App update: 8 New open source self-hostable apps
By Jade Wang - 22 Jan 2016
Have an Oasis account already? If not, you can sign up for one right now and start using it to install any of the 48 apps in the Sandstorm App Market. (You can also use your own Linux box, of course.)
App authors in the Sandstorm community have been exceptionally productive lately, packaging their favorite apps and writing original apps as well. I wanted to share some of my recent favorites with you. Here are some brand new apps you should install on your Sandstorm server today:
Davros (file-sync)
Davros is an open source alternative to Dropbox that works with the ownCloud client installed on your local machine. It’s an original app by Michael Nutt (one of the founders of Movable Ink) who also hosts the Sandstorm NY meetup. He also wrote Hummingbird (see below).
SandForms (forms)
SandForms is a slick open source forms app (alternative to Google Forms), by a team at ThoughtWorks, led by Jack Singleton, who is also author of Hacker Slides.
Rocket.Chat (Slack alternative)
Rocket.Chat is a full-featured open source Slack alternative that has taken the world by storm (by Gabriel Engel and the Rocket.Chat team).
Hummingbird (real-time web tracker)
Hummingbird gives you real-time web statistics on your website, much like the real-time feature in Google Analytics. It’s also by Michael Nutt (author of Davros).
Gogs (git server & interface)
Gogs is an advanced yet lightweight git server that also ships with an issue tracker. It was packaged by Cem Kocagil, who also packaged a bunch of apps I’ll talk about below. (Gog upstream authors: Gogs team)
Dillinger (markdown editor)
Dillinger is a markdown editor with side-by-side panels, much like desktop markdown editor LightPaper, where the left side is for editing, and the right side is for previews. It was also packaged by Cem Kocagil. (Upstream author: Joe McCann).
NodeBB (bulletin board)
NodeBB is a real-time forum app, featuring a modern user interface, tags, voting, and real-time chat. Like Gogs and Dillinger, it was also packaged by Cem Kocagil. (Upstream author: NodeBB, Inc.)
DokuWiki (wiki)
DokuWiki is a simple yet versatile classic-style wiki. It was packaged by Nolan Darilek, who also packaged lightweight accounting app HLedger Web. (Upstream author: DokuWiki Team)
And more…
I also wanted to share with you an article I wrote for OpenSource.com, highlighting the open source apps on Sandstorm that replace Google Drive.
Check out these apps and more in the Sandstorm App Market. Or write your own round-up blog post of your own favorite apps and drop a line to [email protected] to let me know.
Spread the love
Did you know that you can get bonus storage on Oasis through the referral program?
Unlock up to 30GB if you’re a paid user, or up to 2GB bonus storage (+ unlimited grains) for free tier users. (Technically, all plans are free right now while we’re in beta, so catch that while you can.) That bonus storage will come in handy when you switch over to Davros like me.
How Sandstorm Works: Containerize Data, not Services
By Kenton Varda - 20 Jan 2016
Last week we announced the launch of our new web site. Everything has changed!
Today, I want to call your attention to one page that I’m particularly excited to have written: The “How it works” page. Sandstorm is radically different from all other web infrastructure you might be familiar with, in that we containerize not just “microservices” but individual documents. As it turns out, this has all kinds of huge advantages, especially in terms of security but also in the ability to compose apps into larger workflows. Read all about it here:
The new Sandstorm.io website
By Asheesh Laroia - 11 Jan 2016
If you take a look at https://sandstorm.io/, you’ll see our new website, created by Néna Nguyen with assistance from Kenton Varda. They took feedback from many users and the core dev team over the course of building it, and we’re all going to keep adjusting it over time. If you have feedback, please share it with the community in the sandstorm mailing list.
I wanted to highlight a few important things the new website does better when compared to the old website, available at the Internet Archive.
-
Responsive design. If you view the new website on a phone, you’ll get something reasonable. This wasn’t true a year ago, and it required some thinking. If you’re new to responsive web design, start by reading Ethan Marcotte’s article at A List Apart.
-
Flexbox. We use the new
display: flex;layout mode so that we can express columns very naturally in CSS. So far we’re very happy with it. You can read up about it at MDN or by playing Flexbox Froggy, an interactive learning game. You can also read our CSS on the GitHub repository for the website to find out how we use it. -
SCSS/SASS. We now use a CSS extension language called SCSS. This lets us use features like variables and nesting. You can see how we use it in the sandstorm-website GitHub repository.
-
Multiple pages. The older Sandstorm.io website had just one page: index.html. The new site goes into more depth about how Sandstorm works, how to get involved in the community. how businesses can make the best use of Sandstorm, and more. It was time to have more than one page. A side note: if you hear us talking about how the “front page redesign” is finally done, this is because we’re used to the entire website being one page.
-
A button to sign in to Oasis, our hosting service. Sandstorm is open source software that anyone can install; since not everyone wants to install it, oasis.sandstorm.io is our hosting service where you can run Sandstorm apps without your own server. The new “sign-in” link above the fold makes it easy to log into our Oasis hosting service.
-
One repository for the blog and the website. Until now, we maintained the Sandstorm blog separately, with its own templates and no version control. Kenton built the Hacker CMS app for this purpose. Now that the main website uses Jekyll, we’ve integrated our old blog posts into the main sandstorm-website git repository.
-
A simpler top banner. In the previous website, the banner at the top of the site would allow you to subscribe to our Facebook page, or try a demo, or download Sandstorm, or sign up now for the Oasis hosting service. We’ve limited the number of options to help people learn more faster.
Those are the most essential changes. You’ll find a lot of subtle changes as you click around the new site and compare it to the old one! If you have comments, consider filing a bug or emailing the list. Kudos to Néna Nguyen and Kenton Varda for getting these changes ready in record time.
Upcoming Sandstorm meetups in SF, NY, Boston, Berlin, Zurich
By Jade Wang - 11 Jan 2016
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, since May 2015, we’ve been organizing monthly Sandstorm meetups for community members can share their apps, works in progress, and learn from each other. Recently, Sandstorm community members have stepped up to organize local Sandstorm meetups in New York, Boston, Berlin, and Switzerland as well. Scroll to the bottom for the list of upcoming events:
To put your city on the map, drop a line to [email protected], and I’ll get you all set up.
Upcoming Sandstorm events worldwide:
- Tue Jan 19, 2016 - Boston, USA - The Future of Sandstorm’s Powerbox UI (feat. Sandstorm core dev Drew Fisher)
- Wed Jan 20, 2016 - New York, USA - January Sandstorm NYC Meetup (feat. Sandstorm core dev Asheesh Laroia)
- Wed Jan 27, 2016 - San Francisco, USA - January Meetup with Lightning Talks
- Wed Jan 27, 2016 - Berlin, Germany - First Sandstorm group session Berlin (feat. Sandstorm core dev Asheesh Laroia, via Skype)
- Tue Feb 16, 2016 - Zurich, Switzerland - First Sandstorm Swiss Project Night
Sharing is referring - up to 30 GB bonus storage
By Asheesh Laroia - 18 Dec 2015
The easiest way to enjoy Sandstorm is on our managed hosting. Now, when you invite your friends to the service, you’ll get up to 30 GB of bonus storage as our way of saying thanks. When you share a grain with a friend, and they make an account and start sharing, that’s a referral.
How it works
You share a grain with a friend (who isn’t already an Oasis user).
Friend signs in.
Friend shares a grain with any person (including you), who successfully opens the grain.
Keeping track of your bonus
To see how you’re progressing, check out the referral program page in the top-right drop-down menu.
Or you can visit the referrals program page directly. Honestly, you should do that right now just to see Néna Nguyễn’s design work.
Paid subscribers can get up to 30 GB of free storage, in addition to the storage from their account level, 2 GB per person they refer. Free account holders can unlock unlimited grains and 50 MB of free storage per person they refer, up to 2 GB total. If you need even more space, you can always upgrade your account.
Common question: I received referral bonus storage for someone I don’t know. How does that happen?
Anyone who signs up for an Oasis account after opening up a grain that you shared counts as your referral. If you tweeted a link or shared a document on a mailing list (e.g., puzzle hunt team, collaborators at work, study group), anyone who found Oasis through you and signs up for an account counts as your referral.
Get started
That’s it! To get started, open any grain and click Share Access in the top bar.