1 files changed, 212 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/doc/old/handbook/chapters/preface.texi b/doc/old/handbook/chapters/preface.texi
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..961ec0737
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/old/handbook/chapters/preface.texi
@@ -0,0 +1,212 @@
+@node Preface
+@chapter Preface
+
+@c FIXME: Do we have to mention that this is Free Software?
+@c FIXME: where did 'Free Software' in this sentence fit before
+@c FIXME: we changed it?
+This collection of manuals describes GNUnet, a framework
+for secure peer-to-peer networking with the high-level goal to provide
+a strong foundation for a global, distributed network
+that provides security and privacy.
+GNUnet in that sense aims to replace the current Internet protocol stack.
+Along with an application for secure publication of files, it has grown to
+include all kinds of basic applications for the foundation of a new
+Internet.
+
+@menu
+* About this book::
+* Contributing to this book::
+* Introduction::
+* Project governance::
+* Typography::
+@end menu
+
+@node About this book
+@section About this book
+
+The books (described as ``book'' or ``books'' in the following)
+bundled as the ``GNUnet Reference Manual'' are based on the historic
+work of all contributors to previous documentation of GNUnet.
+It is our hope
+that the content is described in a way that does not require any
+academic background, although some concepts will require further
+reading.
+
+Our (long-term) goal with these books is to keep them
+self-contained. If you see references to Wikipedia and other external
+sources (except for our academic papers) it means that we are working
+on a solution to describe the explanations found there which fits our
+use-case and licensing.
+
+Previously the documentation was contained in Drupal books, on the
+old website. This format was considered unmaintainable for the future, so
+Texinfo was chosen. You might find old and very old sections in
+here in addition to more recent content. It took a long time to
+finish the move to Texinfo (from Drupal to LaTeX to wrong Texinfo
+output dump to good Texinfo) and only recently (late 2018, early
+2019) content checking started. We apologize to the reader for
+any inconvenience and hope you apply logic where bad advice from
+10 years ago can be found (pipe to sudo to install software is
+one example). Patches (contributions) to this documentation are more
+than welcome!
+
+The first chapter (``Preface'') as well as the second chapter
+(``Philosophy'') give an introduction to GNUnet as a project, what
+GNUnet tries to achieve. ``Key Concepts'' explains the key concepts
+in GNUnet.
+These three chapters are the most complete in the documentation.
+They are followed by chapters which explain specific parts of
+GNUnet (and need more work):
+``Installing GNUnet'', ``GNUnet Contributors Handbook'' and
+``GNUnet Developer Handbook''.
+
+@node Contributing to this book
+@section Contributing to this book
+
+@c FIXME: There's a good amount of repetition here, we should
+@c FIXME: fix this.
+The GNUnet Reference Manual is a collective work produced by various
+people throughout the years.
+
+The version you are reading is derived
+from many individual efforts hosted on one of our old websites.
+In the end it was considered to be impractical to read by
+those who required the information.
+With the conversion to Texinfo --- the version you are reading
+right now --- we hope to address this in the longterm.
+Texinfo is the documentation language of the GNU project.
+
+While it can be intimidating at first and look scary or complicated,
+it is just another way to express text format instructions.
+
+We encourage you to take this opportunity and learn about Texinfo,
+learn about GNUnet, and one word at a time we will arrive at a
+book which explains GNUnet in the least complicated way to you.
+
+Even when you don't want to or can't learn Texinfo, you can contribute.
+Send us an Email or join our IRC chat room on freenode and talk with
+us about the documentation (the preferred way to reach out is the
+mailinglist, since you can communicate with us without waiting on
+someone in the chatroom).
+One way or another you can help shape the understanding of GNUnet
+without the ability to read and understand its sourcecode.
+
+@node Introduction
+@section Introduction
+
+GNUnet in its current version is the result of almost 20 years of work
+from many contributors.  So far, most contributions were made by
+volunteers or people paid to do fundamental research.  At this stage,
+GNUnet remains an experimental system where
+significant parts of the software lack a reasonable degree of
+professionalism in its implementation.  Furthermore, we are aware of a
+significant number of existing bugs and critical design flaws, as some
+unfortunate early design decisions remain to be rectified.  There are
+still known open problems; GNUnet remains an active research project.
+
+The project was started in 2001 when some initial ideas for improving
+Freenet's file-sharing turned out to be too radical to be easily
+realized within the scope of the existing Freenet project.  We lost
+our first contributor on 11.9.2001 as the contributor realized that
+privacy may help terrorists.  The rest of the team concluded that it
+was now even more important to fight for civil liberties.  The first
+release was called ``GNet'' -- already with the name GNUnet in mind,
+but without the blessing of GNU we did not dare to call it GNUnet
+immediately.  A few months after the first release we contacted the
+GNU project, happily agreed to their governance model and became an
+official GNU package.
+
+Within the first year, we created
+@uref{https://gnu.org/s/libextractor, GNU libextractor}, a helper library
+for meta data extraction which has been used by a few other projects
+as well.  2003 saw the emergence of pluggable transports, the ability
+for GNUnet to use different mechanisms for communication, starting
+with TCP, UDP and SMTP (support for the latter was later dropped due
+to a lack of maintenance).  In 2005, the project first started to
+evolve beyond the original file-sharing application with a first
+simple P2P chat.  In 2007, we created
+@uref{https://gnu.org/s/libmicrohttpd, GNU libmicrohttpd}
+to support a pluggable transport based on HTTP.  In 2009, the
+architecture was radically modularized into the multi-process system
+that exists today.  Coincidentally, the first version of the ARM
+service (ARM: Automatic Restart Manager)
+was implemented a day before systemd was announced.  From 2009
+to 2014 work progressed rapidly thanks to a significant research grant
+from the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft.  This resulted in particular
+in the creation of the R5N DHT, CADET, ATS and the GNU Name System.
+In 2010, GNUnet was selected as the basis for the
+@uref{https://secushare.org, secushare} online
+social network, resulting in a significant growth of the core team.
+In 2013, we launched @uref{https://taler.net, GNU Taler} to address
+the challenge of convenient
+and privacy-preserving online payments.  In 2015, the
+@c XXX: It is not correct to refer to pEp as pEp stylistic,
+@c XXX: but the correct version would lead to problems with
+@c XXX: some of our outputs and/or older versions of texinfo
+@c XXX: and devices that display versions on consoles etc.
+@c XXX: This is why we keep the pEp until proven that p(triple bar)p
+@c XXX: does not create broken outputs.
+@uref{https://pep.foundation/, pretty Easy privacy} (pEp) project
+announced that they will use GNUnet as the technology for their
+meta-data protection layer, ultimately resulting in GNUnet e.V.
+entering into a formal long-term collaboration with the pEp
+Foundation.  In 2016, Taler Systems SA, a first startup using GNUnet
+technology, was founded with support from the community.
+
+GNUnet is not merely a technical project, but also a political
+mission: like the GNU project as a whole, we are writing software to
+achieve political goals with a focus on the human right of
+informational self-determination.  Putting users in control of their
+computing has been the core driver of the GNU project. With GNUnet we
+are focusing on informational self-determination for collaborative
+computing and communication over networks.
+
+The Internet is shaped as much by code and protocols as it is by its
+associated political processes (IETF, ICANN, IEEE, etc.).
+Similarly its flaws are not limited to the protocol design.  Thus,
+technical excellence by itself will not suffice to create a better
+network. We also need to build a community that is wise, humble and
+has a sense of humor to achieve our goal to create a technical
+foundation for a society we would like to live in.
+
+
+@node Project governance
+@section Project governance
+
+GNUnet, like the GNU project and many other free software projects,
+follows the governance model of a benevolent dictator.  This means
+that ultimately, the GNU project appoints the GNU maintainer and can
+overrule decisions made by the GNUnet maintainer. Similarly, the
+GNUnet maintainer can overrule any decisions made by individual
+developers.  Still, in practice neither has happened in the last 20
+years for GNUnet, and we hope to keep it that way.
+
+The current maintainers of GNUnet are:
+
+@itemize @bullet
+
+@item @uref{https://grothoff.org/christian/, Christian Grothoff}
+@item @uref{https://schanzen.eu, Martin Schanzenbach}
+
+@end itemize
+
+The GNUnet project is supported by GNUnet e.V., a German association
+where any developer can become a member.  GNUnet e.V. serves as a
+legal entity to hold the copyrights to GNUnet.  GNUnet e.V. may also
+choose to pay for project resources, and can collect donations as
+well as choose to adjust the license of the
+software (with the constraint that it has to remain free software).
+In 2018 we switched from GPL3 to AGPL3, in practice these changes do
+not happen very often.
+
+
+@node Typography
+@section Typography
+
+When giving examples for commands, shell prompts are used to show if the
+command should/can be issued as root, or if "normal" user privileges are
+sufficient. We use a @code{#} for root's shell prompt, a
+@code{%} for users' shell prompt, assuming they use the C-shell or tcsh
+and a @code{$} for bourne shell and derivatives.
+@c TODO: Really? Why the different prompts? Do we already have c-shell
+@c TODO: examples?