Ya, but the overwhelming majority aren't. I agree with Eugen that the Freedom Box needs to be *at least* as easy to use as the cloud services they're replacing. I don't think that's impossible.
Like, take the Verizon mobile wifi hotspots. It has no UI whatsoever. You just turn it on, and the network name and WPA password is just written on the bottom. Incredibly easy and pretty secure for 99% of people. I *suspect* there's some way for advanced users to actually configure the network and password, and administer like you would any other wifi router. But they made the right decision of making the advanced security features *optional*, and making the default "secure enough" for normal people. I think the Freedom Box should take a similar approach. It should arrive pre-configured with the wifi network name and network printed on a (removable) sticker on the side. The first browser to connect to it should get a happy webpage explaining how it works and ask the fewest possible configuration steps. In fact, maybe the first time any new MAC address connects to it, show a nice welcome page. Then have a big "reset" button on the side that wipes the brick and restores it to factory settings. The wipe should be so thorough as to make it literally impossible to know if anybody has ever used it. This is good for security, as well as for just fixing it when something goes wrong. -david On 02/19/2011 03:18 PM, Mats Henricson wrote: > Well, a lot of people are willing to take a hit when it comes to ease of use > to get more privacy. We're even willing to pay for one of these plugs. > > Mats > > On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 11:12 PM, Chris Palmer <ch...@noncombatant.org > <mailto:ch...@noncombatant.org>> wrote: > > Eugen Leitl writes: > > > Tor, Tahoe-LAFS, i2p, tinc, some kind of opportunistic > > encryption are obvious candidates, but what else? > > The purpose of Freedom Box is to compete with cloud services, which are > notable for their ease of use. That is much less true of these > technologies. > I don't see how Freedom Box can succeed without taking the usability > problem > head-on. > > > -- > http://noncombatant.org/ > > "These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even > aspire to crudeness." --- William Gibson > > _______________________________________________ > p2p-hackers mailing list > p2p-hackers@lists.zooko.com <mailto:p2p-hackers@lists.zooko.com> > http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers > > > > > _______________________________________________ > p2p-hackers mailing list > p2p-hackers@lists.zooko.com > http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list p2p-hackers@lists.zooko.com http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers
