
FreedomBox - phantom_oracle
https://freedombox.org/
======
dijit27
The 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.

~~~
quadrangle
There was indeed, as I understand it, a plan to sell all set up hardware,
ready to go. The original stuff got delayed when the main developer had his
house burn down in a forest fire or something. But the software is usable.

Apparently, they were selling some all-set-to-go boxes at LibrePlanet…

~~~
ryukafalz
>Apparently, they were selling some all-set-to-go boxes at LibrePlanet…

They weren't as far as I know. They had a one-off prototype running at their
booth, but that model never made it to production.

~~~
quadrangle
I don't mean some custom thing, it was an existing off-the-shelf product with
FreedomBox preconfigured… I mean, I heard this from someone who went to
LibrePlanet and came home with a FreedomBox they specifically got there.

------
cozicoolmail
Even 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 easy for my internet to go down, and I'd rather my personal website be
under somebody else's control (say, an S3 bucket) than get physical hardware
to the server hosting the bits.

~~~
fuball63
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 plans to set up a VPN server, but other
than that, it feels like unless I cast off every existing service I have, it
wouldn't be worth it.

Although, casting off every existing service is enticing in an idealistic sort
of way...

~~~
aylmao
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.

~~~
qznc
The router I got from my ISP already has quite some stuff built in. For
example, I can enable DynDNS, plug in a drive via USB providing a SMB network
drive, and enable a secondary guest WiFi.

------
tibu
From
[https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Features](https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Features):

With FreedomBox, you can:

    
    
        Access your FreedomBox from the public Internet (Pagekite, Tor, Dynamic DNS)
    
        Connect securely to your FreedomBox (OpenVPN)
    
        Chat with friends (?XMPP, Quassel, Matrix)
    
        Host a conference call (Mumble, repro)
    
        Publish a blog (Ikiwiki)
    
        Host a personal or community wiki (MediaWiki)
    
        Block ads while browsing the web (Privoxy)
    
        Check your email (Roundcube)
    
        Transfer large files (Deluge, Transmission)
    
        Read news (Tiny Tiny RSS)
    
        Sync your calendar and contacts (Radicale)
    
        Stay connected to IRC chat (Quassel)
    
        Host a multiplayer block sandbox (Minetest)
    
        Collaboratively edit a text document (infinoted)
    
        Keep your files synchronized to your FreedomBox (Syncthing)
    
        Circumvent censorship using a socks5 proxy (Shadowsocks) 
    

System and Configuration

    
    
        Configure system name and interface language (Configure)
    
        Obtain a certificate for your domain (Let's Encrypt)
    
        Add users and set access privileges (Users and Groups)
    
        Use a single login for Plinth, XMPP, Ikiwiki and SSH
    
        Manage network connections over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or PPPoE (Networks)
    
        Upgrade software packages automatically (Software Upgrades)
    
        Run diagnostic tests (Diagnostics)
    
        View which services are allowed through the firewall (Firewall)
    
        Configure time zone and network time service (Date and Time)
    
        Configure service discovery (Service Discovery)
    
        View disk information or expand a partition (Disks)
    
        Create and restore filesystem snapshots (Snapshots)
    
        Provide DNS service for your local network (bind)
    
        Do system administration from a web interface (Cockpit)

------
steeve
For those wondering, the blue box looks at the top [1] like a SolidRun Cubox-i
[2], based on the Freescale i.MX 6 SoC, which has pretty good Linux support.

[1]
[https://freedombox.org/images/boxfoto.jpg](https://freedombox.org/images/boxfoto.jpg)

[2] [https://www.solid-run.com/nxp-family/cubox-i/](https://www.solid-
run.com/nxp-family/cubox-i/)

------
vinceguidry
Yay, another distro. /s

Seriously though, software isn't the issue here, hardware is. Anybody with the
skills can slap Linux on an old computer and turn it into a server. It's
packaging it up into something you can sell to the non-technical that's the
real win.

I wish free software advocates would take more lessons from Jobs instead of
blindly idealizing Woz.

~~~
ReAzem
FreemdomBox is a Debian package. It isn't another distro.

They are focusing on exactly what you are saying, putting together a UI that
non-technicals can use.

~~~
kelnos
I don't think you understood the parent's core point. The "masses" aren't
going to find or buy an old server and install Debian and FreedomBox on it,
and then set it up to run headless in a corner of their house. That's not in
the area of technical expertise of most people. They _might_ , however, buy a
pre-built, pre-installed appliance that just needs to be plugged in and have a
web browser pointed at it to get started.

~~~
bb88
Philosophically speaking, the more and more that products are sold with one
purpose on a closed platform, the more and more of these products that are
going to end up in the junk yards when they can't be extended or repurposed
beyond what the manufacturer wanted (or ever thought) possible.

> They might, however, buy a pre-built, pre-installed appliance that just
> needs to be plugged in and have a web browser pointed at it to get started.

Don't forget about setting up the freaking wi-fi network. Apple, Google make
it reasonably seamless to setup their devices from an app, say. Most third-
party devices aren't as easy to setup. I have to manually enter my wi-fi
password in my Tivo, eg.

~~~
kelnos
> _Philosophically speaking, the more and more that products are sold with one
> purpose on a closed platform, the more and more of these products that are
> going to end up in the junk yards when they can 't be extended or repurposed
> beyond what the manufacturer wanted (or ever thought) possible._

This doesn't _have_ to be the case, though. There's nothing stopping
FreedomBox from selling a pre-made hardware solution that just has the
software loaded on it that anyone can load onto a vanilla server of their
choosing. (And it seems they actually do this, though it's not obvious from
their website.)

------
forapurpose
As is well known, few people will take the trouble to deploy this at home,
especially non-technical users. Why not provide one-click (or two- or three-
click) deployment to hosting, either a VPS or cloud like Amazon? Data could be
encrypted end-to-end so that the hosting provider can't access it, at least in
some cases (server-side searches become tricky). 'Create our own private
Instagram, iTunes, and more for $x/month, with just a few clicks!'

I know that sacrifices some end-user control philosophically, but in reality
it would greatly increase it for those in the great majority who currently
have none.

~~~
hex-m
Both use-cases (VPS and homeserver) are valid. As FreedomBox is just a bunch
of Debian packages it should be easy to offer it as a base image (or 'apt
install freedombox' it yourself).

The similar project YUNOhost advertises both scenarios.
[https://yunohost.org/#/install](https://yunohost.org/#/install)

------
severine
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10783305](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10783305)
(FreedomBox 0.7 released | Dec 23, 2015 | 36 comments)

I didn't find a changelog, but here's a list of features:
[https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Features](https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Features)

~~~
jvalleroy
Changelog:
[https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/ReleaseNotes](https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/ReleaseNotes)

------
blacksmith_tb
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...)

~~~
Flip-per
Both links work for me; They go to debian wiki pages (which could be
confusing), is that what you mean?

------
guiomie
I was hoping the bluebox on the main page was something you could buy and plug
in your wall and have it running the software. Kinda like an appliance.

~~~
pkd
It is.
[https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware/Cubietruck](https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware/Cubietruck)

------
jancsika
Here are two potential features Eben Moglen mentioned[1] back in 2010:

* it should know how to go and collect your stuff out of all the social networking places where you've got it

* it should know how to send an encrypted backup of everything to your friends' servers (in the video you can hear two developers making "mmm" noises at that feature)

Eight years later, does Freedombox have either of those two features?

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEMv0S8AcA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOEMv0S8AcA)

------
canadaduane
I 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.

~~~
w0m
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.

~~~
kcolford
nmap, a standard pen tool, already sees through port mapping and other
convenient obscurity tricks, there's just nothing like actually keeping your
system up to date

~~~
ocdtrekkie
I don't disagree with regards to "nothing like actually keeping your system up
to date", but in terms of defense-in-depth, non-standard ports are _not_ a bad
idea. IIRC, people who have monitored the volume of attempts to connect on a
open standard port and a nonstandard port are different by orders of
magnitude. It won't help you much in stopping a dedicated human attacker, but
it'll probably drastically reduce the number of automated attempts to attack
your network device.

------
TheMagicHorsey
Google or Amazon should offer something like this as a paid-for service on AWS
or Google Cloud. That way I wouldn't have to worry about my network connection
at home going down.

What a suitable privacy agreement this could work online--and I'd be okay
trusting a contractual agreement to keep my data safe.

~~~
gumby
This is contrary to their corporate goals so wouldn’t make sense for
them...but _you_ could offer it as a paid service hosted on S3.

------
subway
I'm kind of curious what the little blue system on the front page is. It looks
very similar to a CuBox (speaking of; I'm kind of sad there are no iMX6
images), but with slightly different port placement.

------
intrasight
I am a happy Synology user. Admin time in minimal. Who has time for that?

------
Ravir
is there an alternative to freedombox? looking to buy a portable vpn server
which starts as soon as you connect to the router...

------
NullPrefix
Dead butterfly design really ties the look together.

~~~
quadrangle
It's not supposed to be a mounted butterfly, it's some sort of overlaid
graphic of the idea of a computer box with butterfly wings.

~~~
schoen
I think the intended reference is [http://emilydamstra.com/news/please-enough-
dead-butterflies/](http://emilydamstra.com/news/please-enough-dead-
butterflies/) (because of the wing positioning).

~~~
quadrangle
THANK YOU, that was enlightening.

But speaking of peeves: that article of plain-text with static images doesn't
render without JavaScript damnit.

------
gremlinsinc
Was this modeled after Belson's Box from SV? lol jk

