Relay diversity and client diversity are two different things. Last I heard it was a bad idea to run a relay on the same computer as a client, so I don't think Tor Browser for server OSes like Solaris is a great use of developer effort.
Windows is certainly the highest-value target for client diversity efforts. I hear the Brave company is hiring someone to work specifically on Tor integration, maybe you want to apply: https://brave.com/jobs/?gh_jid=781438 In my opinion, the best way to improve relay diversity would be to work on system administration automation. For instance, as far as I know there is no equivalent of Debian's 'unattended-upgrades' tool for any of the BSDs, or even for most Linux distributions. zw (Please forgive the top-posting and HTML, I'm writing this on a phone.) On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 4:56 AM Duncan <dguth...@posteo.net> wrote: > Firstly, a note of caution: I am not affiliated with the Tor project. > > Scott Bennett: > > Duncan <dguth...@posteo.net> wrote: > > > >> In theory hot-patching kernels is a great idea. > >> > >> However, they're technically not loading a new kernel. Something like > >> kexec in theory lets one load a new kernel. > >> > >> Furthermore, these hot-patching programs usually only support Linux. > >> If > >> we want to increase the diversity of the Tor network, as we most > >> certainly should, then we need more BSD relays, so these hot-patching > >> programs don't cut it. > >> > > The tor project has made the point that OS diversity is important, > > but it has failed to show the courage of its conviction. It commits > > great > > effort to maintain a "safe" tor browser for the OS for which tor relays > > currently abound, yet still offers no version of that browser to entice > > *BSD, Solaris, MINIX, or other OS users to run tor relays. Instead, > > such > > users are apparently expected either to use clearly unsafe browsers or > > to > > run VMs of other than their native OS to run a safe browser. The tor > > community is thus very lucky for what diversity of relay OS currently > > exists. > > If I may, the point of diversifying the network is *not* to "entice" > BSD/Solaris/MINIX users, the number of which, even compared to Linux, > which is quite low, is astonishingly small. I'd argue more effort should > actually be put into hardening Tor Browser for Windows, as it is on > Linux that much of the hardening efforts are currently being focused, > unfortunately. > > The point is that as it stands, serious bugs that affect Linux currently > affect the entirety of the Tor network. As a mono-culture, this could > cause problems in the future, especially as the network expands. This is > an issue for client users too, certainly. However, it is not clear that > there would be a benefit to providing builds to operating systems with a > very low number of users. I'm sure there are people using BeOS or Plan 9 > which want to use Tor Browser, after all. They can always compile it > from source if they wish (whether it would run is another matter, but > that is work that would take away from helping a greater number of > users). > > That being said, there is in fact the very good TorBSD project which > provides Tor Browser builds for OpenBSD. I do not know what the > situation with FreeBSD is, but that provides a Linux compatibility > layer, which I've heard Tor Browser works with. Here it is: > http://torbsd.github.io/ > > > I've pointed this problem out several times, but to the best of my > > memory, none of the tor developers has ever responded on this issue. > > > > > > Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG > > ********************************************************************** > > * Internet: bennett at sdf.org *xor* bennett at freeshell.org * > > *--------------------------------------------------------------------* > > * "A well regulated and disciplined militia, is at all times a good * > > * objection to the introduction of that bane of all free governments * > > * -- a standing army." * > > * -- Gov. John Hancock, New York Journal, 28 January 1790 * > > ********************************************************************** > > Best, > Duncan > _______________________________________________ > tor-relays mailing list > tor-relays@lists.torproject.org > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays >
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