Centralized Servers for FOSS Apps Rock
I love my FOSS apps: they're free, robust, and respect my privacy. Yet I also love the creature comfort of the tech giants' seamless suite of apps.
I like not having to worry about synchronization conflicts. I like being able to log in on any new device and have access to my workflow. I like spending time working instead of configuring my servers.
That's why I like FOSS Apps that offer a centralized server option, paid or not.
- Bitwarden is a password manager that offers a free account and a paid tier with more features.
- Zotero is a reference manager that has paid cloud storage for PDF documents and other attachments that streamlines file synchronization, which otherwise requires WebDAV setup.
- Joplin has similar pricing: WebDAV is free, hassle-free cloud storage is paid.
While relying on centralized servers makes data more susceptible to malicious third parties, it also drastically reduces the risk of data loss. FOSS developers are less likely to be bad actors than tech giants as well.
So the question shouldn't be “why do some people pay for free software?” We should instead ask, “why don't more people pay a small fee to get the best of both worlds?”