All good points, none with which I would disagree.
The System on a Stick could only be surreptitiously altered by remounting the root device as read-write. This is difficult for any non-technical user to do without instructions.
The System on a Stick is fully preconfigured. Insert Stick, turn on computer and away you go. It is every bit as easy as a new piece of hardware with its OS and configurations flashed on ROM.
I do not see a small, low power, fanless device as being incompatible with a System on a Stick. Plug computers or credit card sized computers should have slots for USB sticks, SD cards or CF cards. And they should be able to boot from them (no on-disk bootloader needed).
Not every consumer may be ready to make a purchase of new hardware. Evidence of this is the fact there are a suprising large number of people still using what we would consider "old" hardware. Desktop PC's in fact. Regardless of a consumer's appetite and budget for new gadgets, certainly they can afford a USB stick, SD card or a CF card. They probably own one already. They might even have a CF card left over from the days when digital cameras used CF cards. The System on a Stick will fit on a 16MB card.
I would imagine most people indeed currently have some i386 hardware, either a PC or a laptop. Thus they have what they need to try out the System _right now_, without making a new hardware purchase. When they eventually make their next hardware purchase (maybe an ARM tablet), they will then have spare i386 hardware.
As the System can run without touching the disk, there is no install anything. It can be used on i386 with OSX or Windows installed without affecting those systems. A user can perform tests of end-to-end connectivity and communications using any smartphone with a web browser.
I like the sound the AdTrap Kickstarter project. An additonal computer ("router") that sits between the user and her modem is I believe the right way forward for solving problems of privacy (e.g. blocking ads) and security (e.g. secure communications), not to mention other increased functionality. I simply wanted to point out that purchasing new hardware is not necessary to get started.
Whatever shape or form that router takes, I think it must be bootable from external media with the bootloader of the user's choosing. Any less means we are purchasing yet another closed system and putting someone else in control. By all means make this router function without any user input (turn it on and you're done). But by no means should the ability of the (more conscious) user to fully control the router be limited. That means open source OS and open source bootloader.
The System on a Stick could only be surreptitiously altered by remounting the root device as read-write. This is difficult for any non-technical user to do without instructions.
The System on a Stick is fully preconfigured. Insert Stick, turn on computer and away you go. It is every bit as easy as a new piece of hardware with its OS and configurations flashed on ROM.
I do not see a small, low power, fanless device as being incompatible with a System on a Stick. Plug computers or credit card sized computers should have slots for USB sticks, SD cards or CF cards. And they should be able to boot from them (no on-disk bootloader needed).
Not every consumer may be ready to make a purchase of new hardware. Evidence of this is the fact there are a suprising large number of people still using what we would consider "old" hardware. Desktop PC's in fact. Regardless of a consumer's appetite and budget for new gadgets, certainly they can afford a USB stick, SD card or a CF card. They probably own one already. They might even have a CF card left over from the days when digital cameras used CF cards. The System on a Stick will fit on a 16MB card.
I would imagine most people indeed currently have some i386 hardware, either a PC or a laptop. Thus they have what they need to try out the System _right now_, without making a new hardware purchase. When they eventually make their next hardware purchase (maybe an ARM tablet), they will then have spare i386 hardware.
As the System can run without touching the disk, there is no install anything. It can be used on i386 with OSX or Windows installed without affecting those systems. A user can perform tests of end-to-end connectivity and communications using any smartphone with a web browser.
I like the sound the AdTrap Kickstarter project. An additonal computer ("router") that sits between the user and her modem is I believe the right way forward for solving problems of privacy (e.g. blocking ads) and security (e.g. secure communications), not to mention other increased functionality. I simply wanted to point out that purchasing new hardware is not necessary to get started.
Whatever shape or form that router takes, I think it must be bootable from external media with the bootloader of the user's choosing. Any less means we are purchasing yet another closed system and putting someone else in control. By all means make this router function without any user input (turn it on and you're done). But by no means should the ability of the (more conscious) user to fully control the router be limited. That means open source OS and open source bootloader.