[Tor-BSD] more updates: TDP

[George Rosamond]

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We really should have done this earlier, but here goes...

For those who weren't aware, Attila and I launched "The Tor BSD
Diversity Project" ("TDP") torbsd.github.io a few months back.

We have a number of focuses, including an OpenBSD Tor Browser.  That
in many ways is our most time-consuming task, but there are other goals.

First, we are working on getting some of the well-known BSD-using
firms to run relays on a BSD.  Right now we have a commitment from one
firm, which will run two high-bandwidth (100mbps) relays.  With a
little effort, we can take a quick shortcut to changing the bandwidth
monoculture at least, although it really is a shortcut and not a
long-term solution.

Needless to say, there are a lot of big firms running BSDs that many
people aren't aware of.  Netflix, Juniper, Verisign, NetApp, Isilon,
Xinuos... there is a long list and those are just FreeBSD-using
US-based companies.  And after Mozilla began running a bunch of relays
a few months ago, we felt there was a decent precedent.

Those companies have the infrastructures and staffs to not only
increase the number of BSD relays, but also to greatly extend the
overall bandwidth of the Tor network.  Not to mention another angle on
optimizing throughput, crypto acceleration, etc.

Documentation for configuring relays has been on the backburner, but
will be another aspect of our project.

We did one BoF at BSDCan in June. The attendance was impressive, and
there was a lot of interest.  In BSD land, we are quite fortunate to
have so many people with access to infrastructure, not to mention
having the skillset to run high-bandwidth relays.

Also, my proposal was accepted for BSDCon Brazil in October, which
will focus on TDP.

At some point, we may hold a TB hackathon in NYC if there's the interest
.

We have a lot of things in motion right now around TDP.

I have hacked on flashrd (www.nmedia.net/flashrd) with a goal of
creating an i386 and amd64 Tor bridge appliance at some point.  No,
the goal wouldn't be to encrypt your thoughts and make toast, but it
would just be a simple image looking to do "one thing" correctly.  It
wouldn't take that much time to get something operational.

The web site should provide a decent overview of our approach, and
certainly, any input/contributions/suggestions are appreciated.

Sorry for the long email, but we intend to be more communicative in
the future.

g
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