Free home server operating system
Operating system
FreedomBox
is a
free software
home server
operating system
based on
Debian
, backed by the FreedomBox Foundation.
[2]
Launched in 2010, FreedomBox has grown from a software system to an ecosystem including a DIY community as well as some commercial products.
History
[
edit
]
The project was announced by
Eben Moglen
, Professor of Law at
Columbia Law School
, in a speech called "Freedom in the Cloud" at the New York
ISOC
meeting on February 2, 2010.
[3]
In this speech,
Moglen
predicted the damage that
Facebook
would do to society; "
Mr. Zuckerberg
has attained an unenviable record: he has done more harm to the human race than anybody else his age." In direct response to the threat posed by
Facebook
in 2010,
Moglen
argued that FreedomBox should provide the foundation for an alternative Web.
As Steven J. Vaughan Nichols notes, "[Moglen] saw the mess we were heading toward almost 10 years ago. That was before
Facebook
proved itself to be totally incompetent with security and sold off your data to Cambridge Analytica to scam 50 million US Facebook users with personalized anti-Clinton and pro-Trump propaganda in the 2016 election."
[4]
On February 4, 2011,
Moglen
formed the FreedomBox Foundation to become the organizational headquarters of the project,
[5]
and on February 18, 2011, the foundation started a campaign to raise $60,000 in 30 days on the
crowdfunding
service,
Kickstarter
.
[6]
The goal was met on February 22,
[7]
and on March 19, 2011, the campaign ended after collecting $86,724 from 1,007 backers.
[6]
The early developers aimed to create and preserve personal privacy by providing a secure platform for building decentralized digital applications.
[8]
They targeted the FreedomBox software for
plug computers
and
single-board computers
that can easily be located in individual residences or offices. After 2011, the FreedomBox project continued to grow under different leadership.
In 2017, the project was so successful that "the private sector global technology company
ThoughtWorks
had hired two developers in
India
to work on FreedomBox full-time."
[9]
The FreedomBox project now has a software ecosystem of its own, with contributions from over 60 developers throughout the project's history.
[10]
In 2019, the FreedomBox Foundation announced that the first commercial FreedomBox product would be sold by Olimex, a hardware manufacturer.
[11]
FreedomBox and Debian
[
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]
FreedomBox is a
Debian Pure Blend
, and all of its applications are installed as
Debian
packages. The FreedomBox project itself distributes its software through
Debian
repositories.
FreedomBox also features automatic software updates powered by
Debian
.
[12]
Hardware neutrality
[
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]
FreedomBox is designed to be hardware neutral: Its developers aim for it to be installable on almost any computer hardware.
[13]
One of the benefits of being a Debian Pure Blend is that FreedomBox inherits the diverse hardware compatibility of Debian.
As of April 2019, FreedomBox is packaged in custom operating system images for 11 single-board computers.
[14]
The hardware currently put forward for use with the FreedomBox software is explained on the Hardware
[15]
page.
OSHW
designs are preferred, like the Olimex A20
OLinuXino
Lime 2
[16]
or the
BeagleBone
Black.
[17]
Closed-source
boards like the
DreamPlug
,
[18]
Cubietruck
[19]
and the
Raspberry Pi
[20]
[21]
are possible options, while more are on the way. There is also a
VirtualBox
image. FreedomBox can additionally be installed over a clean Debian installation.
Commercial product
[
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]
On April 22, 2019, the FreedomBox Foundation announced plans to sell a home server kit called a "FreedomBox" as a commercial product.
[9]
Production and sales were managed by hardware company Olimex.
[4]
The product is designed to make it easier for laypeople to host their own servers.
[22]
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
Press reviews
[
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]
- "Eben Moglen Is Reshaping Internet With a Freedom Box ? The New York Times." [Online].
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Available:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/nyregion/16about.html
. [accessed 2016-10-06].
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