"
Here is my list:
By my estimation, the suggestions to a) relicense OPNsense with the GPLv3 and b) to create a foundation for OPNsense, would really make a difference for this nice project.
A strategical decision of this significance would really separate OPNsense from pfSense, since those changes would initiate an absolutely new path for OPNsense and give this project a completely new character, instead of just being what in marketing strategy is called "same-but-a-bit-better".
As a result, from a marketing perspective, OPNsense would have a real competitive advantage over pfSense, both, on the side of it's relationship to partner companies and contributors as well on the side of it's users. I expect those advantages make the user base, the number of contributors and the number of companies that want to back this project skyrocket.
Cheers
temporaryuser
- Inline links to documentation:
The menus come already with "help" integrated. This resembles 1-2 sentences with some basic information to each setting. Many times this information is not enough for me and I need more detailed help and background information. It would be great if at every service or setting there would be a deep link to the documentation pointing right at the relevant section of the documentation. It would be nice, too, if the documentation would start each topic with very general information. Example. Right now I am checking out Intrusion detection. It would be nice if there would be a link to the documentation which starts from 0: What is intrusion detection (=> small theoretical introduction including link to wikipedia). What is Suricata (=> small theoretical introduction including link to website), etc. and then explain all settings of the menu in detail. - Concrete service names:
It would be very beneficial if every menu item/service would not only be named generically, e.g. "Intrusion detection" or "Proxy Server" but also in addition with the name of the particular software, e.g. "Suricata", "squid", etc. This would help me understand faster what each menu item hides and I can go e.g. read the net about the service or check it's manuals, etc. Further, "Proxy server" is rather generic. Is it a HTTP proxy, a mail proxy, a FTP proxy, etc.? - Email proxy with anti-spam blocking & quarantine and antivirus scanning and disinfection.
- FTP proxy with antivirus scanning.
- Possibility to run FTP traffic over multiple bundled WAN uplinks so to add bandwidth to FTP services
- Reverse HTTP proxy:
With a reverse HTTP proxy you have the possibility to run multiple identical server services in your network (e.g. 10 Webservers, all reachable over port 80) with just one external IP. In countries where the ISPs charge a lot for additional static IPs this would be very beneficial - Application Control:
I don't really know what service that is :-), but Endian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endian_Firewall) writes the following and I find it really interesting: "Take control of the network by properly managing time-wasting, high bandwidth or non-business applications like Skype, WhatsApp, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter and over 150 more. Endian makes it simple to manage applications on your network with just a few clicks, increasing productivity has never been easier." (http://www.endian.com/products/utm/) - Content/URL filter
- Turn weak Open Source to strong, copylefted Free Software:
Relicense OPNsense to "GPLv3 or later" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License#Version_3) and turn it this way to real, copylefted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft) Free Software (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software), instead of just being "open source" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software) which is much weaker than Free Software. - Non-profit foundation for OPNsense:
Create a foundation which holds the trademark "OPNsense", the copyright on the code, the internet domains, etc. so that the OPNsense code base and brand rights will be fully released to freedom and be independent of Deciso, or other for-profit entities, i.e.: to go the way that many successful Free Software projects go nowadays, such as Libreoffice (> The Document Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Document_Foundation), Tryton (> Tryton Foundation http://www.tryton.org/foundation/index.html), Django (Django Software Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Software_Foundation), etc.
The example of Tryton Foundation is specially interesting, since it is a very similar case to OPNsense: A for-profit company called B2CK has forked Tryton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryton) from TinyERP (later called OpenERP, nowadays Odoo) but then founded the Tryton Foundation and handed over all rights to the code, brand, website, etc. to it. Development is sponsored/done by B2CK and other for-profit partner companies who provide customization, development, service, etc. http://www.tryton.org/services.html. They followed the PostgreSQL example, as stated here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryton#Project_management_.26_governance: "In contrast to their parent project and other open-source business software, the Tryton founders avoided creating a partner network which tends to generate opposition and duality between the partners and the community of volunteers.
They followed the PostgreSQL example where the project is driven by a federation of companies. As of August 2015, Tryton is supported by 17 of such companies, which are distributed globally as follows: France 3, Spain 3, Colombia 2, Germany, 2, Argentina 1, Australia 1, Belgium 1, Brazil 1, India 1, Mexico 1, Switzerland 1."
For further examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_software_project_foundations - Create a poll for the propositions of this thread so to have the community weigh them
- to be continued..
By my estimation, the suggestions to a) relicense OPNsense with the GPLv3 and b) to create a foundation for OPNsense, would really make a difference for this nice project.
A strategical decision of this significance would really separate OPNsense from pfSense, since those changes would initiate an absolutely new path for OPNsense and give this project a completely new character, instead of just being what in marketing strategy is called "same-but-a-bit-better".
As a result, from a marketing perspective, OPNsense would have a real competitive advantage over pfSense, both, on the side of it's relationship to partner companies and contributors as well on the side of it's users. I expect those advantages make the user base, the number of contributors and the number of companies that want to back this project skyrocket.
Cheers
temporaryuser
