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Freenet 0.5 Released
An anonymous reader submits "After over a year in the making, Freenet 0.5 stable has been released. This new version is far superior to previous versions of Freenet."
The announcement specifically thanks Matthew Toseland, "without whom this release would still be vaporware," noting "On the 11th of November, Matthew will no longer be able to work full-time unless more people donate, so please give whatever you can spare at our Donations page."
Perhaps if people started to create stuff and put their own content out into the wider world instead of ripping off and distributing other peoples hard work (while still trying to maintain they are striking some sort of blow for freedom) the governments and large corporations would look upon these PTP networks with a more friendly eye. But what will almost certainly happen instead is that it will become a haunt for paedophiles (anonymonity suits them quite nicely) and kids who want to swap warez and mp3s. Shame really. I wouldn't mind using it if they removed the anonymity from the system. Then people can publish what they want (which is good) but are still held accountable for their writings.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
The Freenet gateway page (or "web interface") has three Freenet URLs: The Freedom Engine, and a couple others. (Currently "Freenet Forever" and "Cruft". I'm glad Cruft made it, finally -- the author deserves it.)
The Freedom Engine (TFE) is published by (or claims to be published by) the same person who did "Content of Evil" in the older days. It's essentially Freenet's version of Yahoo! (the old one, before they added a bunch of services) -- a portal to other sites within Freenet. Go there. Be amazed by the variety, both good and bad.