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Review: Smaller, community-oriented, open source solutions
Quoting: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. —
It took our conversation in an interesting turn because they weren't just intrigued by there being alternatives to their big-name technology services, but also by the fact that someone would be familiar with alternatives, that someone would just know there were alternatives. The fact someone had gone looking for alternatives, unprompted, surprised them.
This seems to me to be an effect of how our on-line experience has been shifting over the years. When the World Wide Web was relatively young, it was mostly full of separate, small platforms. When I was introduced to the Web in the 90s it was a mostly-unregulated landscape of small services, each competing with each other or catering to small communities. There were dozens of e-mail providers, there were hundreds of forums, each geared to a different interest, there was no central social media platform and no consensus on which of the dozens of search engines should be used. It was scattered and messy and open. If a person didn't like what one search engine, chat room server, or message board was doing they simply packed up and moved to another.
Over the past two decades the web has gradually coalesced into a smaller number of larger platforms. Most of the search engines were overshadowed by Google, most e-mail usage narrowed into two or three services, Reddit replaced a lot of the news discussion boards, and the rich array of message boards and chat rooms were mostly replaced (for most people) by a few social media companies. Along with this consolidation, and its associated convenience, came central control. Most news, conversations, and information flow through a handful of companies these days and, when those companies adopt certain rules or restrictions, most of the Internet feels the effects.
This move to centralized services has been going on long enough (over 20 years) that I think many people have either forgotten what the federated Internet of the 90s was like, or have been born into a world where they never had a chance to experience it. To them, the current world of Facebook, Google, and Reddit are just examples of how the Internet is and, as far as they know, always was. They are like elves growing up in the shadow of the Third Age, unable to recall the light of the Two Trees.
While small, community-focused, and open source solutions are eclipsed by their commercial rivals, they do still exist. There are alternatives available, both for people who wish to be users of someone else's service and for those who wish to self-host solutions. This week I would like to turn a spotlight onto some options for people who are tired of global, one-size-fits-all solutions and would like to try something smaller, user-focused, and community-oriented.
Below is a table with a list of common service types, examples of commonly known proprietary services in those categories, and then alternatives. I've striven to provide both community-oriented options that are hosted by other people (often small companies or non-profits) and also list self-hosting solutions.