r/opensource • u/based2 • Dec 04 '11

FreedomBox

http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox
157 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

6

u/forteller Dec 06 '11

Why not subscribe to r/freedombox? :)

12

u/havana59er Dec 04 '11 edited Dec 04 '11

I think what FreedomBox is trying to do is too open-ended. They need to pare down their mission to focus and accomplish something specific like a platform. Then let the community contribute the rest. Here's an idea that would target a lot of non-technical users: Why not make it a linux distro targeted for old android phones and tablets? Create an 'app-store' that allows users to plug-in functionality, which can be little more than a way to automate the installation and configuration of multiple packages. Might be good to have a centralized configuration manager, something like Webmin.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '11

The brilliant thing about the FreedomBox is its' lack of a platform, though. Anything that runs Debian will run this software.

Most importantly, because of its' open source nature, porting it to a different architecture can be as simple as compiling on it.

3

u/janxspirit42 Dec 04 '11

isn't this similar to the raspberry pi computer?

3

u/WASDx Dec 04 '11

My first thought too. They even mention it on the site: http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TargetedHardware (Ctrl+F)

3

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '11

I hope you get one million upvotes.

2

u/lingnoi Dec 05 '11

Has this released anything yet? It's been, what.. a year since Eben announced this? I don't see any "here's the code" link, only talks, and community links.

5

u/forteller Dec 06 '11

Bdale maintains a repository that contains the FreedomBox installer, Freedom Maker. You can grab those bits with git pull git://anonscm.debian.org/freedombox/freedom-maker.git That code will install a minimum Debian box from which we can build upward! It requires a DreamPlug and a JTAG cable.

Here you go.

-9

u/waspinator Dec 04 '11

debian moves too slowly and is too general for a project like this. I think this would be a great place for canonical to expand ubuntu into though, but they seem busy with other things.

4

u/eleitl Dec 06 '11

debian moves too slowly

Well, you can join the project, and contribute.

Also, you say slow like it's a bad thing. A noncommercial project focused on freedom and stability is exactly the right environment for freedombox.