[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox/Unhosted/PageKite for Access Innovation Prize 2012

[Markus Sabadello]

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Nick M. Daly <nick.m.daly at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for discussing this, you both raise a lot of good points, and I
> have a couple questions.
>
> On Tue, 3 Jul 2012 16:25:16 +0200, Markus Sabadello wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 8:59 AM, Michiel de Jong wrote:
> > >
> > > So even though ownCloud has a nicer interface than pyUnhosted,
> > > getting apache, sqlite, GD, php5 and ownCloud 4.0.4 all on a device
> > > with basically the power of a smartphone might be a bit ambitious...
> > >
> > > So let me think about what steps we would need:
> > >
> > > - add pagekite and pyUnhosted to the image.
>
> Easy, given this week's weekly-image changes.  See:
>
>     freedom-maker/bin/projects
>
> > > - pyUnhosted ... piped somehow to plinth
>
> Wordpress on Debian has actually solved this for us.  See:
>
>     /usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup-mysql
>
> They dump the credentials to a file with the right permissions and
> ownership and use that as the permanent data store.
>
> > > - become the default proxy for all devices on the wifi...?
> >
> > My understanding is that it would be a transparent proxy... they get
> > privoxyfied automatically if they use the FreedomBox wifi.
>
> I haven't actually given a lot of thought to the box as a wireless host.
> Most of my thinking has been using it as a host through the wild
> intertubes.
>
> On Tue, 3 Jul 2012 16:45:43 +0200, Markus Sabadello wrote:
> > Of course then people would have 2 wifis, not sure if that's good or bad.
> > Good, because I think it would easily work with the setup that most
> people
> > have at home.
> > Good also, because you can always choose to NOT use the FreedomBox.
> > Bad, because it might be a more complex setup than it needs to be.
>
> There are a couple ways we could go here.
>
> 1. Replace your router with a FreedomBox.  Technically, always possible,
>    though ISPs might get irritated.
>
> 2. Co-mingle your FBX and router.  If people understand wifi, they'll
>    also understand multiple signals.  As long as the FBX is an effective
>    proxy, I'm not worried about it, technically.  Socially, though, it's
>    a weird thing: "You mean I have to click that wifi button *every
>    time* I want privacy?!"
>
>    Ideally, people would just move away from their router's networks
>    altogether and push all their client devices' communications through
>    the FBX.
>
> > > on first use, you would have to opt-in to setting up the public
> > > interface to your remoteStorage...  we would have to set up said
> > > service, with for instance a 5-year plan included in the purchase of
> > > the off-the-shelf device...  if we can resolve the first-use/wifi
> > > question then i think putting a box with privoxy +
> > > remoteStorage-through-pagekite on the market should be achievable.
>
> I'm a little leery of asking users to sign up for a service on a device
> that's designed to let them host their own services.  It seems
> internally inconsistent.  I don't think I have anything against offering
> it as an option, but it shouldn't be the only one.  We should also
> listen to Zooko's advice and allow the folks who want to attach a GB -
> TB scale device to host their own storage provider and contribute to a
> (self-encrypted) shared FBX storage grid.  I guess it's mostly a
> question of which one gets done when.
>
> > We should also have some updating mechanism...
> > 1. When the FreedomBox boots, it checks if a certain file (together with
> a
> > signature) is present on an attached USB drive.
> > 2. If yes, and if the user enters their password, that file is executed
> and
> > can update the box.
>
> Why reinvent the wheel when we already have Debian's updating system?
> Apt seems to work pretty well for the rest of the distribution.  Any
> reasons it won't work here?
>

Good point. Yeah I agree the standard updating mechanism should be used.
That would be presented through Plinth, right?
I.e.  there would be a button saying "Update my FreedomBox"?

Maybe the ability to stick a USB-drive-with-update-file into the box would
still make sense.
Kind of a backup recovery-mode option in case something went wrong with the
box?

Nick
>
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