ArkOS: Building the Anti-Cloud (on a Raspberry Pi) 166
angry tapir writes "arkOS is a Linux distribution that runs on the Raspberry Pi. It's an initiative of the CitizenWeb Project, which promotes decentralization and democratization of the Internet. arkOS is aiming to aid this effort by making it super-simple for people to host their own email, blogs, storage and other services from their own home, instead of relying on cloud services run by third parties. about the project."
Home servers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Home server not the fix-all (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm running my own server for mail, my web site, and various other little bits.
Not running from home: bandwidth is a primary issue, especially my uplink is too slow. My host has at least some 100 Mbit for me, maybe more - shared of course with many other sites but it's there for those bursts, so the few people daily that visit my site have a quick response.
Other concerns are dynamic IP (will need dynDNS, not sure how well that works), uptime, power use, hardware management... I pay some USD 350 a year for my virtual server. All in. Fixed IP, fast hardware, fast bandwidth, reliable connection - more reliable than from home with our over-sensitive RCD. More than enough for a small setup, a couple dozen mails a day, a dozen or so web site visitors a day. Not going to run that from home: more work, more cost, more trouble.
Re:Home servers? (Score:2, Insightful)
So ditch Comcast?
Re:Home server not the fix-all (Score:5, Insightful)
Why stop with the infrastructure? (Score:2, Insightful)
We could decentralize and democratize the protocol standards as well.
Re:Home servers? (Score:5, Insightful)
I imagine Comcast will have something to say about this - something like "No more internet for you, TOS-breaker"
This is true, their TOS generally forbid any services (listening ports for inbound connections) which pretty much means you can't host web servers or email servers. They actively scan for these, and contact you if they find them.
Yet, oddly they want to open a public wifi access point on every customer's cable drop so that their customers can have mobile wifi on mobile devices everywhere.
Seems sort of odd.
Re:Home server not the fix-all (Score:2, Insightful)
You just have bad software.
If you had decent software, you'd be eager and happy to have a home server. Your problem after all isn't a hardware issue now is it?
So... what's the six things you'd need for you to consider this easy?
Re:Home servers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Google already says no. (Score:5, Insightful)
Net neutrality (Score:5, Insightful)
To me, it seems that providers that prohibit home servers (either by TOS or by actually blocking e.g. port 80) are in violation of FCC-10-201 (net neutrality).
This was brought up before on Slashdot http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/07/30/2322253/google-argues-against-net-neutrality [slashdot.org] with specific reference to Google Fiber's TOS prohibition of incoming ports. The complaint is described in http://cloudsession.com/dawg/downloads/misc/kag-draft-2k121024.pdf [cloudsession.com] . I wish someone would pursue this against all major providers, not just Google Fiber.
There is simply no valid reason to prohibit incoming ports. This issue is not bandwidth - most home servers use far less than say streaming video. In any case if it's abused, the providers can use their existing procedures to deal with bandwidth abusers.
This is really at the heart of network neutrality. The only reason I can see for prohibiting incoming ports is to prevent individuals from competing with commercial interests that provide network services. Personally, it really PO's me that my ISP blocks ports 80 and 443. I keep my files on a home server, and although I can access them via ssh, many public wifi services (e.g. at hospitals) block every port, in and out, except 80 and 443. I can't really complain about the public wifi (well, I can complain, but they'll just tell me that it's a free courtesy they're under no obligation to provide, so if you don't like it, don't use it). So, to access my personal files, I need to use a 3rd party's commercial server (cloud or VPN) that allows port 80.
(As for the dynamic DNS, that hasn't been a serious problem for me - my ISP keeps it fixed as long as my cable modem is powered and connected, and the IP only changes when I restart the cable modem. Anyway, that is a secondary and minor problem.)
Re:violation of net neutrality (Score:4, Insightful)
It depends on criteria and perspective.
You mean, "Ask your telecom for a business account", don't you? Are there still such thing as "ISPs"?
Re:Home servers? (Score:2, Insightful)
It won't for me, not because it can't, but because Comcast is granted a regional monopoly by the local government.