Distribute FreeEed as a downloadable VM (desktop OVA + headless server appliance)

[markkerzner]

Why

Native installs hit friction on some machines — no JRE, locked-down endpoints, security
software blocking ports (e.g. Solr on 8983). A downloadable VM removes that whole class of
problems and keeps all data on the user's own hardware (local-first: nothing leaves the machine).

Two variants (scaffolded in dist/)

• Desktop OVA (dist/ubuntu-vm/) — an individual downloads it and runs it locally
  (VirtualBox/VMware); full Player + browser review inside.
• Headless server appliance (dist/appliance/) — IT deploys it on their hypervisor
  (VMware now, Proxmox later); everyone uses it from a browser at http://<vm>:8090
  (upload → process → review → produce). No desktop needed — FreeEedUI drives ingest from the
  browser (FileUploadController + CaseController).

Build

Packer + QEMU/KVM, reproducible (no hand-snapshot). OVA for VMware; qcow2/OVF for Proxmox.

Open tasks

• Enable KVM on the build box, then packer build both variants
• Test the browser workflow end-to-end (upload → process → review → produce) and login
  (empty-users first run must not block login on a shared server)
• Confirm Tomcat binds 0.0.0.0:8090 (LAN reachable), not 127.0.0.1
• Separate large data disk (e.g. ~500 GB) mounted for cases/output
• OVA hosting + size/compression; in-VM "Update FreeEed"

Relates to

#559 (JRE bundling) and #581 (signing) — the VM sidesteps both for its users.