I keep an eye on the project, though I haven't tried setting one up so far. I have to say it's a little sad to see that the Contribute link in the site footer throws a 403 (I'd report that to them, but so does the Contact link...)
FreedomBox
11–20 of 65 posts
Re: FreedomBox
#12Even if these things were dead simple, I cannot see any of my non-technical friends using products like these. It is simply prohibitively complicated compared to dropbox - that "just works". I even recall a comment on here when Dropbox launched saying something like "why not configure an FTP server to do this". This is that FTP server. Also, personally, I would never host any content on-prem at my home. It is far too…
I am technical and I struggle to find a use for my home server. The most common uses I always find are: - Media server: I primarily use streaming services or physical media - File sharing: I rarely ever share files between computers, and if I need to, I just scp them on my home network. - Web hosting: box is too small/old to reliably do this, plus I have cloud hosting already I do use it for private SVN and have plan…
I think the key would be to embed it to some existing appliance; like a router, game console, or other "always-on" and connected device.
I don't see the home server being the prime selling point. Everyone needs a router, so if you created a router that was dead simple to configure and use, had some cool extra features, integrated well with your home gadgets ("Alexa, turn off the WiFi", "Alexa, setup a guest wifi network for the next 8 hours") and on top of this acted like a home server, people would buy it.
At least from a consumer product perspective.
Re: FreedomBox
#13Even if these things were dead simple, I cannot see any of my non-technical friends using products like these. It is simply prohibitively complicated compared to dropbox - that "just works". I even recall a comment on here when Dropbox launched saying something like "why not configure an FTP server to do this". This is that FTP server. Also, personally, I would never host any content on-prem at my home. It is far too…
I run a nonprofit that teaches people how to code and for the past year we have hosted our own server / content at our offices. our students ssh into our server to write code and host their apps / content from there. Sometimes, Ive noticed that even though it feels like internet is down, upload still works and students can still ssh into our server remotely. In the past year we haven't had any issues at all, except f…
One of the things I've noticed with on-prem equipment at work, is that when the Internet has gone down in the past, most people don't actually... notice. The scenario is obviously very different than a home user, because multiple users can still communicate amongst the organization with outside Internet down, but there's huge benefits to being on-prem that have gotten disregarded or forgotten about.
A consumer-grade UPS on my home PC and network equipment has reliably kept my home setup reliably up and connected for all except for ISP outages.
Re: FreedomBox
#14Even if these things were dead simple, I cannot see any of my non-technical friends using products like these. It is simply prohibitively complicated compared to dropbox - that "just works". I even recall a comment on here when Dropbox launched saying something like "why not configure an FTP server to do this". This is that FTP server. Also, personally, I would never host any content on-prem at my home. It is far too…
I am technical and I struggle to find a use for my home server. The most common uses I always find are: - Media server: I primarily use streaming services or physical media - File sharing: I rarely ever share files between computers, and if I need to, I just scp them on my home network. - Web hosting: box is too small/old to reliably do this, plus I have cloud hosting already I do use it for private SVN and have plan…
I have a home box that I access with x2go. I can browse the internet, download stuff, or do whatever I want without touching the office network. I can disconnect a session and reconnect from a different pc.
I also have my server configured to route out via a vpn.
Re: FreedomBox
#15Even if these things were dead simple, I cannot see any of my non-technical friends using products like these. It is simply prohibitively complicated compared to dropbox - that "just works". I even recall a comment on here when Dropbox launched saying something like "why not configure an FTP server to do this". This is that FTP server. Also, personally, I would never host any content on-prem at my home. It is far too…
I am technical and I struggle to find a use for my home server. The most common uses I always find are: - Media server: I primarily use streaming services or physical media - File sharing: I rarely ever share files between computers, and if I need to, I just scp them on my home network. - Web hosting: box is too small/old to reliably do this, plus I have cloud hosting already I do use it for private SVN and have plan…
I've set up a homeserver for more than a year now. The only real use is being my always running SyncThing instance.
Re: FreedomBox
#16Dead butterfly design really ties the look together.
Re: FreedomBox
#17I love this idea, but my two "deal breaker" worries are: (a) data backup, and (b) security. I hate that this is the case, but when comparing a "box-at-home" vs. a "corporate-run service", the corporate-run service is less likely to lose my data and more likely to apply security patches and updates ASAP. Even with 0days and all of the "hackers stole millions of users' data" posts, think the point remains strong; although, I admit that these losses shift the value proposition towards box-at-home.
Re: FreedomBox
#18I love this idea, but my two "deal breaker" worries are: (a) data backup, and (b) security. I hate that this is the case, but when comparing a "box-at-home" vs. a "corporate-run service", the corporate-run service is less likely to lose my data and more likely to apply security patches and updates ASAP. Even with 0days and all of the "hackers stole millions of users' data" posts, think the point remains strong; altho…
re: (b) Security
Security through delegation vs security through obscurity imo here, follow simple things like use non-standard ports and your changes of getting hacked are likely shockingly low even if your behind on patches.
Re: FreedomBox
#19Even if these things were dead simple, I cannot see any of my non-technical friends using products like these. It is simply prohibitively complicated compared to dropbox - that "just works". I even recall a comment on here when Dropbox launched saying something like "why not configure an FTP server to do this". This is that FTP server. Also, personally, I would never host any content on-prem at my home. It is far too…
How often does your internet go down?
I have been hosting a Nextcloud instance with a FreeNAS backend (for ZFS). If anything, that has been far more convenient then Dropbox ever was (better bandwidth at home, as much space as I want), and I control my data. I think there has been one instance in the past two years where I actually had an interruption to my internet.
Re: FreedomBox
#20The copy and design of the landing page led me to believe that FreedomBox is an actual box that has all that great software preloaded and ready to go. Which made the unlabeled download button jarring. The text should be changed to something like:
FreedomBox is designed to [run on/create] your own inexpensive server at home. It [includes/is built with] free software and offers an increasing number of services ranging from a calendar or jabber server to a wiki or VPN.