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Free and Open Source Software, and Review
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FlatPress - lightweight blogging engine
FlatPress is a lightweight blogging engine that stores posts, comments and configuration data in ordinary files rather than a database. Written in PHP, it offers straightforward installation and backup while providing the core facilities needed to run a personal or small-scale blog.
The software supports Smarty-powered themes, plugins, widgets, static pages, categories, comments with spam protection, and RSS and Atom feeds. Its administration interface and extensive language support make it accessible to a broad range of users.
This is free and open source software.
Piccolo - Python object-relational mapper
Piccolo is a Python object-relational mapper (ORM) and query builder designed around clean, expressive syntax. It supports both synchronous and asynchronous database access, allowing developers to use it with traditional applications or asyncio-based web services.
Piccolo can be used as a full ORM or as a standalone query builder. PostgreSQL is its primary database, with additional support for CockroachDB and SQLite. It includes migration tools, a command-line interface, an interactive playground, authentication components and a modular application system similar to Django apps.
This is free and open source software.
Typecho - PHP-powered blogging platform
Typecho is a PHP-powered blogging platform for publishing and managing online content.
It offers Markdown editing, custom pages and fields, together with support for themes and plugins. The software can use MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite for data storage.
This is free and open source software.
workerd - JavaScript and WebAssembly server runtime
workerd is designed for server deployments and uses capability-based bindings to connect services and external resources. It supports compatibility dates, allowing applications to retain the API behaviour associated with an earlier Cloudflare Workers release.
This is free and open source software.
CORE - network emulation platform
The software provides a graphical interface for drawing network topologies using lightweight virtual nodes. Python modules and a gRPC API are available for scripting, automation and integration with other tools. Emulated networks can also be connected to physical networks and external systems.
CORE is useful for network research, protocol development, education, cybersecurity exercises and testing complex network configurations.
This is free and open source software.
microfeed - lightweight content management system
The software uses Cloudflare Pages to host and execute the application, R2 for media storage, D1 for metadata and Zero Trust to secure access to the administration dashboard. It can be used for blogs, podcasts, video channels, image galleries, personal websites, curated news feeds, changelogs and headless CMS deployments.
This is free and open source software.
SQLModel - Python object-relational mapping library
SQLModel is a Python object-relational mapping library designed to simplify interaction with SQL databases. It combines SQLAlchemy’s database capabilities with Pydantic’s data validation and type system.
The library lets developers define database tables and data models using standard Python type annotations. A single model can serve as a SQLAlchemy table model and a Pydantic data model, reducing duplication and making SQLModel particularly well suited to FastAPI applications.
This is free and open source software.
MinisCloud OS Review - customised Linux NAS operating system
MinisCloud OS is a customised Linux NAS operating system developed for Minisforum. It is reportedly based on the Siyouyun OS framework. It’s a headless appliance OS rather than a normal Debian desktop installation. Minisforum supplies it with storage management, ZFS snapshots and compression, SMB sharing, Docker applications, user management and media features.
The OS is supplied with the Minisforum N5 Air, N5 Pro and M5 Max NAS systems. This article takes you through some of the functionality of the operating system. I’m evaluating the OS on the N5 Pro, a high-specification NAS. I’ll be publishing a separate article reviewing the N5 Pro.
MinisCloud OS comes pre-installed on a dedicated 128GB AirDisk PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive. This keeps the operating system separate from the main storage drives. The SSD occupies one of the N5 Pro’s three M.2 storage slots.
HugeSCM - cloud-native version control system
HugeSCM is a cloud-native version control system designed for extremely large repositories. It is particularly suited to AI model development, game production, dataset management and monorepos containing large binary files.
The system separates frequently accessed metadata from file content, storing metadata in a distributed database and large blobs in object storage. Its Zeta client maintains a shallow local copy and retrieves data on demand, avoiding the storage and transfer overhead associated with cloning an entire Git repository.
This is free and open source software.
Chyrp Lite - lightweight, self-hosted blogging platform
Chyrp Lite is a lightweight, self-hosted blogging platform designed to be easy to install, maintain and customise. It can power a traditional blog, a tumbleblog or a broader publishing website with integrated blogging features.
The software uses Feathers to support different content types, including text, photos, quotations, links, video, audio and file uploads. Pages provide standalone content outside the main blog stream, while themes and extensions let administrators adapt the appearance and functionality of a site. Chyrp Lite also includes a responsive administration console and accessibility-focused HTML markup.
This is free and open source software.