Amahi Blog

The Amahi wiki has been a fundamental tool in getting the Amahi Home Server to where it is.

We just finished a “face transplant” on it!

See the old Amahi wiki front page and see the new Amahi wiki front page (just for kicks, you can also see an ancient version of the front page - boy oh boy!).

Great job from the community adding changes and feedback to improve the wiki, one of the backbones of every open source projects, to capture HOWTO guides, plan new features and in general collaborate productively!

One of the most commonly used features of Amahi is the NAS functionality (Network Attached Storage), and that page was getting stale. This link has also been revamped with more up to date content on how to add/remove users easily and manage their access control.

Yes! For Windows!

We have a new and updated VPN client for windows for the zero configuration VPN that comes with every Amahi home server. This release came courtesy of our long-term contributor and friend Tim (aka tcheng).

This new version has a few new features:

• Logo updates for the orange Amahi logo
• Client was enhanced to make it clear the user’s HDA nickname is what’s required
• Client now remembers the nickname and the user name for even easier use

As usual, Tim came through with a flawless release that worked out of the box and went straight without modifications to become the official release.

We have been extremely please with the performance and the reliability of the OpenVPN server that Amahi deploys. It has always been one of the most useful tools in the Amahi Home Server.

Ours is a simplified and customized version of the Windows VPN client that OpenVPN provides, tailored for the simplicity we’re accustomed to in Amahi.

Hello!

As most of you know, we have had a busy time at Amahi recently, with a demonstration of Amahi at Computex in Taipei, in the Intel pavilion.

So things have been slow on the development front, however, things have been buzzing in the application testing front just as we recover speed in the development

We have a number of releases that our testmaster Greg (aka rampage) has OK’d for release after feedback from the beta tester group.

Great job from the application contributors, testers and of course Gerald and Greg for helping deliver all these great applications through a simple, one-click install!

We have some heavyweight apps today! Check them out!

SqueezeCenter
Logitech’s SqueezeCenter (formerly SlimServer), is the powerful Open Source software to power any Squeezebox™ or Transporter® as well as any software MP3 player on your network.

Horde
Enterprise ready, browser based collaboration suite. Users can manage and share calendars, contacts, tasks and notes with the standards compliant components from the Horde Project.

SugarCRM
THE complete open source customer relationship management system. Features include: Sales Force Automation, Marketing Automation, Customer Support, Reporting, Collaborative Email Management

phplist
Easy to use open-source newsletters manager. phplist is a one-way email announcement delivery system. It is great for newsletters, publicity lists, notifications, and many other uses. (It is different from group mailing list systems like mailman.)

WikkaWiki
Flexible, standards-compliant and lightweight wiki engine. The intended audience is: Individual users (PIM/website backend), Development teams (software documentation), Companies and organizations (intranet/public website backend).

vTiger
Full-featured CRM software ideal for small and medium businesses, with low-cost product support available to users that need reliable support.

MyPhpMoney
Managing bank accounts through a standard web interface. MyPhpMoney includes 6 modules: Accounting book (to enter operations and balance accounts), Payment schedule (to run a scheduler for upcoming payments), Operation and recipient (to see a summary of operations, with the origin and the destination of the money), Loan simulation … and many more!

TheAddressBook
Multi-user, open source address management system. Key Features: Flexible, robust system allows you to add a virtually unlimited number of addresses, phone numbers, and any other type of information to contacts, Administration and user-level accounts to share contact information securely with clubs, organizations, co-workers, or friends, Organize contacts to one or more groups for selected listings, Display upcoming birthdays, allowing early preparation for gifts and parties, Export e-mail addresses, Multi-lingual support

The news is out - Amahi will be at Computex in Taiwan, in the Intel pavilion.

Amahi will be demonstrating the latest release of the Home Digital Assistant (HDA) home server running on an Intel Atom processor N270 series for embedded computing. The HDA is what Intel calls an “Open Consumer Applications Platform.” A new class of device  integrating a home server with home router functionality. The demonstration will take place in the Intel pavilion from June 2nd to 6th, 2009.

Above: Partial image of Intel Demo Brief with Amahi at Computex 2009

The demonstration will showcase an HDA operating in the booth at Computex as well as VPN access to a remote system (in California). The demo will cover:

• the basic platform functionality for user and share creation, and networking control
• one-click application installation
  • applications demonstrated will include media management, media serving, photo galleries, video surveillance applications and more!
• cross platform support for Linux, Windows and Apple client machines will be highlighted

We have heard from many new users that they had no idea Amahi exists (there has been little if any marketing to date). This show might be what just changes that perception.

This is an exciting time for the community and Amahi - enjoy it!

The home networking space is starting to evolve. Many device manufacturers and creating targeted devices to meet specific needs. Even AT&T is marketing a simple device, the AT&T home manager. Of course this is a limited, “fixed” device. A home with Amahi and any browser capable device (netbook, iPhone or even a desktop) delivers all the functionality of the “Home Manager” plus a whole lot more. Take the applications announced today: there are even a few home inventory applications!

So, on to the meat of today’s message: thanks to the community (special thanks to damato, rampage and those  members of the tester sub-community) the flow of one-click installable applications available on Amahi continues.

The new applications being announced today (in now particular order) are:

As the number of applications expands on Amahi, the team is feeling the pressure to make it easier for the community to:

1. find the specific application that does exactly what is wanted
2. review applications (there are already multiple applications that do the same/similar “jobs”)
3. propose new applications to add

Be rest assured, we are doing our best to get this done for you. And, to tease those who are actually reading this, there is some exciting news coming in early June. Stay tuned!