Ybslik contact@ybslik.xyz wrote:
I have been following the emails with intrigue. I run a[details omitted --SB]
My relay is called Ybslik - it's been up and down due to my inability to understand how to configure things within the terminal.
But with the help from StackExchange I have been able to complete some tasks.
My small relay is now working ok and I hope adding to the Diversity of Tor.
Thank you for running a relay. Duncan dguthrie@posteo.net has already pointed out that choosing one of the two most heavily represented relay OS reduces, rather than increases, relay OS diversity. I thank you for your intent, even though you apparently misunderstood what was meant by diversity. In any case, I commend your bravery and energy in taking up a system new to you to run tor, but I also recommend you study security issues and features closely in any OS with which you are not yet intimately familiar but choose for running a relay. Having written that, if you someday choose to tackle learning yet another OS, please consider running a relay on one of the underrepresented relay OS. See, for example and in merely alphabetical order, Bitrig, DragonflyBSD, FreeBSD, Illumos, MINIX, MirOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, NextBSD, OpenSolaris, TrueOS (bleeding-edge FreeBSD specially packaged for novices and the only slightly involved:^), or any other OS on which tor builds properly yet is currently poorly represented among existing tor relays. If I'm not mistaken, among the four largest BSD projects (i.e., FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD), NetBSD is the most weakly represented among tor relays, which is too bad (IMO) because it is a very high-performance system that runs on damned nearly every kind of device with some kind of CPU chip in it, which makes it terrific for increasing hardware architectural diversity among relays, too. DragonflyBSD is probably second rarest of those four in the tor relay population. Learning these OS can have other, peripheral benefits, too. For example, you will find packet filters, file systems, scheduling and dispatching algorithms, I/O subsystems, virtual memory models, virtual machine support, etc. that are not found in Windows or LINUX. That is not to say that they are necessarily better than what you might find in LINUX, but they demonstrate a lot of different, creative, and interesting ideas about how to do things that you don't get exposed to by restricting your experience to the most heavily used OS. IMO, though, they are almost always better than what is available to choose from in Windows.
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 * **********************************************************************