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I'm Abhas, a hacker, entrepreneur and free software activist. I lead DeepRoot GNU/Linux, a Free Software Business and Mostly Harmless, a one-person hardware development and consulting company.
On this blog, I intend to write about a variety of subjects - most of them connected to the technology, business and community of free software.
My perspectives mature over time. Sometimes, I can no longer relate to the manner or content of what I might have written earlier. In those situations, I would want to write again than go back and change what I might have written earlier.
Over the past few months, my urgency to write has outstripped my ability to write and hence, my backlog has been growing to an alarming size. Hopefully, I will be able to do justice to what I need to say.
At DeepRoot Linux, we enable organisations of all sizes to use Free Software for their infrastructure deployments. We provide software, services and support so that they can use GNU/Linux and Free Software effectively. Over the past 18 years, we have worked with more than 500 organisations to help them in their endeavour to adopt and run Free Software. We build mail servers and mail server clusters, private clouds, containerisation and automation solutions, computer labs and so much more. We provide support for a variety of free software tools that user's might want to use and help them implement, scale and secure them.
Mostly Harmless is a one-person company I started about two years back to experiment with building and selling hardware that could run free software in more areas. My goal was also to find new ways of building products that could respect the user's freedom and privacy. There are many problems that are often thought to be somebody else's and I decided that I would try to solve as many of them as I could.
This blog used to be hosted on another domain (solitude.io) for almost 20 months
before I decided it was time for a change. The thought process with
which I chose the domain and structured the content didn't seem relevant
anymore.
Not that I have outgrown my need for solitude or don't care about authenticity anymore... its quite the contrary. In a way, its still a zero-sum game that I want to play for no reason other than the fact that its worth playing and it is the right thing to do.
The preferred way to contact me is via email: abhas@deeproot.in
Here is a "professional bio" written in the third person:
Abhas is the founder of DeepRoot Linux, an eighteen-year-old Free Software Business that provides support, services and solutions for Free Software deployments. DeepRoot Linux builds mail servers and clusters, provides hosting & support for a variety of Free Software tools and helps organisations of all sizes choose self-hosting for their infrastructure in general. They have helped more than 500 organisations build their infrastructure using free software. DeepRoot Linux has special initiatives for educational institutions to help them integrate FOSS into more aspects of their operations.
As the founder of a one-person company called Mostly Harmless, Abhas experiments with and builds Free/Libre Hardware (like hackable mechanical keyboards), self-hosted IoT solutions and strategies for using and distributing software and hardware with freedom.
Abhas is a member of the board of directors of the Free Software Foundation, India and has been a participant in the community in India for many years. He advises colleges, govt / defence organisations and start-ups on using, building and adopting free software as a “way of life”.
He sometimes shares his thoughts at abhas.io.
Here are some of my known biases:
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I only use, recommend and evaluate things that are free software. From my perspective, something is worthwhile, ethical, usable and essential only if its free (as in freedom).
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I value the hacker ethic above everything.
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The only reason I buy proprietary hardware or "smart hardware" is to break it open so that I can try to learn from it
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I live a "self-hosted" life. Almost all my computing resources are self-hosted - unless I can self-host something and it is free software, I don't use it.
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I only talk about something that I follow myself. Conversely, if I say something there are many chances that I would follow it myself. If I don't, then I'd be an imposter and you would be doing a great thing to point that out.
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