Folks: Please try this out! I think this version is reliable and performs well and will become the v1.8.0 final release in less than two weeks' time. Send your results to tahoe-dev@tahoe-lafs.org or if you find an issue add it to the issue tracker at http://tahoe-lafs.org . Thanks! :-) Regards, Zooko ANNOUNCING Tahoe, the Least-Authority File System, v1.8.0N2 The Tahoe-LAFS team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of version 1.8.0N2 of Tahoe-LAFS, an extremely reliable distributed storage system. Tahoe-LAFS is the first distributed storage system which offers "provider-independent security"bmeaning that not even the operators of your storage servers can read or alter your data without your consent. Here is the one-page explanation of its unique security and fault-tolerance properties: http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/about.html The current stable release of Tahoe-LAFS is v1.7.1, which was released July 18, 2010 [1]. v1.8.0N2 is the beta release of major new improvements, including fast and fault-tolerant downloads and better Windows support. See the NEWS file [2] for details. If no regressions or critical bugs are discovered in this 1.8.0N2 version then we will release a functionally identical 1.8.0 final version on approximately August 15, 2010. WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? With Tahoe-LAFS, you distribute your filesystem across multiple servers, and even if some of the servers are compromised by by an attacker, the entire filesystem continues to work correctly, and continues to preserve your privacy and security. You can easily share specific files and directories with other people. In addition to the core storage system itself, volunteers have built other projects on top of Tahoe-LAFS and have integrated Tahoe-LAFS with existing systems. These include frontends for Windows, Macintosh, JavaScript, iPhone, and Android, and plugins for Hadoop, bzr, mercurial, duplicity, TiddlyWiki, and more. See the Related Projects page on the wiki [3]. We believe that strong cryptography, Free and Open Source Software, erasure coding, and principled engineering practices make Tahoe-LAFS safer than RAID, removable drive, tape, on-line backup or "cloud storage" systems. This software is developed under test-driven development, and there are no known bugs or security flaws which would compromise confidentiality or data integrity under recommended use. (For all currently known issues please see the known_issues.txt file [4].) COMPATIBILITY This release is fully compatible with the version 1 series of Tahoe-LAFS. Clients from this release can write files and directories in the format used by clients of all versions back to v1.0 (which was released March 25, 2008). Clients from this release can read files and directories produced by clients of all versions since v1.0. Servers from this release can serve clients of all versions back to v1.0 and clients from this release can use servers of all versions back to v1.0. This is the eleventh release in the version 1 series. This series of Tahoe-LAFS will be actively supported and maintained for the forseeable future, and future versions of Tahoe-LAFS will retain the ability to read and write files compatible with this series. LICENCE You may use this package under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or, at your option, any later version. See the file "COPYING.GPL" [5] for the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2. You may use this package under the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, version 1 or, at your option, any later version. (The Transitive Grace Period Public Licence has requirements similar to the GPL except that it allows you to delay for up to twelve months after you redistribute a derived work before releasing the source code of your derived work.) See the file "COPYING.TGPPL.html" [6] for the terms of the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence, version 1. (You may choose to use this package under the terms of either licence, at your option.) INSTALLATION Tahoe-LAFS works on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Cygwin, Solaris, *BSD, and probably most other systems. Start with "docs/quickstart.html" [7]. HACKING AND COMMUNITY Please join us on the mailing list [8]. Patches are gratefully accepted -- the RoadMap page [9] shows the next improvements that we plan to make and CREDITS [10] lists the names of people who've contributed to the project. The Dev page [11] contains resources for hackers. SPONSORSHIP Tahoe-LAFS was originally developed by Allmydata, Inc., a provider of commercial backup services. After discontinuing funding of Tahoe-LAFS R&D in early 2009, they have continued to provide servers, bandwidth, small personal gifts as tokens of appreciation, and bug reports. Thank you to Allmydata, Inc. for their generous and public-spirited support. Google, Inc. is sponsoring Tahoe-LAFS development as part of the Google Summer of Code 2010. Google suggested that we should apply for the Summer of Code program, and when we did they generously awarded four sponsorships to students from around the world to hack on Tahoe-LAFS this summer. Thank you to Google, Inc. for their generous and public-spirited support. HACK TAHOE-LAFS! If you can find a security flaw in Tahoe-LAFS which is serious enough that feel compelled to warn our users and issue a fix, then we will award you with a customized t-shirts with your exploit printed on it and add you to the "Hack Tahoe-LAFS Hall Of Fame" [12]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the fifth release of Tahoe-LAFS to be created solely as a labor of love by volunteers. Thank you very much to the team of "hackers in the public interest" who make Tahoe-LAFS possible. David-Sarah Hopwood and Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn on behalf of the Tahoe-LAFS team August 3, 2010 Rainhill, Merseyside, UK and Boulder, Colorado, USA [1] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/relnotes.txt?rev=4579 [2] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/NEWS?rev=4636 [3] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/RelatedProjects [4] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/docs/known_issues.txt [5] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/COPYING.GPL [6] http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/COPYING.TGPPL.html [7] http://tahoe-lafs.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/quickstart.html [8] http://tahoe-lafs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-dev [9] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/roadmap [10] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/browser/CREDITS?rev=4591 [11] http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/Dev [12] http://tahoe-lafs.org/hacktahoelafs/ _______________________________________________ tahoe-announce mailing list tahoe-announce@tahoe-lafs.org http://tahoe-lafs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tahoe-announce ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE