a range of users.
>
> Its looking like freedombox may be attracting its own little universe of
> related projects.
> --
> Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>
>
> Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> wrote:
>>
>> My proposal for the plug here:
>>
>> http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Proposals/AnonProposal
>>
>> Is intended to deal with that.  If we focus on locking down the secure
>> mesh transport layer and a functional distributed object store for the boxes
>> we solve a hell of a lot of issues and allow for direct integration into any
>> existing technology.
>>
>> But some of the folks in this list are hell bent on running their own mail
>> servers and such.  So there is going to be some fracturing in this community
>> right from the get go.
>>
>> -Matt
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 10:23 AM, Joseph Annino <joeaguy at joeaguy.com>wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Freedombox-discuss mailing list
>>> Freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
>>> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
>>>
>>
>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/attachments/20110226/f7a05e16/attachment.htm>