Comment by samstokes | Hacker News Reader

Comment by samstokes | Hacker News Reader

This seems like a very ambitious project, which is great. It does seem at risk of boiling the ocean. They're taking on:

* NAS device with encrypted file storage and UPNP

* setting up a VPN

* client software for said VPN on each platform (or at least installers that can configure each platform's native VPN support)

* multi-device file sync

* whole-device file sync, with client software for each platform, presumably with subtle kernel-level code (those "patent-pending technologies")

* versioned backup

* "instant file transfer" (presumably this is just their streaming tech repackaged, but it's a separate UX to develop and maintain)

* streaming file delivery across varying-bandwidth connections

* presumably media player apps on each mobile client platform to consume said streaming media

Each of those things is plausible, putting them together makes a lot of sense at the product level, and it would be a godsend if they can do it well. I guess I just wonder why they're not raising $5M rather than $100k.

(Maybe the team is actually an established company with 20 engineers, and the Kickstarter is purely to bankroll the initial production run? It's not clear from the team bio.)

UPNP can be handled by existing Linux UPNP software. There is a FOSS VPN that can do point to point VPN routing, but I'm forgetting the name. FUSE works ona a surprisingly large number of operating systems now (Linux, OSX, Android-fied Linux, Windows), so building a FUSE file system can be done. And as for data sync and replication? CEPH can probably handle this.

The software exists to do this, no one has put it together in an easy to use package. This is why I funded their effort, I want this to come to pass.

Indeed, I wasn't suggesting that any one of those things was technically infeasible, but that "putting it together" is a very large undertaking, because there are a lot of things they're trying to put together.

I don't think FUSE is how this works: see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6027569.

FUSE is just a file system layer, I CAN implement a versioning distributed filesystem through FUSE, nothing in FUSE stops me from doing that.

I don't think you read the thread I linked to.

I did, but I don't think I got the same impression of what was being said as you did.

VPN: Do you mean tinc, by chance?

And they're talking about some form of replication on multiple drives plugged in to a hub, and they're also talking about replication if you have two Plugs in different locations.

Using tonido, one can replicate 2 plugs in different locations.

Don't take us wrong. We wish them good luck. Just pointing out it is not a technology problem. The problem is to handle complexity when you try to do a lot of things.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Tonido solution requires me to spend money to sync more than 2GB, and Plug does not.

All these are already done by our Tonido (http://www.tonido.com) and TonidoPlug project and it is available and it works.

If you allow me a humble suggestion as a customer, you should use this as inspiration to rethink your product pages:

    the new, Ultimate low-power, low-cost home, small
    business server and NAS powered by Tonido platform

versus

    Plug makes your computer bigger.
    Make all your devices one.

These guys do have a slightly above healthy amount of fantasy in their copy, but it's a much easier sale.

You are right. They have done a great job on the copy.

Also: Your website is hard to navigate. I wanted to see how much it costs, and I couldn't find a direct link. I clicked a buy link and then subsequently found a "go green" link which finally allowed me to see the product.

Just an observation.

Are these still on the old Marvell Armada SoC? I'm still running a Dreamplug as a gateway/mini server and it's hamstrung by everything running over USB.

How do I buy one? I can't see a buy button on any of the TonidoPlug pages.

I also found it difficult. On the product description page, there's a green icon in the upper-right that says "Get Tonido Plug". That icon is a link to the purchase page.

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