Local-first software (2019)

AIs like GPT being non-local is one of my biggest issues with it.

That’s why I’m working on https://collate.one - offline AI workspace

Self hosting (which is often adjacent to local-first software) is fine. I've done it for years.

But it is a nightmare when it goes wrong: the conclusion I've reached is that it is out of reach to regular people who don't want the Byzantine support load that could accompany something going wrong. They want turnkey. They want simple. They aren't interested in operating services, they're interested in using them.

The FLOSS model of self hosting doesn't really offer a reliable way of getting this: most businesses operating this way are undercapitalised and have little hope of ever being any other way. Many are just hobbies. There are a few exceptions, but they're rare and fundamentally the possibility of needing support still exists.

What is needed, imo, is to leverage the power of centralised, professional operations and development, but to govern it democratically. This means cooperatives where users are active participants in governance alongside employees.

I've done a little work towards this myself, in the form of a not-yet-seen-the-light-of-day project.

What I'd love to see is a set of developers and operators actually getting paid for their work and users getting a better deal in terms of cost, service, and privacy, on their own (aggregate) terms. Honestly, I'd love to be one of them.

Does anyone think this has legs to the same extent as local-first or self hosting? Curious to know people's responses.

Databases like Postgres can be run locally or as part of some kind of managed service in the cloud. Anyone know of recent stats that show the percentage of databases that are managed locally vs by some cloud service?

Complete agreement. Here's a brief, practical action plan for Windows users:

  * Download all your data from Microsoft's "OneDrive" cloud storage, which if not disabled, is the default storage method in a new Windows install.
  * Verify that all your files are now stored locally.
  * Click the gear icon, go to "Settings -> "Account" -> "Unlink this PC," right-click, "Unlink account".
  * Remove Microsoft's OneDrive app from your system -- full removal is the only way to prevent perpetual harassment and reactivation. Go to "Apps" -> "Apps & features" (or "Installed apps" on Windows 11) -> "Microsoft OneDrive", right-click, "Uninstall."
  * Optional extra step: cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription and install LibreOffice (free, open-source).

yes but think of all those poor shareholders with unmaximized value you heartless man!

With crdt implementations like y.js, writing your own synchronization engine is trivial: https://greenvitriol.com/posts/sync-engine-for-everyone

How about redundancy in general. Not local first, not cloud first, but "anything can be first and last". That's how the "cloud" works in the first place. Redundancy. Mesh networks as well.

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Local first is almost equates to both privacy protective and public software good.

Essentially antithetical to capitalism, especially America's toxic late stage subscription based enshittification.

Which means its typically a labor of love or a government org has a long term understanding of Software as a Infrastructure (as opposed to SaaS)