| > Doesn't Java have the widest variety of hardware running it, thanks to its Virtual Machine ? Java has the advantage that you can run it on a wide variety of hardware platforms without recompilation, but it has largely failed to attain broad usage/support for desktop apps and so it's a bad choice for something like Freenet in 2024. A systems programming language like Rust gives us a lot more control over things like memory allocation, allowing apps to be a lot more efficient. This is important with Freenet because we need it to run in the background without slowing down the user's computer. Rust can also be compiled to run on all major platforms, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, etc. > P.S.: Also, I tried Freenet about around that time too ! I'm a bit confused about this being a "new" project... why not naming it "Freenet 2" then ? Why did Freenet "1" had to change its name ?? Using the name for the new software was a difficult decision and not without risk. The "Freenet" name was never intended to belong to a specific codebase. From the start we viewed the original Java implementation as a prototype, which is one reason we never actually released version 1.0 (even 7 years after the project started we were still on version 0.7). At the time I had no idea that it would be over 20 years before I had a design I thought would be suitable, but here we are. This new Freenet is the original concept but designed, not as a prototype, but as software that can gain broad adoption. In that sense it is the fulfilment of my original vision. I did consider calling it Freenet 2, but these days not that many people have heard of the original, so on balance I believe it would have been confusing for the (hopefully) much bigger userbase we hope to reach. |