HomeARC

From XFamily - Children of God
Revision as of 20:49, 19 April 2005 by Monger (talk | contribs)

The HomeARC ("ARC" was presumably abbreviated from "archive") was a software package which contained the vast majority of publications by The Family International. It was released for the first time sometime between 1995 and 1996, and for some time updated versions were released on a yearly basis.

The software package was comprised of three CDs—one for installation purposes, one for documents, and a third for scanned images of illustrated and graphics-intensive publications. The program also served a number of other purposes including stripping Rich Text Format files of originator-identifying properties and assisting with PGP encryption tasks. However, the HomeARC did not work with any operating system newer than Microsoft Windows 98, and was never updated to do so as by the time later versions of Windows were released most of the underlying code was more than a decade old and would have required almost a ground-up rewrite. As a result, HomeARC publication updates were eventually discontinued.

The Family later distributed a large number of publications (though not as many) on more recent software called InfoStore, which was programmed by a member in Russia.

Both InfoStore and the HomeARC were never released in a non-sanitized form. All publications in them had undergone the various "purges".

As of 2005, the archive of the HomeARC's content is available on the Family's "Members Only" website at www.familymembers.com. The website is password protected and employs significant security measures to protect its contents from outsiders.