WhatsApp uses FreeBSD

[drhowarddrfine]

In light of the Facebook purchase of WhatsApp for $19 billion dollars, I just learned that they use FreeBSD as noted in slide 7 here: http://goo.gl/v8FEAB. Slide 18 comments about approaching 2.8 million connections:

FreeBSD shines

 

[dburkland]

Pretty cool read, thanks for sharing!

 

[arp242]

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =585260859

This was on Wikipedia for 5 years :\

 

[jrm@]

@Carpetsmoker, I don't see anything related to WhatsApp in that link. Am I missing something?

 

[wblock@]

The part where it said "The only major technology company using FreeBSD is Yahoo."

 

[jrm@]

I see. I interpreted this in

This was on Wikipedia for 5 years

to mean something different.

 

[Martillo1]

Just for posterity.

 

[arp242]

@Carpetsmoker, I don't see anything related to WhatsApp in that link. Am I missing something?

Yeah, as already pointed out, the "The only major technology company using FreeBSD is Yahoo." was my point. When I changed this, I looked at who changed it, and as far as I can tell, this was changed by a constructive Wikipedia editor, making otherwise good edits (meaning: it wasn't a troll/fanboy/etc.).

There seems to be a common public perception that FreeBSD (and OpenBSD) is a bit of a fringe OS. Used only by ageing bearded bachelors above the age of 40, or something. BSD may not be as large as it once was, or as large as Linux, but it's certainly not a fringe OS. I'm not overly worried about this, but I do think it contributes at least in some degree to the lack of support from certain applications, companies, and communities in general.

 

[CurlyTheStooge]

I don't understand the point. They have also mentioned they use Linux. So what's the big deal here? FreeBSD is a server OS, meant to be used like this. A couple of companies use it, very few of them mention it. That's it.

Regards.

 

[_martin]

Yeah, and it was working perfectly before Facebook bought it. Now, it takes ages to load and retrieve information. WhatsApp was a great app; I don't trust it though any more. I am moving to a new app - Telegram (and Viber as a fallback app). So far not very popular but hey, that was true for WhatsApp too.

 

[SirDice]

Moving to new app - telegram (and Viber as a fallback app). So far not very popular but hey, that was true for WhatsApp too.

Not trying to take this thread too far offtopic but WhatsApp always had abysmal security. Until they got called out on it all messages were transferred un-encrypted. Now they've added encryption but the implementation is crap at best. Telegram states it's more secure but they used some home-grown encryption scheme instead of using tried-and-tested protocols. Although it's created by a couple of mathematicians, they're not cryptographers. I don't trust it.

http://unhandledexpression.com/2013/12/ ... now-maths/

 

[arp242]

Moving to new app - telegram (and Viber as a fallback app). So far not very popular but hey, that was true for WhatsApp too.

Not trying to take this thread too far offtopic but WhatsApp always had abysmal security. Until they got called out on it all messages were transferred un-encrypted. Now they've added encryption but the implementation is crap at best. Telegram states it's more secure but they used some home-grown encryption scheme instead of using tried-and-tested protocols. Although it's created by a couple of mathematicians, they're not cryptographers. I don't trust it.

http://unhandledexpression.com/2013/12/ ... now-maths/

Just about anything related to mobile phones has either no security, or woefully bad security. It's like the '90s all over again. I just ditched my "smart"phone and got a regular old phone with only a phone function. I'll wait until something halfway decent turns up (if ever). At least I last 3-4 weeks on a single battery now...

 

[pkubaj]

Moving to new app - telegram (and Viber as a fallback app). So far not very popular but hey, that was true for WhatsApp too.

Not trying to take this thread too far offtopic but WhatsApp always had abysmal security. Until they got called out on it all messages were transferred un-encrypted. Now they've added encryption but the implementation is crap at best. Telegram states it's more secure but they used some home-grown encryption scheme instead of using tried-and-tested protocols. Although it's created by a couple of mathematicians, they're not cryptographers. I don't trust it.

http://unhandledexpression.com/2013/12/ ... now-maths/

Just about *anything* related to mobile phones has either no security, or woefully bad security. It's like the '90's all over again.

I just ditched my "smart"phone and got a regular old phone with *only* a phone function. I'll wait until something halfway decent turns up (if ever).
At least I last 3-4 weeks on a single battery now ...

I went another way - when I bought a new phone, I chose one for running as much FOSS software as possible. I considered getting an N900 (which I had before, but it got old), but eventually went for a Galaxy S3 with Replicant. I'm also curious about the Neo900 ( http://neo900.org/ ) but it will probably be around 800 EUR.

 

[arp242]

I went another way - when I bought a new phone, I chose one for running as much FOSS software as possible. I considered getting N900 (which I had before, but it got old), but eventually went for Galaxy S3 with Replicant. I'm also curious about Neo900 ( http://neo900.org/ ) but it will probably be around 800 EUR.

I had the Nokia N9, which is the successor the the N900; It was a 'halfway decent' phone (not great, mind you), except that no one (including Nokia) supported it.

The Neo900 looks interesting; at least it has a physical keyboard. I used to own an LG GW620, which had a super keyboard, but sucked at almost everything else. 800 Euro is probably too much, though.

My experience with installing third party software on Android devices is not good, by the way. Looking at the install instructions does not make me happy. I always spent days mucking about on my LG. Not to mention that you seem to lose your GPS and camera, two of the more useful functions of a smartphone IMO.

 

[tzoi516]

Didn't LG recently get dinged for collecting user data?

Edit: ZFR my last. Their smart TVs were collecting user data. Iouldn't be surprised if some of their other electronics did too.

 

[pkubaj]

I went another way - when I bought a new phone, I chose one for running as much FOSS software as possible. I considered getting N900 (which I had before, but it got old), but eventually went for Galaxy S3 with Replicant. I'm also curious about Neo900 ( http://neo900.org/ ) but it will probably be around 800 EUR.

I had the Nokia N9, which is the successor the the N900; It was a 'halfway decent' phone (not great, mind you), except that no one (including Nokia) supported it.

The Neo900 looks interesting; at least it has a physical keyboard. I used to own a LG GW620, which had a super keyboard, but sucked at almost everything else. 800 Euro is probably too much, though.

My experience with installing 3rd party software on Android devices is not good, by the way. Looking at the install instructions does not make me happy. I always spent days mucking about on my LG.
Not to mention that you seem to lose your GPS & camera, two of the more useful functions of a smartphone IMO.

GPS doesn't work, but one can use e.g. OpenStreetMap with OsmAnd. For me maps are enough. Camera with video is working with some small bugs (panorama mode not working). Only the front camera doesn't work, but I've never used it anyway (not only with this phone, but with my earlier ones as well).

 

[_martin]

Moving to new app - telegram (and Viber as a fallback app). So far not very popular but hey, that was true for WhatsApp too.

Not trying to take this thread too far offtopic but WhatsApp always had abysmal security. Until they got called out on it all messages were transferred un-encrypted. Now they've added encryption but the implementation is crap at best. Telegram states it's more secure but they used some home-grown encryption scheme instead of using tried-and-tested protocols. Although it's created by a couple of mathematicians, they're not cryptographers. I don't trust it.

http://unhandledexpression.com/2013/12/ ... now-maths/

Just about *anything* related to mobile phones has either no security, or woefully bad security. It's like the '90's all over again.

Well, I'm not in the position to be able to judge. Their cypher might be weak. But there's still a difference if somebody catches my messages on fly (hey, they'll know I'll be drinking beer at 7pm tomorrow ) or somebody has access to my past messages, contacts, etc. If WhatsApp was done by Facebook I'd not allow them to use my data (well I would not use it in the first place). But now as they bought it, they do have the right. And I don't like that.

 

[Crivens]

Didn't LG recently get dinged for collecting user data?

Edit:
ZFR my last. Their smart TVs were collecting user data. Wouldn't be surprised if some of their other electronics did too.

Correction/Nitpicking: they got caught doing that. It does not tell you if they do collect data in the phones or not.

 

[Nukama]

I've payed money for WhatsApp's service, only because they've donated to the FreeBSD Foundation (tough decision, looking with a closed eye at their security record).

I'm looking into buying a Neo 9000, as a logical step forward after possessing a Neo Freerunner. Paired with TextSecure and some FullDiskEncryption, this could leap endpoint security one small step forward.

 

[ronaldlees]

I don't trust smart phones in general, but those Galaxy processors are interesting (Exynos5 Octa Cortex-A15 eight core at 1.6 GHz, available now in a Soc board (Udroid-XU)) and just waiting for a FreeBSD port. But - dang - it uses the proprietary PowerVR GPU, with binary-only drivers for Android and Linux. I'm almost willing to run Android for that

 

[overmind]

Some donation to FreeBSD Foundation would be nice, from the seller of WhatsApp. Like 1 billion for example?

 

[_martin]

Not to stir away too much from the subject, but I found a new alternative to WhatsApp - Threema. Though paid, seems to be very good.

 

[Jamescraig]

I don't understand the point. They have also mentioned they use Linux. So what's the big deal here? FreeBSD is a server OS, meant to be used like this. A couple of companies use it, very few of them mention it. That's it.

Regards.

Agreed.

 

[drhowarddrfine]

I don't understand the point. They have also mentioned they use Linux. So what's the big deal here? FreeBSD is a server OS, meant to be used like this. A couple of companies use it, very few of them mention it. That's it.

Regards.

Agreed.

The point is the same that others will use where some will say that FreeBSD is a little known product that no one uses, yet, here we are with companies like WhatsApp and Netflix using FreeBSD as their main technology, thus showing that such statements are false.

 

[CurlyTheStooge]

The point is the same that others will use where some will say that FreeBSD is a little known product that no one uses, yet, here we are with companies like WhatsApp and Netflix using FreeBSD as their main technology, thus showing that such statements are false.

Whatsapp, as one of their main technologies.

Regards.