As a lifelong tech nerd, I’ve always kept an eye on Linux and the broader free/open-source software (F/OSS) movement. I can actually remember fumbling my way through installing Red Hat Linux 5.2 on my family’s computer way back in 1998. It was exciting in a punk-rock kind of way, a big middle finger to Microsoft and their anti-competitive practices.
It also kinda sucked.
I was just a teenager dabbling in geekery, and I was unprepared for just how much effort it took to run Linux and open-source software back then. Hunting down drivers, compiling them into the kernel, getting archaic error messages and random issues, trying to find half-decent applications to do even basic things… it all led me to go sniveling back to Windows after about a week.
Still, the fascination remained with me. I’d browse Slashdot and read articles and discussions about things I barely understood. I followed the Electronic Frontier Foundation and appreciated their ideological arguments for open-source software, and that exposure likely sparked my education in anti-capitalism and the problems with mega-corporations owning everything.
And so I’d re-try my hand at Linux every few years, particularly when PC Magazine or some other publication would excitedly declare “This Is the Year of Linux on the Desktop!” I’d find the latest popular distro, fumble through the installation, and then… hunt down drivers, recompile the kernel, get archaic error messages, and try to find half-decent applications to even basic things.
Turning to the forums for support was equally frustrating. The stereotype of dismissive, gatekeeping nerds scoffing at n00bs who requested help existed for a reason: it was actually the case 98% of the time.
By this point, I was into my IT career and much more of a “power user” than before, so I had a lot more dependence on the applications I needed and a lot less time to tinker. I gradually gave up and resigned myself to using Windows, Office, and the ever-increasing number of subscription-based, closed-source applications that Big Tech spewed out.
But over the past few years, there’s been something of a renaissance in the open-source world. It started over a decade ago, when Big Tech decided to “foster goodwill” (or exert control and whitewash over their own code theft, depending on who you ask) and released a lot of tools and libraries as open-source, and encouraged their develeopers to contribute to open-source projects as part of their roles.
Concurrently, software development tools and collaboration platforms were maturing, making it easier for folks to get involved in F/OSS development and make small contributions that would lead to big improvements in quality. These were combined with virtualization and containerization that made server-side app deployment much less painful.
The corporate crossover also led to the increase of of things like UI/UX standards, style guides, and other user-focused enhancements made everything more accessible and generally more pleasant to use.
A lot of companies focused on business and productivity tools began adopting a “community/commercial” model that offered free, self-hosted, open-source versions of their software alongside their enterprise offerings that offered more features, more support, and typically ran as cloud SaaS.
The crest of the tide was gaming and AI.
Valve Software ramped up its development of SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system that supported playing Windows games. It then released the Steam Deck, the handheld PC running SteamOS and offering a (relatively) polished gaming experience on Linux. This opened the floodgates of similar gaming-oriented Linux Distributions like Bazzite and CachyOS, and suddenly Linux was more mainstream than ever.
Alongside this increased interest were the advancements in AI coding that have continued to yield exponential gains for Linux development (and exponential headaches for Linux package maintainers with the influx of “AI slop” contributions). Ignoring the deluge of low-quality, vibe-coded apps available everywhere, dedicated Linux developers suddenly had a tremendous increase in power and capacity to squash bugs and improve code.
With all of these developments, the open-source landscape looks drastically different than it did even a decade ago. Consumer interest in Linux and open-source apps is probably at an all-time high, and the open-source tools available to companies of all sizes now rival — and sometimes beat — their commercial counterparts in quality.
My own personal journey has seen me slowly replacing nearly every tech platform in both my personal and professional lives with an open-source alternative. From Google Photos and Apple Music to Microsoft Office and Figma, I’ve divested from the Cloud and from perpetual subscriptions and it’s been much less painful than I thought it would be.
Whether you’re tired of SaaS subscriptions, the unwelcome creep of AI into every facet of modern tech, the lack of privacy and/or data sovereignty, or the overall commercialization and enshittification of virtually everything, it’s time to take a serious look at open source.
My goal with this blog is to help non-profit organizations, small businesses, and anyone who is frustrated with modern technology to find a better way to meet their tech needs while minimizing their exposure to the nightmare that is modern Big Tech. I’ll be focusing mostly on open-source and self-hosting, but I’ll also highlight other resources that may be useful, even if they’re evil-adjacent (like using AI or the free services offered by big companies for non-profits and other eligible organizations).
As an introduction: I’ve been working in tech since 2003 (or earlier, if you count my teenage jobs at local computer stores). I’ve been a consultant nearly my whole career, and as such, I’ve worked or subcontracted for most of the major tech consulting firms and have done hundreds of projects for Forune 100 companies, local and federal governments, small and midsize businesses, higher education, healthcare, finance… you name it.
Throughout my life, I’ve volunteered with countless small non-profits and grassroots political organizations, and almost every one of them has struggled with fulfilling their tech needs, whether they couldn’t afford the tools they needed or they lacked the technical expertise to use them securely and efficiently.
I decided that the best way I could support these organizations (and the causes that they supported) was to offer my technical expertise at prices they could afford… even if that price was “free.” So, for the last few years, my tiny consulting firm has been focused on delivering “enterprise-class” technology to non-profits, grassroots groups, and mission-driven organizations at extremely low cost.
Despite my lifelong aversion to “social media,” I wanted to share this knowledge with a broader audience because I truly believe it can be transformative to these groups to have access to the right tools. Now, through Medium and Substack (and also via RSS from our website, acordis.co), I’ll be competing with AI and chatbots to bring you honest, nuanced, and accurate information on ways that your organization can leverage low- or no-cost solutions to do more good in the world. Because right now, we need all the good we can get.