On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:09 PM, Colin Davis <colin at sq7.org> wrote: > I can certainly understand where you're coming from, and agree that it > would be ideal, but I don't think that Freenet is ready to be promoted > by application development.. Currently, when Freenet makes a new > revision, that hits Slashdot, Reddit, etc, and encourages people to > download.. A new revision of Frost/etc doesn't make a blip, and > certainly doesn't spur much action.
But the same argument could be used in my Java analogy. Java has a far higher profile than many apps written in Java, but it doesn't follow that Java should bundle all of these apps. > The second problem is that Freenet, unlike the JVM, requires direct > interaction.. After downloading Freenet, users should (ideally) add > Darknet links, configure cache sizes, etc. I believe all of this functionality is exposed via FCP, so the client app could expose it to the user in a manner which makes sense for that client app. > Further, the JVM doesn't load > and consume resources when it's not being used directly by a program.. > Freenet nodes work better when they're running 24/7, so we want people > to leave Freenet running, even if their client-app isn't. That is fine, it can be installed as a service while the client app is installed as a client app. > If you did want to push Freenet-the-service, rather than > Freenet-the-program, I'd suggest that for the late .7 and early .8 you > continue the focus on making the install simpler.. For example, the > project could create a Freenet-for-embedded.zip, which defaults to > opennet only, auto-detects it's IP, and joins the network when the .jar > is run, rather than asking the user any questions. Well, I've been describing Freenet as a platform since around 1999 - there is nothing new about this. I think we do need to do some work to make Freenet more easily embedded, possibly as you suggest. > Also of interest is the http://java.com/en/ page.. It uses a big > download button, similar to Firefox, but also spends a significant > amount of realestate on the page showing people what they can do using > Java. Freenet could create a similar page with links to prominent > Freenet applications for quick download directly from the website.. > Doing this would lend some of the media coverage and promotion that the > project is generating now, onto the applications. I agree that we should certainly direct user's attention to the various client apps, as Java does. Ian. -- Email: ian at uprizer.com Cell: +1 512 422 3588 Skype: sanity
