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samtuke

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Love the concept, but if the core developers don't rely on direct relationships with non-government customers, then I assume this software is unlikely to meet my needs as a startup founder (or the need of most other readers here on HN).

Governments make perverse customers with needs and incentives that don't align with other regular users and customers, in my experience. So the lack of a paid hosted version of Docs is concerning to me in terms of their priorities, quality, and the future product focus of this otherwise promising (and much needed) app.

Tldr: being customer-focused and having a product led organizational culture is unlikely if you're building for government.

Can somebody explain core use-cases? Postgres UIs of various flavours are already pretty numerous. Is this for developers? BI people? Is it intended to run on existing production databases or only new small databases used exclusively by Mathesar itself?

No answers like "you can use it for anything" or "it's up to you" or "just like Airtable" please.

I'm interested in real world, specific use cases, so readers can position this app and figure out if it has any value for them.

We've been using Zulip at our startup for 2.5 years now and still generally love it.

We self host and haven't had any issues with that (pretty much zero maintenance so far). The Android app is awesome.

Searching messages sucks, and I don't know if Slack bots and apps are compatible.

Pretty much everything else is great, and we greatly prefer it to Slack and Mattermost (both of which we used before for years).

Unfortunately 50% of the world's mailboxes are hosted by 2 companies. That means the open internet is far as email goes is already dead in practical terms for most people. When they block another host that host no longer has email network access.

Yes running your own mail is still hard, and our approach is to manage and automate existing MTAs via an Open Source app: Lightmeter.io. Maddy looks great, and necessary. For people wanting to stick with Postfix, Lightmeter is worth a look. FYI we recently did the YC S21 interview but flunked the last hurdle this time around.

Good catch. To quote them: "the court rejected the argument that the lack of direct profit from releasing software under the GNU General Public License rendered the original Coolmail name unenforceable as a trademark, holding that distributing software for end-users over the Internet satisfies the “use in commerce” requirement."

Having recently been involved with a 90k VAT settlement with the German tax authorities due to contradictory interpretations of EU VAT obligations within the Union, I'm wondering what your expectations of operating like a "one big country" are.

Another personal example: how VAT is treated on EU grants is different in every nation, despite EC directives supposedly mandating consistency.

Oh and legal signatures are also different across the 27 states - eg Poland does not accept them in any form, but organisations representing the EC often require them.

EU Harmonisation for my startup feels mythical. Wish it weren't so.

I need self hosted analytics and product intelligence, and am interested in the "new wave" of self hosted apps in this category. But there are already enough Open Source options, and its important enough to my firm, that we'd probably only use an OS option now.

For the userTrack pricing plan, consider an Open Core strategy, or unlocking larger volume capacity for a fee, like Countly do (even self hosted, you can only store a fixed limit of events under their licenses)?

Disclaimer: in general I'm against artificial limitations on Open Source apps, but given the existing business situation of userTrack, these feel like the most viable options.

Great article. No mention there, or in these comments, about using split boards vertically- I adopted this two years ago and won't go back. It's trivial to strap a split board to a box of approximately shoulder width. The result suits me best - forearms and hands stay vertical in the handshake position. I don't understand why more people don't try it.

I work laying down at least one day per week. Its particularly good for sessions of long project work. Only a yoga mat, regular small couch cushions, and a small adjustable side table are required for my setup (to suspend my laptop from). Personally I use a wacom tablet and split, vertically arranged keyboard (koolertron), but I dont think those are really necessary. Touch typing is a must however, as you cant see the keys. Each half of the keyboard rests on my upper thigh, with one end on the floor, so my arms are in a very natural position resting by my sides. This setup alleviates all my back pain/tension, and is also easier on the tendons in my wrists and elbows. Working this way extends my maximum working days per week by at least one.

LibreOffice 7.1 6 years ago

This is a big advantage of LibreOffice / Collabora Online: the engine driving desktop and online is the same, so any missing functional is purely down to UX.

The disadvantage is that the hundreds of LibreOffice desktop features are already too numerous for the full desktop UI, and have no place in a browser.

Non-representative counter example: we produce only Open Source products, and I review the public code contributions of all technical staff during pre-interview assessment. If you're hiring Open Source developers then past Open Source contributions to other projects are useful and important.

Their commitment to Open Source has been questioned, given the small OS community size and apparent lack of transparency around releases and development. I haven't verified these criticisms myself however.