I2P: End-to-end encrypted and anonymous internet

I feel it would be a good choice to give users rather than force all users into it. Not all users stories are the same.

You’re right as well as this is one way it could be, and there could be other ways.

Tor might want to see that, but I’m not entirely sure how well it’s going when hosting exit relays can be an issue for the hoster.

Microsoft at that time said they are moving Skype to centralized server from distributed to reduce code complexity.

I was a Java true believer in the late 90s/early 2000s, working on LimeWire, the most popular Java desktop app at the time (maybe of all time?). I thought we were close to a time when garbage collection was just as fast as manual memory management, and runtime re-optimization could make up for the extra time an ahead-of-time compiler could spend on optimizations. (Yes, I've read all of the Garbage Collection Handbook, and am aware of the speed advantages of bump allocation and the advantages of memory compaction. However, when it really matters, people still sidestep Java's GC using object pools and/or size their heaps such that they never collect while the stock market is open.)

Then, I started slinging C++ for the Google indexing system.

I still hope we get to a point where compiling to native code is as rare as hand-writing assembler is today. I hope we distribute code primarily in a format optimized for native translation, SafeTSA or similar. (Though, I'd hope we get install-time caching of native code generation, similar to AS/400 TIMI / current Android Runtime.)

However, until compilers get very good at statically inferring lifetimes and statically scheduling object collection, I hope garbage collection is optional and freely mixable with manually managed objects. (Yes, statically determining minimal lifetimes in the general case is equivalent to solving the halting problem, but we can be conservative and fall back on GC in the statically-unsolvable cases.)

The main drawback of Java for most applications is that with garbage collection there's a time-space tradeoff. As a rule of thumb in order to avoid frequent major collections, a Java program is going to use about twice as much memory as an equivalent C/C++ program.

When it really counts, we're still not at the point where Java is faster (even after warm-up) than expert-written hand-optimized C/C++ with profile-guided optimization.

Don't get me wrong. I understand the development velocity advantages of Java over C/C++ can often more than make up for performance differences, and good C/C++ developers (especially with domain-specific skills) are rather expensive to employ. I worked on equity trading systems in an interpreted language, where we replaced a lower latency system written in Java. The high-level interpreted language enabled a very rapid turnaround time and was easier for Statistics/Physics PhDs to implement models. The better models resulted in better average prices despite the system reacting more slowly to incoming data.

Ideally, I'd like to see something Elixir-like with good interoperability with something Rust-like for the parts that use a lot of CPU time and/or a lot of memory, all compiling down to a SafeTSA-like compressed control flow graph representation designed for fast native code generation.

> Those Soviets who circulated literature through samizdat

I count that as "speaking up". GP spoke of people who retreat into what seems to be passive silence.

Incidentally, I said they're like collaborators; I didn't say they were collaborators. I meant they're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I am a long happy user of authenticated TOR hidden services for my secure admin access to ssh servers and some self-hosting services, and it is my last hope when even tailnets, meshnets fail to reach. I2PD c++ IP2 nodes are very helpful as backup authenticated hidden services for some of my servers, as in general TOR is more stable but sometimes I2P can work around when TOR fails.

Tor is simpler, better audited, and I don't mind too much the little centralization of the authority TOR nodes, plus the pluggable transports.

I2P is more complete (UDP, protocol libraries, nice hidden service client and server port handling, etc) its somewhat chaotic decentralization is a mixed bless, but that's the point. I like the tradeoff of mixing my bandwidth with others bandwidth (pay with some bandwidth now to save my rear-end later when needed).

I2PD c++ node is pleasant for me because it is compact and clean for my needs (authenticated hidden service SSH access and self-hosted web services) and I can manage it almost like the TOR node. The original IP2 Java node is good for end users, handy with integrated IRC, email, and file sharing services.