[clug] FreedomBox

[Brenton Ross]

On Tue, 2019-04-23 at 18:31 +1000, Kim Holburn via linux wrote:
> Has anyone here experimented with this? 
> 
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/put-the-internet-back-under-your-control-with-the-freedombox/
> 
> 
> Put the internet back under your control with the FreedomBox
> 
> 
> For less than a $100, you can have an open-source powered, easy-to-
> use server, which enables you -- and not Apple, Facebook, Google, or
> Microsoft -- to control your view of the internet.
> 
> 
> On today's internet, most of us find ourselves locked into one
> service provider or the other. We find ourselves tied down to Apple,
> Facebook, Google, or Microsoft for our e-mail, social networking,
> calendering -- you name it. It doesn't have to be that way. The
> FreedomBox Foundation has just released its first commercially
> available FreedomBox: The Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kit.
> With it, you -- not some company -- control over your internet-based
> services.
> 
> 
> 
> Want an encrypted chat server to replace WhatsApp? It's got that. A
> VoIP server? Sure. A personal website? Of course! Web-based file
> sharing à la Dropbox? You bet. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) server
> of your own? Yes, that's essential for its mission.
> 
> The software stack isn't perfect. This is still a work in progress.
> So, for example, it still doesn't have a personal email server or
> federated social networking, such as GNU Social and Diaspora, to
> provide a privacy-respecting alternative to Facebook. That's not
> because they won't run on a FreedomBox; they will. What they haven't
> been able to do yet is to make it easy enough for anyone to do and
> not someone with Linux sysadmin chops. That will come in time.
> 
> -- 
> Kim Holburn
> IT Network & Security Consultant
> T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
> mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
> skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request 
> 
> 
I note that the article make no mention of the things that will trip up a lot of ordinary internet users:
There is no mention of DNS or that some ISPs are not happy with personal servers.

Brenton