Next to keeping ChimanaTech's modest project pipeline going, I have been taking the time to explore how to run a small company that does not depend on hyperscalers, subscription fees that balloon without us realizing it, or service agreements that change after you have signed them. Truth be told, this was also an attempt to rebel against the enshittification of software and online services that we have all experienced to some extent in recent years. I wanted my day-to-day life behind the computer to be fun and rewarding again.

My goal was to have independent and owned software and hardware infrastructure as much as reasonably possible. Whether something was paid or free was secondary. I wanted my data and my clients' data, to the maximum extent possible, encrypted and stored on European servers and/or local storage.I also wanted the company to have full control over how it uses and pays for software.

After about a year of tinkering, breaking things and putting them back together, this is where I ended up:

• The monthly subscription bill is about €6. That pays for a VPS. That's it.

The cost doesn't increase every time I add a user or install another piece of software. It only increases when the VPS needs more RAM, processing power or bandwidth. The costs therefore don't scale linearly in the way subscription software does.

• CAPEX has been about €5,000. That includes perpetual CAD licenses, a new Linux-compatible laptop, a cheap used mini-PC as a server and a cheap backup laptop. Obviously, CAPEX today would be higher given the rather strange swings we are seeing in computer hardware prices.

• I probably spend about an hour a day learning, tinkering, breaking things and fixing them again. If you were invoicing those hours to someone, that's easily €15,000 to €30,000 a year depending on how you value the time. Or it costs absolutely nothing if you consider it a hobby and a learning experience.

• I have spent around €300 in donations to open source projects.

For a small company where cashflow is the lifeblood, spending this "unpaid" time in exchange for significant recurring cost savings is an interesting proposition, as long as you have the time to spare. And I have learned an enormous amount in the process, which is perhaps the most valuable part of the whole exercise.

The basic architecture

1. Company laptops run all the software needed for the business: office software, email, calendars and tasks, online document collaboration, encrypted cloud backup, a Dropbox/SharePoint equivalent, CAD software, document control, communications, time tracking and project management. The laptops can also run basic AI models locally for things like writing and content creation.

2. Company phones are degoogled. No iPhones.

3. Then there is a small server in the office. It runs calendar and todo synchronization across employees, invoicing, document control and scanned-document processing, as well as local file backups. The important part is that this server never faces the internet.

4. Remote access happens through a private VPN using Tailscale. If the server doesn't need to be reachable from the internet, there is no particularly good reason to put it there.

5. Then there is the VPS. Think of the VPS as a rented server in Berlin sitting between the internet and the office. Internet-facing applications live there, while the office server stays safely behind the firewall. It's essentially my little demilitarized zone for online work. Having a VPS or hosting your own services is fundamentally different from paying per user for a SaaS product. Add another employee and there is no automatic increase in the software bill.

My picks

Disclaimer: the world of open-source, privacy-focused and self-hosted software is vast. I would need a good part of a decade to test everything. So, these aren't necessarily "the best" products in every category. In many cases they are simply the first or second thing I tried that worked well enough, after which I stopped looking.

Laptops: Framework

Framework isn't European, I know. But, the machines are completely repairable and upgradable. You are essentially given a piece of hardware without anything installed and can decide what you want to do with it. It's much closer to buying computer parts than buying an appliance.

Linux support is excellent, which matters if the goal is to stay away from Windows.

Runner-up: TUXEDO Computers, made in Germany. I don't own one, but they tend to be recommended.

Server: Lenovo ThinkCentre Mini

A five to ten-year-old Lenovo ThinkCentre Mini in good condition with 6 to 12 GB of RAM can be found for roughly €80 to €150 and will run a surprising amount of software. The tiny size makes them particularly practical. Mine sits there quietly doing server things and doesn't take up much more space than a paperback book.

Runner-up: any decent mini-PC will do. I particularly like Minisforum machines.

VPS: Hostinger

I picked Hostinger because I was already using them for Chimana.Tech

Their interfaces make it relatively easy for someone without years of Linux administration experience to jump in. In less than an hour I had a remote server running and full of cool stuff.

Operating system: Fedora KDE

I don't particularly care which Linux distribution I use, as long as it runs the KDE software suite. The KDE software library is endless, free and in my experience, well-suited for independent workers and small companies. The KDE non-profit has been receiving financial support from the German government and donators to make their software more enterprise-ready.

The operating system on top of KDE in my Framework is Fedora. It is fast and improves quickly over time. It is also officially supported by Framework.

Runner-ups: Kubuntu and TUXEDO OS, which comes with TUXEDO computers.

Mail, calendar and todos: KDE Kontact

KDE's Kontact suite is a pain in the ass to set up. Once it works, however, it is probably the closest thing you can get to Microsoft Outlook in its best days. I like it even better sometimes.

Calendar synchronization is handled by a small application called Radicale, installed on the server.

On degoogled Android phones, an app called DAVx5 bridges Radicale with whichever Android calendar application you prefer.

The result is basically the same experience as having a cloud calendar solution from Google or Microsoft, except nobody gets to serve you advertisements about dog food because you made a vet appointment.

The same setup also allows users to create todo lists and share them with other users.

Office suite: LibreOffice + CryptPad

LibreOffice takes some getting used to after decades of Microsoft Office, but once you learn its quirks, it offers a workflow and capabilities that I really enjoy.

The main limitation is that LibreOffice is fundamentally a local office suite. It isn't designed around the Google Docs/Office 365 model of having several people simultaneously edit the same document online.

When that is necessary, CryptPad is fantastic.

CryptPad is a French project that essentially tries to be a privacy-first Google Docs. It does this surprisingly well. The server cannot simply read your documents, documents can be destroyed after use, and there is a free tier.

I love it.

CAD: BricsCAD

BricsCAD is a close competitor to AutoCAD. Its product range is smaller, but it is more than capable for an advanced AutoCAD 2D/3D user. It has mechanical and BIM toolsets, too.

The big difference for me is the licensing model. For less than the yearly cost of an AutoCAD subscription, you can buy a perpetual license.

It is also Linux-compatible and my team and I had no real problems moving from AutoCAD to BricsCAD.

Honorable mention: FreeCAD. FreeCAD is a monster to use and I find it extremely unintuitive. But, it has one absolutely fantastic feature: you can build models using macros.

You can describe to an LLM such as ChatGPT or Claude what you want to model, or give it a screenshot of something you want to reproduce, and it can generate a text file that you run in FreeCAD to build the model automatically. For basic 3D shapes, rough concepts and avoiding half an hour of searching for a suitable 3D model to insert into a drawing, this is incredibly useful. FreeCAD is a tool you keep in the box and is only pulled out when needed.

Encrypted cloud backup: Filen.io

Filen is affordable, fast and works more or less the way I always thought OneDrive should have worked. It is based in Germany and is end-to-end encrypted. Perfect for safe storing of sensitive information.

Plus, if you remove it, it doesn't mysteriously reinstall itself in the next update.

I bought a lifetime subscription, so there is no monthly bill.

On-premises synchronization: Syncthing

Syncthing keeps an up-to-date copy of files between my laptop and the server. I configure it as a one-way system. Whatever reaches the server stays on the server. Each user has their own folder on the server, synchronized from their laptop. This gives me a local copy of everything without having to manually copy files around or trust a cloud synchronization service with the entire company's filesystem.

File sharing with clients: Seafile

Seafile is installed on the VPS and works much like Dropbox, with the difference that the files are stored on infrastructure I control. I deliberately install it on the VPS rather than the office server. Clients will be uploading files to it over the internet, so keeping that activity away from the office server reduces the amount of infrastructure directly exposed to the internet.

Document control: Paperless-ngx

Paperless-ngx is one of those projects that makes you wonder why you were paying for something else for so long. I always thought it was neat how my accountant and I could use paid software to store, classify and retrieve invoices and other documents over the web.

Now I have essentially the same capability in my office, for free.

It also receives documents scanned directly from a phone, automatically processes them and makes the resulting archive searchable.

Web conferencing: MiroTalk

MiroTalk runs on the VPS because, again, people are going to be connecting to it from the internet.

Goodbye Teams and Zoom.

Hello, meet.chimana.tech.

Time tracking and project management: KTimeTracker + Plan

KTimeTracker is a KDE application that comes with the desktop environment.

It works perfectly well as a standalone offline time tracker, but it gets much more interesting when combined with KDE's project management application, Plan.

You can create an entire project in Plan with tasks, manpower, dependencies, budgets and timelines, then export the task list to KTimeTracker.

Tracked time can then be fed back into Plan, allowing you to identify resource bottlenecks and potential deadline conflicts. A control freak's dream, a middle manager's Swiss Army knife and an employee's nightmare.

Plan is a local-only application, so within the organization, whoever is handling project management, is handling this tool. If you need project management software with multi-users over the cloud, then OpenProject, hosted inside the VPS, works well and is free up to 20 users.

Invoicing: not there yet

I haven't fully solved this one. Invoice Ninja seems to be the way to go, but I'm not particularly motivated to spend days setting up an invoicing system when I'm currently sending about two invoices a month. I'll come back to it when I'm sending ten invoices a week.

Remote networking: Tailscale

Tailscale creates a VPN-protected network between all the devices in the company, including the server. It allows devices to communicate securely over the internet as if they were part of the same private network, without exposing the office server directly to the internet.

The free plan is enough for a very small office. If you are allergic to subscriptions, Headscale and WireGuard are alternatives.

Things I tried but haven't fully integrated

• Element/Matrix provides decentralized chat, file sharing and calls for teams. Think Discord, Teams or Slack, but built around a decentralized and privacy-focused architecture.

• Signal. Let's get out of WhatsApp already.

• Ollama lets you run LLMs locally and completely offline. Here you are mostly limited by your hardware. A good local model on a laptop is perfectly usable for writing and basic assistance, but don't expect your laptop to replace a datacenter.

The slightly hypocritical disclaimer

ChatGPT has been instrumental in setting all of this up. Its knowledge of networking, modern software stacks and Linux has saved me countless hours of forum searches and fighting with configuration files.

This is worth mentioning because, while Linux and self-hosted servers are more accessible than they have ever been, they are still too much for the average person who just wants to point and click. You still need to understand what you are doing, you still need to verify what the machine is telling you and you can certainly break things. But, the pace of learning and progress is 10 times faster now.

The philosophical closing

First, right to repair matters. In the end, a computer is a piece of physical property. If I buy it, I should be able to open it, replace a battery, change a disk, add memory, replace a screen and keep it running for as long as the hardware remains useful. If a manufacturer decides that a perfectly functional piece of hardware is "obsolete" because it wants to sell me a new one, I should at least have the option of keeping it running myself.

Second, data sovereignty is becoming increasingly important. Not every company needs their own server room, but companies should know where their data is, who can access it, under which jurisdiction it sits and what happens if the provider disappears. There is a difference between "my data is stored in the cloud" and "my data is stored on a server in Frankfurt, encrypted, and I control the keys". Common sense dictates we should know what we are buying. Remember: "the cloud" is just some stranger's computer.

Third, consumer protection is something we need to fight for. There is something strange about buying a product where the seller can unilaterally change the conditions under which you are allowed to use it. Imagine buying a washing machine and receiving an email three years later saying that the manufacturer has changed its terms and you are now only allowed to wash 100 loads a year unless you subscribe to the premium washing plan. We would consider that ridiculous, yet we have somehow accepted versions of exactly this with software.

Within our capacity to act as consumers, perpetual licenses, local copies, open formats and the ability to export your data offer protection.

Fourth, privacy is not about having something to hide. I don't care if Google knows that I searched for a particular type of fish tank. I care that an enormous amount of information about my behaviour can be collected, combined, analysed and used without me having any meaningful understanding of what is happening. We have given control of the information about our lives in exchange for convenience.

The same principle applies to a company. My clients give ChimanaTech information because they need us to do a job. That doesn't mean every piece of that information needs to pass through five unrelated technology companies before it reaches my laptop. If I can reasonably avoid that, why wouldn't I?

The practical closing

• Install the basics and then leave it alone.

Linux opens itself to tinkering and customization like no other desktop operating system. You can change almost anything. You can replace almost anything. You can spend an entire afternoon making something work slightly differently from the way it worked before. Don't.

• Boring is good.

One of the interesting things about using Linux as a desktop operating system is that you eventually understand why Linux is everywhere except on user-facing consumer devices: It is extremely good at being boring.

Linux runs servers, routers, industrial equipment, scientific instruments, embedded systems, spacecraft and an absurd number of other things because nobody particularly cares what the operating system looks like. Make your company laptop the same way.

• Separate the playground from the workplace.

This week, I decided to prank my wife by making the home printer turn on from my laptop while I was at the airport. After a fun phone call with her, I realized I changed some firewall settings I shouldn't have aaaaaand now I have no connection to my server until I come back. My wife would have laughed even harder at my panic face staring at the the boarding was announced.

If you like computers, you will want to tinker. That's fine. Do it on a separate machine away from work.

• As the founder, carry the burden.

If you decide that your company is going to run on Linux, self-hosted software, VPNs, local servers and a collection of open-source projects, that's your decision. The employees aren't responsible for the rush of neo-nostalgic nerdiness.

Set everything up, configure the accounts, make the backups work, install the software, document the basic procedures and make sure that when someone opens their laptop, they can just get on with their job.

• Learn enough to understand what you are doing.

You don't need to become a Linux sysadmin, but you should understand the basics. What a firewall does. What a VPN actually does. Where your files are stored. What is exposed to the internet. How authentication works. What gets backed up. What happens when a disk dies.

Go have fun, and If you need some guidance, feel free to drop me a line.

ChimanaTech

Chimana Management BV

Hemelrijk 2A

5281PS

Boxtel

The Netherlands

carlos@chimana.tech

+31 612 769 754

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