The Structural Ascension: Why India is the Next Open Source Superpower
The "Back Office" era is over. A deep dive into the 5.2 million developers rewriting the global
Kai A. Hartung
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3 min read
Magazine
Appsmith: The Open-Source Platform for Building Enterprise Internal Tools.
Low-code used to be a dirty word for serious engineering teams. It implied "Shadow IT," unmaintainable spaghetti logic,
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
OpenCode: The Open Source Terminal Renaissance for Sovereign Development
We spent 30 years abstracting away the command line with GUIs. Now, AI is "forcing" us to go
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
BentoPDF: The secure and feature-rich Open-Source alternative for confidential data
Let's face it: PDFs are a pain. And for years, we’ve been stuck with two poor to
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Excalidraw: A “zero-friction” , end-to-end encrypted whiteboard that respects your privacy and your budget.
Are you paying $10+/month for a digital whiteboard (like Miro) that feels "bloated" and locks in your
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
AppFlowy: Unfortunately not (yet) the “Open-Source Notion” we were hoping for
What do 66.5k GitHub stars and 974 open issues tell you about a project? For AppFlowy, the "open-source
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Why the Open-Source, privacy-first tool Umami is more accurate than Google Analytics
Your Google Analytics data is likely wrong. By default, it's blind to ~69% of your traffic. That'
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Thunderbird's Resurgence: Ready for Google, Not yet for Microsoft.
Thunderbird, once the "old, fragile LEGO tower" of email, just rebuilt itself for the modern workspace. It'
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
Bitwarden: An Open-Source password manager offering secure, transparent, and affordable solutions for individuals, teams, and businesses alike
When I first sought a password manager, my primary motivation was not price, but a principle: verifiable trust. For an
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Cal: An Open-Source scheduling platform built as infrastructure, offering total control over your data, workflow, and brand.
For years, the scheduling world has run on two familiar tracks: * Calendly: The reliable default. Simple, user-friendly, and gets the
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Jitsi: A free Open-Source Video Conferencing platform for web & mobile. Make a call, launch on your own servers, integrate into your app, and more.
Choosing a video conferencing solution nowadays has become like choosing a utility company in a monopoly. You pick from the
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
Why my private, AI-powered research and writing stack runs on a truly Open-Source tool, and it's not Obsidian
From a spark of an idea written on paper, grounded with Google's Deep Research and NotebookLM to a
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Ambie: A freemium Open-Source Ambient Sound Application to improve your Focus and Productivity during Deep Work or Study Sessions
My secret weapon for getting into "laser mode" isn't another expensive subscription. When I need to
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
Paperless-ngx: A free Open-Source document management system with an optional AI extension to automate the classification, tagging, and titling of your documents
Is your company's "digital archive" just a glorified, chaotic network drive? There's a smarter
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Plane: A flexible, Open-Source project and product management platform designed as a modern, self-hostable alternative to tools like Jira, Linear, Monday and Asana.
Jira is powerful but complex. Linear is fast but rigid. The project/product management world has been living in this
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
AnythingLLM: A free and Open-Source all-in-one AI application to run your preferred LLMs locally with built-in RAG, AI agents, No-code agent builder, full MCP compatibility, and more
What if your team could build a private ChatGPT on their desktops, using your company's own data, without
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
Podman AI Lab: A free extension of the Open-Source application Podman, streamlining the inner loop in a containerized AI sandbox
In a corporate environment the most important feature of a local AI tool isn't the model catalog, it&
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
Docling: A smart Open-Source Toolkit for parsing various document formats into a unified, structured representation ready for AI consumption
For every tech leader building with generative AI, the real bottleneck isn't the model, it's the
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
Dark Reader: Eye-Care Browser Extension which applies Dark Theme to all Websites
Sunglasses at night may look cool, but the Dark Reader browser extension is much more practical. Ever been almost blinded
Kai A. Hartung
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1 min read
IndustryFusion: An Open-Source manufacturer-driven "operating system" for the smart factory
Let's talk about "digital sovereignty" for European industry. It's a big political phrase, but
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Twenty: A data-centric and fully customizabe Open-Source CRM
Tired of the usual CRM suspects? If the thought of another Salesforce invoice or HubSpot's contact-based pricing makes
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
PrestaShop: A universal and fully customizable Open Source E-Commerce platform. No vendor lock-in. Highly scalable.
When you chose an e-commerce platform you usually have to decide between convenience and control. While proprietary solutions like Shopify
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
Meetily: An Open-Source and Privacy-First AI Meeting Assistant & Note Taker
Choosing an AI meeting assistant for live transcription and summarization often involves a trade-off between features and privacy. While proprietary
Kai A. Hartung
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2 min read
The Sovereign Cloud: A Manager's Guide to Open Source Alternatives in the Age of Hyperscalers
Contents Part I: The strategic imperative: Beyond the cost of control 1.1 Deconstructing the cloud: a basic course for
Kai A. Hartung
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21 min read