An important area where free software apps currently lags behind their proprietary counterparts is sync and collaboration features. Whether it’s file sync, collaborative document editing, or system integrations like clipboard sync, we usually don’t have the kind of seamless cross-device sync that e.g. users of Apple platforms enjoy.
One reason for this is that with the server-based sync architectures that have been popular for the past decades, the cost of a sync system scales up with the number of users. This makes it unsustainable for free-of-charge indie apps and desktop environments to implement. In recent years, advances in areas like CRDTs and peer-to-peer networking have made this more feasible though: Building on these, Local-First software is a new approach to sync and collaboration, which treats network as fully optional, but allows syncing when it is available.
As Modal Collective, we’ve spent the past few years working towards making this a reality in GNOME apps using the p2panda framework for Local-First sync. In this talk, we’ll discuss our progress, next steps, and how you can get involved!
