I've been following the project for a while, run GhostNet at home, and I'm a chronic Wire listener. Not a complaint, just something that turned up recently that seems to line up with where you're already headed.
You've said here that your main gripe with VARA is that the free version is crippled and it pushes people toward paying. There's an open answer to that now: Mercury, from Rhizomatica. Free, GPL, and it installs natively on a Raspberry Pi.
That last part is the reason I'm writing. You've talked about bringing the TOC in a box back to life. If that lands on a Pi, Mercury is close to the obvious call, because VARA doesn't run natively on a Pi at all. You'd be emulating Windows on it, which is a lot of moving parts for something that has to work when nothing else does.
What it covers:
- Email, as a straight VARA swap. It presents the same interface VARA does, so it drops into Pat with no changes. Anyone already set up just points at it.
- Text and file transfer natively, with Winlink out of the picture entirely. Station to station, no accounts, no gateways.
- Reticulum, which you've said you plan to fold in. So it isn't a separate project competing for attention, it's the same road.
- A better modem than VARA or ARDOP: stronger error correction, and it adapts to conditions on its own.
Honest caveat: adoption is still small, and Mercury stations can only talk to other Mercury stations. Realistically that makes it an addition alongside VARA rather than a replacement. It only got real coverage a few months ago, so most people haven't run across it.
Not asking for anything, just figured it was worth putting in front of you before 1.6.
https://github.com/Rhizomatica/mercury
I've been following the project for a while, run GhostNet at home, and I'm a chronic Wire listener. Not a complaint, just something that turned up recently that seems to line up with where you're already headed.
You've said here that your main gripe with VARA is that the free version is crippled and it pushes people toward paying. There's an open answer to that now: Mercury, from Rhizomatica. Free, GPL, and it installs natively on a Raspberry Pi.
That last part is the reason I'm writing. You've talked about bringing the TOC in a box back to life. If that lands on a Pi, Mercury is close to the obvious call, because VARA doesn't run natively on a Pi at all. You'd be emulating Windows on it, which is a lot of moving parts for something that has to work when nothing else does.
What it covers:
Honest caveat: adoption is still small, and Mercury stations can only talk to other Mercury stations. Realistically that makes it an addition alongside VARA rather than a replacement. It only got real coverage a few months ago, so most people haven't run across it.
Not asking for anything, just figured it was worth putting in front of you before 1.6.
https://github.com/Rhizomatica/mercury