Introducing Federated Computer \ stacker news ~tech

3631 sats \ 27 comments \ @davidpaulyoung 27 Jul 2023 tech freebie

🔒Start your journey to digital self-sovereignty with Federated Core! Replace your fiat software with Federated Computer https://federated.computer. Replaces Google, Zoom, Dropbox, Slack, Netlify, Airtable, 1password, Github with the best open source projects integrated to work together.

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Federated Core offers a curated suite of tools, replacing centralized surveillance options with privacy-focused alternatives✨

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✅ Seamless integration ✅ Single sign-on (SSO) ✅ Automatic configuration ✅ 100% Private ✅ Human support

Empower yourself and your business by breaking free from the clutches of the centralizers 🚀 Get Federated Core for $39/month per domain. We take bitcoin. Use the coupon code "FederatedOneMonthFree" to try it out for a month.

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460 sats \ 9 replies \ @03365d6a53 27 Jul 2023

Is it me or something doesn't smell right here?

The post (by a freebie acount) is immediately shilled by two other freebie accounts.

The project bangs on about open source, but the source couldn't be found (just an empty github organisation). Where is this gitea box?

Also, why is there no explanation of how this technology actually works? I found the docs, but there doesn't seem to be an architecture diagram, nor any technical service descriptions whatsoever.

How do we know this isn't just a bunch of cloud VMs?

I appreciate that sales are important, and 'fluffy marketing websites' probably make more money than dry white papers, but if you're offering self-sovereignty, doesn't that also mean being sovereign from your good selves?

Start 9 are leagues ahead in this regard. Their offering is totally open source, you can run on your own (sovereign) machine, and I'm confused why people think it's too hard to administrate - it basically runs itself.

If you can't run a Start 9 box, then I say, you deserve to pay 39 american dollars a month to this foreign company to host your data in their black box.

(I'm being abrasive, but if you can set the record straight, I will eat my words)

Also, why choose a name so close to Fedi? https://fedimint.org/ "Fedimint is a framework for federated applications. "

70 sats \ 0 replies \ @021da48107 28 Jul 2023

I agree the site could do with more documentation, I have to read a lot of the site and I have tech background to really understand what is going on. It'd be nice to see a simple view of what you are getting (200G storage, email, matrix, In an encrypted VM, etc, etc) on the front page. Here is what I understand:

This product looks to be a hosted virtual machine that federated computer encrypts with your credentials. Since they encrypt the VM with your credentials they can't actually see your data in the virtual machine. The virtual machine has the ability to host a bunch of open-source software, and a control panel that helps you setup/manage all the OSS.

This offering reminds me of https://librem.one/ , although librem.one is just offering similar OSS and they host it for you in a shared env.

Their control plane not being open-source is a bummer, but this is common for software (look at ledger's software). As mentioned by @federatedcomputer, they plan to open source the control plane, and if using a closed source tool is a no-go for you, then you'll have to wait to see if they do actually release the source-code.

My concern with it is if it is an encrypted VM running on a hypervisor somewhere:

How do we know it's actually encrypted, how do we know it's encrypted with the creds you provided and that the federatedcomputer doesn't know your credentials.
Is it possible to get into the encrypted VM since federatedcomputer owns and I assume has root access to the hypervisor hosting the VM?

All in all I think this is a very cool product, I think the price is good too. I'm excited to see where this project goes, good luck!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies 29 Jul 2023

"Federated" is also on my bullshit-bingo for centralized shitcoin projects. Without having looked any deeper into this, the word alone is a red flag

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 28 Jul 2023

Start9 is a diffferent approach. Most people do not want to run a server. I'm also confused about your mention of price. If you buy a $1000 server from someone else, that's more than 2 years of Federated and you don't have to play systems admin or devops person

Regarding open source. We haven't yet open sourced our control plane, and we will, but every part of the solution is open source: nextcloud, jitsi, matrix, vaultwarden, wireguard, listmonk, baserow, etc. Our control software is still in active development. The founding team at Federated Computer were behind the open-sourcing of some very significant tools in the past such as node.js, smartOS, manta. We will open source when we can best be of service to the community. Meanwhile, for customers that need a solution, it is an open-source solution because, if they want to, as you say, host it themselves to be truly "self sovereign", every one of the parts is open source and free.

Federated Computer was founded in 2021. I don't know about Fedimint.

Best.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Hypnagog 28 Jul 2023

Best reply

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @derekross 28 Jul 2023

Charging $40 a month seems hella expensive for free and open source tools. I run all of these tools myself out of my house. Seems sketchy.

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @davidpaulyoung OP 28 Jul 2023

Sketchy? That's called convenience. I don't think you're valuing your time correctly. And if you are running email, spam protection, ddos protection, nextcloud, jitsi, element, matrix, listmonk, vaultwarden, baserow, wireguard configured like tailscale, caddy integrated with gitea for static site publishing, gitea for code managment, castopod, wordpress, and a global CDN for performance, well, I take my hat off to you! Would you like a job? Best wishes!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @03365d6a53 29 Jul 2023

indeed that is a lot of work and the convenience factor is quite something.

getting off google microsoft is also important.

my main beef really is the lack of transparency - seems off to tout how "open source" all the other projects are, that you're profiting from, without making your own product open source

but if you're contributing back, that's something

how does your product compare to https://cloudron.io which offers all these services on a self-hosted (sovereign) basis for 15 bucks a month? (which excludes server costs to be fair)

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @derekross 28 Jul 2023

All of it minus WordPress and caddy yes. I haven't ran WordPress in over a decade. It's not that I don't like it, I just no longer blog. I also prefer nginx reverse proxies over caddy.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidpaulyoung OP 28 Jul 2023

That's the power of these open-source tools. You get to make a choice. Federated Computer customers get to make a choice. Hats off to you. Best wishes!

66 sats \ 0 replies \ @dac11 27 Jul 2023 freebie

I have been using this for a few months now. It works great and was easy to transition my domain over. Replaced my individual e-mail, vpn, website accounts with one single account here.

56 sats \ 2 replies \ @rocky_hodl 27 Jul 2023 freebie

Patriots and other business groups and sectors (guns, ammo, cannabis) should to move to self-hosted FOSS solutions. I tried start9 but didn't have the admin chops to keep it humming.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @dac11 27 Jul 2023

I don't have admin chops either but I can run my install on Federated. It's easy to use. I can tell they put that in mind when building it

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @davidpaulyoung OP 27 Jul 2023

Agree. Start9 is a great product but requires a level of skill and dedication that may be beyond the desire/capabilities of many/most.

46 sats \ 5 replies \ @JesseJames 27 Jul 2023

Where is the data stored?

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @davidpaulyoung OP 27 Jul 2023

On your own VM in the Federated cloud. But we can't see your data, once your change your passwords. We can only keep your software up-to-data, initiate the encrypted backup. No, it's not as private as true self-hosting, but it provides the right mix of convenience and privacy.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ssats 28 Jul 2023

How do you keep the software up-to-date if you don’t have access to it. Seems sus

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 28 Jul 2023

We use macaroons to give us access to the parts of the system required to keep the software up-to-date.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @JesseJames 28 Jul 2023

So, not really 100% private then, is it? Who's cloud is it anyway? (there is no cloud, just someone else's computer :-)) I can run free VM on google and ecrypt my drive (with my own keys BTW) How is this service better? $40 ain't cheap I wish you luck but I ain't buying...

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 28 Jul 2023

Yes, everything you say is true. And you're responsible for running that system. Most folks don't want that. It's OK to offer a convenience. BTW, are you running your own email today? Are you running your own Jitsi today? Etc. If not, why not? That's the value offered by Federated.

4 sats \ 0 replies \ @PlebeiusG 28 Jul 2023

Yuck. No thanks.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @SovranSystems 28 Jul 2023

Not your server, not your data.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 28 Jul 2023

That's true. But it is also all your work. There has to be a way to offer sovereignty and convenience. Is it true that all of your data is on your server? If so, many regards. But if there is some "Google" in your life, Federated Computer offers a better, convenient approach. You get the convenience of SaaS on top of all open-source solutions. That seems to me a step forward. Best.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB 27 Jul 2023

Spreadsheet?

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @dac11 27 Jul 2023

Federated Cloud includes Nextcloud Office which has spreadsheet, docs, files, everything Google has

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @federatedcomputer 28 Jul 2023

Included as part of Nextcloud/Collabora.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @0245bdaef2 27 Jul 2023

This is fucking cool. Respect to the team behind it.