Can Outernet transmit whole applications or programs?

spacebar · 2016-07-30T23:37:19.842Z

It just occurred to me to ask this.

For example, can someone upload an entire text or image editor for people to download from Outernet?

Or perhaps even a small version of Linux?

Also, glad to see you are getting closer to shipping the first Lanterns out. I’m very happy your project was able to reach its goal.

After a long, deserved rest, I hope the Outernet team will consider attempting the next step: a two-way communication device.

Syed · 2016-07-31T16:06:23.624Z

Outernet is basically a content delivery network, so a file is just a file. The most important thing about a file is its size. We can delivery about 1MB per hour over L-band (actually, a little less than that right now). But there are plenty of useful applications that are pretty small.

branko · 2016-07-31T17:38:31.255Z

spacebar:

Or perhaps even a small version of Linux?

Anything of that magnitude would probably need to be split into many many small packages (e.g., multi-volume archives) and sent over the course of months.

sam_uk · 2016-07-31T23:36:15.994Z

I’m not sure linux would be a good use of bandwidth on Lantern, on Lighthouse it would probably be worth doing.

Theres some Android apps that would be worth doing though. Most notably Psiphon The Android APK is 8.1 MB, Or Orbot is 13 MB, but if you’re serious about circumnavigating censorship it’s a no brainer to put that out every couple of months. Sure the US state will probably spy on your comms, but if you live in North Korea or Eritrea you probably don’t care about that.

Also I’ve mentioned Httrack before This 2.1Mb would be invaluable if the lantern is a days walk away in the next village and you only go once a month. Turn up, copy the whole librarian onto your android. Walk home and read for a month.

Also Piratebox 1.2 Mb, allow for information to spread virally…

branko · 2016-08-01T08:39:13.166Z

sam_uk:

Also I’ve mentioned Httrack before This 2.1Mb would be invaluable if the lantern is a days walk away in the next village and you only go once a month.

Lantern will have a read-only FTP, so grabbing files would be much easier using that.

sam_uk · 2016-08-01T10:36:00.180Z

Great, how will that work? I guess I’ll still have to install a ftp client on my phone for the above use case?

Thanks

Sam

jackg · 2016-08-05T01:27:33.127Z

Would it not be easier to use something like Python as a text editor to downoad as it is free open source software and can be used as a text editor to encode any extentions.
The pythonw.exe file (which is the only part really needed for the text editor section) is only 41 KB so it could technically be used like that as an editor (but would not run code in it’s minimalistic self).

sam_uk · 2016-08-09T10:08:27.981Z

I don’t quite understand your comment, but a .exe extension presumes windows? I think the most likely use case is people accessing lanterns from Android phones? Httrack has Windows/ OSX/ Android available

spacebar · 2016-08-09T14:59:33.398Z

Basically, my question is exactly what it asks. Can I, for instance, download from Outernet something like a simple text editor program?

Essentially, it has already been answered.