OFFLine-FIRst SOftware CHallenge, or OFFLFIRSOCH.

gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/~solderpunk/phlog/announcing-offlfirsoch-2024.txt

Solderpunk has created new challenge! OFFLFIRSOCH! 

What a name! :D

I find it quite exciting as I love my offline first
(and text first) workflow. I don't have a programing project
yet for offline first, but I'm cooking something, hopefully 
by the end of the month! 

I would like to start the month with my offline workflow. 
I like working offline for the simplicity of it, this calm technology
but it also opens the door to work form anywhere. 

Email

Most email client work well offline, but I use mutt with offlineimap
and msmtp so that I can fetch my email and then reply and once connected
to the internet sync online. I use k9 on Android

Gopher

For writing :
I simply have a local directory with my whole gopher and use 
unison to syncn to sdf. scp or rsync would probably work really
easily. 

For reading: 
I use offpunk to read and sync what I read. It pulls the content
from all the gopher holes I read and therefore make it simple
to be offline first. 

Music

I buy my music, on bandcamp and bleep.com so I can play it anytime
and anywhere. DRM free, with multiple format to choose from. With
everyone else in the world streaming all the time, I find the practice
of using a offline music collection quite refreshing and calming. 

OpenBSD

I am experimenting with OpenBSD lately. I have this laptop running
on it, then on SDF I can loggin into my shell that live in OpenBSD
and my main project Lucid.Observer also run on OpenBSD. I find
OpenBSD to be well suited for offline-first workflow as it seems to
have all it 'needs' within the first installation. It feels more
complete then let say ArchLinux which is my daily driver for work, 
which really needs an online connection as the system is 
really really minimal to start with. As soon as I need a new tool
on Archlinux I have to update the whole system first, which require
a steady and fast interenet connection. 

Other tools which helps with offline first: 

Syncthing, unison, rsync

Although these are online / connected tools, they help me 
connect online, sync and then be done with what I needed. 
Minimizing my needed time online. 

Local network

Offline is one thing, being dis-connected from the internet, but 
that doesn't mean that I cannot run a local network for media playing,
file sharing etc. By centralizing the heavy lifting of media file, 
each 'client' in my home can have access to that centralized data
without having to host it all on each machine. 

NO WIFI

I turn off the wifi in my home all the time. I turn it on
only when we need it. I have network cable installed on 
every floor in my house. This remove the ease of simply connecting
to the internet. I need to physically connect my computer 
to have access to the network. This barrier helps me stay
offline and more productive. 

Boring phone

My phone screen is in black and white. The UI is text based, 
I don't have any games on there. I have a phone, text, 
email, camera, gopher, a terminal, I hide my media player, 
and a web browser. No games, no socials, I never use all
my data! 

No socials

I am not on social network, which remove a lot of the
pull of being online. The most exciting event that 
happens is a new post on gopher, or a new entry in the
sdf buleting board! I keep my online social life to
anonradio broadcast and chat room as well as this gopher
and email. Which is already plenty! 

Anway, these are just some exmaple of my workflow to stay
offline most of the time. This morning I've written a few
gopher entries as well as digital garden post all while being
offline. This keeps me from refreshing my email to checking
on new things that might have happened. 

Solderpunk gopher : 
gopher://circumlunar.space/1/~solderpunk/phlog