

Ask HN: Review our startup: Tonido - codemechanic
http://www.tonido.com/

======
yan
The site is beautiful, but even after reading the blurb, I'm not sure what
Tonido _is_. Is it for users or developers?

~~~
simonista
Agreed, I don't know what it is either. Also, I'd try shrinking your
logo/header so that some actual content shows up in the first screen of
content.

~~~
xsc
Agreed... beautiful

FYI, when I see nothing above the fold, it's a bit discouraging.

Screen: <http://www.imagecabin.com/?view=24423358607dd118227aaef6e>

------
icey
Has anything changed since the last time you posted this?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=537576>

------
tptacek
Sketchiness quotient increasing:

[http://www.tonido.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=44](http://www.tonido.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=44)

It doesn't look like you mean the same thing that everyone else means when you
say "open source". You want to update this?

------
rw
Your pitch is good enough that I was really annoyed when I realized that it is
closed-source. I do not expect the crypto/privacy aficionados to help you out
with this product.

~~~
codemechanic
the platform is open source

~~~
tptacek
So... uh... where's the source code?

~~~
codemechanic
if you are interested please sign up in the developer mailing list. we will
send the notification.

~~~
tptacek
Ok. I did. Will you send the notification? Better yet, since you're open
source, just post a link here.

------
Zarathu
Yeah, I'm still clueless in regards to what its actual functionality is.

~~~
codemechanic
it allows you to share, sync files, photos, music and media with your friends
and family members without relying on public online services

~~~
codemechanic
actually tonido is also a platform. it comes with a set of applications
currently. can build apps on top of it. thats why we are not sure what message
is appropriate (platform or functionality or apps)

~~~
ccc3
This is purely my intuition, but it seems like anyone who would develop for
the platform is pretty used to digging around a website for information. The
people who are just syncing photos, videos, etc. are more likely to be scared
off by the first line on the front page.

If it were me I'd put up a simple explanation on the front page then give
developers an obvious place to go for more information on the platform.

------
linux-reviewer
I have no issues with the Music, files or other documents. Setup has been
super easy thus far. I look forward to testing it out on my WinDoze machine
next.

A userful review may be found at: <http://www.linux-
magazine.com/issues/2009/105/cloud_9>

I agree the tonido website content does the toolset a 'huge' disservice.
Tonido is a great environment which is unclearly under-communicated, under-
stated, and unclear.

Where it does appear there is no mention of its use for small business; which
is huge.

I was not even able to find mention of it on the Ubuntu Forums site... on the
main Ubuntu site it appears once:
[https://help.ubuntu.com/community/P2PHowTo#Tonido%20-%20Peer...](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/P2PHowTo#Tonido%20-%20Peer-
to-Peer%20Personal%20web%20application%20platform)

------
stuff4ben
It took a while for the page to load, look into YSlow or that new Google
PageSpeed to optimize it. Also took a couple minutes to grok what it does.
Once I did, I immediately wanted to get it but was hesitant about how much it
cost. I didn't see any mention of price anywhere. If it's free, be sure to
mention that somewhere (preferably in big bold letters).

All in all, it looks like you guys have done quite a good job. Good work and
I'll be one of your users soon enough (once I get home and can open port
forwarding).

------
michaelawill
I'm not sure I expected the site to look that amazing. Awesome job!

I really like the idea behind the software to. I can't wait to hear about you
in the news down the road :)

------
paul9290
Nice graphics but when I load the page the graphics take up my viewer (1280 by
800) and there is no copy to tell me what it is? I have to scroll down. I
would suggest integrate short description into nice design right at the top so
when page loads ppl get it right away!

------
anigbrowl
Giant graphic obscures your info. I didn't really want to scroll down to find
out what. Otherwise home page is good.

I'm not sure what it is you're offering that I can't do with, say, OpenOffice.
What makes your apps different from/better than existing desktop software?

~~~
codemechanic
You can access the apps from anywhere. It has a p2p built in capability that
allows you to sync your workspace, files and photos

------
huhtenberg
Who's your target userbase and how do you plan to make money (assuming this is
a business venture and not a non-profit) ?

In other words, are you being realistic by hoping to sell "no server
dependency" to an average Joe, the Flickr user ?

~~~
codemechanic
plan to sell premium applications. differentiate business and personal apps.

------
tonetheman
looks nice but i dont know what it does. i read pretty much the entire front
page and i cannot tell exactly what it is. looks like a professional site
though!

------
aik
Great idea, beautiful site, and the software looks great (haven't tried it
yet). What's your business model if you don't mind me asking?

~~~
codemechanic
freemium. but we need to get traction first. plan to sell the domain server
for enterprises and create new business apps for SOHO segment.

------
tptacek
<http://www.tonido.com/how.html>

You forgot the "Systems Analyst".

------
GotToStartup
looks very nice. Who designed the site? Graphics? Logo?

------
codemechanic
should the key message target functionality or underlying philosophy of the
product?

~~~
graphene
the philosophy would be the main drawing point for me; it's precisely the
reason I still keep all my photos, calndar information, files, etc. on my
local machine, even though web-based access would be very nice to have. With
you app, I can have both, wich is very appealing, although I'm slightly
worried about bandwidth consumption if several people start streaming from my
music collection, for example. Related to this (possibly), what exactly about
the functionality of your app is p2p (that wasn't clear to me)?

Nice job altogether; I will definitely check into using this...

~~~
codemechanic
the p2p functionality is used in sharing photos and workspaces (similar to
backpack app). P2P is not used for jukebox (more like ur own personal music
station).

~~~
graphene
another thought: maybe you could sell this as an app you can install on a
(commercial) server of your choice, and so not have this drain your local
(presumably home) bandwidth, while still being independent of google, flickr,
etc.

This would also save you from having to keep your desktop computer on and
online all the time..

~~~
codemechanic
we thought about that. do you think there will be a market for it? will you
pay 20$ per month for a virtual private instance to have tonido

~~~
graphene
Me personally, no, but I can imagine that this would be attractive to a small
business. Anyhow, isn't the effort to port the app from being desktop-based to
server-based minimal since all the interfaces are web-based?

~~~
codemechanic
yes we can port it easily

