# Ergaster

> Ergaster is the personal website of Thibault Martin (Thib), a nonprofit strategist and open source program manager at the Matrix.org Foundation.

Thib writes about open source foundations and strategy, decentralized communications (Matrix), self-hosting and homelab setups, digital wellbeing, and the tools he uses.

## About & CV

- [About Thib](https://ergaster.org/about): Biography, professional philosophy, and recent work history.

## Blog

### Open Source Nonprofits & Community

- [Prosthetics that don't betray](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/02/28-prosthetics-that-dont-betray/): Computers and smartphones are prosthetics: essential organs of modern life. We must produce devices and software that the general public can trust.
- [FOSDEM for Work and for Fun](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/02/06-fosdem-work-fun/): At FOSDEM, nicknames become faces and people are kinder offline. As Europe's largest OSS conference, it's the place to meet friendly and competing projects.
- [Why are open source nonprofits so weird?](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/07/31-open-source-nonprofits-weird/): Open source nonprofits are common in the US. Their legal constraints can sometimes misalign their interests with the projects they were built to serve.
- [Aiming for a Big Bounce in the GNOME Foundation](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/06/07-gnome-foundation-big-bounce/): The GNOME Foundation needs to control its finances, increase executive transparency, and involve the community. This is a proposal to get there.
- [Open-source is a chainsaw](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/03/20-open-source-chainsaw/): Open-source can build great projects or break the teams behind them. What does it bring to the table, how can it backfire, and when should software be open?
- [A CRM for the Matrix Foundation](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/12/30-a-crm-for-matrix-foundation/): The Matrix.org Foundation has chosen a CRM to keep track of members & donors, so it can carry out its democratic activities.
- [The Website Existential Crisis](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/07/13-website-existential-crisis/): Redesigning a website goes beyond CSS: it forces you to define who you are, what you do, and for whom. I applied the lessons learnt to my personal website.
- [GNOME moves away from GIMPnet](https://ergaster.org/posts/2022/10/28-irc-is-dead-long-live-irc/): The GNOME community has become a Matrix-first community and moves away from its historical network GIMPnet.
- [Scaling the Foundation to Contribute to GNOME](https://ergaster.org/posts/2022/05/03-scaling-the-foundation/): The GNOME Foundation supports the contributing community, it's not a software vendor. It needs directors with non-technical skills to succeed.
- [Adopting Matrix at the GNOME Foundation](https://ergaster.org/posts/2022/04/25-adopting-matrix/): The GNOME community is split across instant messaging platforms, but data indicates that migrating to Matrix is the most future-proof move.
- [Funding decentralised/local-first applications for GNOME](https://ergaster.org/posts/2022/04/22-decentralised-local-first-applications/): GNOME is an excellent fit for local-first applications. The Foundation is looking to advertise it and fund work for developers to create cloud-less apps.
- [Problems we faced on GNOME’s Matrix instance](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/06/10-sovereignty-federated-system-gnome/): The GNOME Foundation closes registrations on its Matrix instance to keep sovereignty of its communications while staying in public federation.
- [On the Sustainability of the GNOME Foundation](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/06/06-on-gnome-foundation-sustainability/): The GNOME Foundation is in a difficult financial state. Thib runs for the board of directors to improve the transparency situation.
- [Running for the GNOME Foundation's Board of Directors](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/05/24-running-for-gnome-board-of-directors/): Thib runs for the board of directors of the GNOME Foundation.
- [On the “Libera Chat” Spam](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/05/22-on-the-libera-chat-spam/): Following a spam wave coming from someone abusing IRC, the GNOME Foundation decides to tweak the anti-spam measures on GIMPnet
- [IRC, Matrix, and thanks for all the kicks](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/05/18-irc-matrix-gnome/): Thib advocates for the GNOME community to become a Matrix-first community, after years of community split across various platforms.

### Self-Hosting & Homelab

- [Cloud tech makes sense on-prem too](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/08/20-cloud-tech-on-prem/): Running VMs at home is more complex than bare metal. But opentofu, cloud-init, and Ansible let me spin up and configure local VMs in seconds.
- [Over engineering my homelab so I don't pay cloud providers](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/08/04-overegineering-homelab/): After years on a VPS, I'm moving my self-hosted services home and using the opportunity to migrate to a more flexible and robust setup.
- [Loading credentials from Bitwarden with direnv](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/07/28-direnv-bitwarden-integration/): I need to pass credentials to my homelab tools. direnv and the Bitwarden CLI can be hooked together for a simple, sturdy way to keep them safe.
- [Kubernetes is not just for Black Friday](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/07/09-kubernetes-black-friday/): I self-host for myself. My biggest threats are my own incompetence and hardware failures, mitigated with podman containers and Ansible.
- [Why is my Raspberry Pi 4 too slow as a server?](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/06/24-why-restore-raspi-slow/): I want to move my self-hosted services to a Raspberry Pi. I tested it first by restoring a 2.8GB Kopia snapshot from my S3 bucket in Scaleway.
- [Escaping surveillance capitalism, at scale](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/01/18-escaping-surveillance-capitalism-at-scale/): Self-hosting and paid subscriptions promise an escape from surveillance capitalism. What guarantees do they really offer, and at what cost?
- [Should you check SSH fingerprints?](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/10/18-checking-ssh-fingerprints/): First ssh connection attempts result in a prompt asking you to verify a fingerprint. In a lot of cases, it's okay to skip this verification.
- [My server can burn, my services will run](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/10/05-my-server-can-burn/): I want sturdy, cheap, low-maintenance services with disposable hardware. Ansible lets me treat servers as cattle and achieve a lot at very little cost.
- [I don't want to host services (but I do)](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/08/09-i-dont-want-to-host-services-but-i-do/): I don't want to self-host and think most individuals shouldn't host services for others. Yet I do it anyway, and even teach people how to.
- [Encrypted Backups on a Raspberrypi with a Sleepy Disk](https://ergaster.org/posts/2022/02/14-raspi-encrypted-backup/): I use my Raspberry Pi to perform offsite, encrypted backups of my VPS. The backups themselves are monitored by a third party service.

### Digital Privacy & Security

- [Tracking what works, not people](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/01/24-tracking-what-works/): Lowering the barrier to entry is key to making Matrix mainstream. The Matrix.org website matters, and web analytics are an affordable way to improve it.

### Matrix & Decentralized Communications

- [Owning Your Matrix Account](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/06/22-owning-your-matrix-account/): Homeservers are points of local power in Matrix. An admin can lock you out, so it makes sense to have distinct personal and professional accounts.
- [Matrix for Instant Messaging](https://ergaster.org/posts/2021/06/02-matrix-for-im/): Matrix is an open protocol for decentralised communications, like a supercharged email.

### Tools & Productivity

- [From VS Code to Helix](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/10/29-vscode-to-helix/): I want less Big Tech in my life. After years of dismissing Helix as too fringe and complicated, I've tried (and loved) it.
- [Obsidian for the part-time contractor](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/07/16-obsidian-contractor/): I use Obsidian for meeting minutes. With the dataview plugin, I built dashboards to track in-flight items, follow-ups, and billable time for GNOME.
- [Welcoming feedback, where it belongs](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/03/06-welcoming-feedback/): My website shapes my public image, so I'm careful about what I publish. It's a one-way street on purpose, but that doesn't mean I can't welcome feedback.
- [Writing is hard, so I got help](https://ergaster.org/posts/2024/02/26-writing-is-hard/): As a non-native English speaker, I reviewed DeepL Write, Hemingway, LanguageTool, and Grammarly to find a tool that helps me write better.
- [Syncing Notes with Obsidian](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/08/23-syncing-notes-with-obsidian/): I braindump in bed and flesh out ideas on my computer the next day. That means synchronising Obsidian across my devices.
- [OneNote but Interoperable](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/07/26-onenote-but-interoperable/): When it comes to simple note taking, Obsidian is the simplest, sturdiest, and most polished solution as compared to Nextcloud, Joplin and Logseq.

### Digital Wellbeing

- [Deep Work reconciled me with personal growth books](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/05/07-deep-work-reconciled-personal-growth/): I'm skeptical of personal growth books. Deep Work by Cal Newport proved me wrong: it's insightful, actionable, and worth reading despite my reservations.
- [Social media affect me more than I thought](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/04/15-social-media-affect-me/): I quit social media for a week to improve my focus. The Joy of Missing Out kept me off for 3 weeks. I developed strategies to fix my relationship with it.
- [You can still own music](https://ergaster.org/posts/2025/02/14-you-can-own-music/): I grew up buying and ripping CDs. When streaming took over, I lost that relationship with music. Owning my music again is how I'm fixing it.
- [A book in 15 minutes - Blinkist review](https://ergaster.org/posts/2023/08/01-blinkist-review/): Blinkist summarises popular books in 15–30 minutes. After months of trying, I uninstalled it before my subscription ended. Here's what worked and what didn't.

## Today I Learned (TIL)

Short posts about things Thib discovered or found worth sharing.

- [Yubikeys are convenient for Linux login](https://ergaster.org/til/yubikey-unlock-laptop/): Typing a long password when you need to log in or get sudo privileges is annoying. Yubikeys can make it easier.
- [Minikube mounts volumes as root](https://ergaster.org/til/minikube-volumes-root/): Minikube is awesome to test deployments on a dev machine, but it can backfire in interesting ways.
- [Pagefind does great client-side search](https://ergaster.org/til/pagefind-static-search/): Providing search on a static website seemed impossible, but Pagefind builds a static index and queries it on the client side.
- [Animated AVIFs make lightweight videos](https://ergaster.org/til/animated-avif-lightweight/): Embeding a video in a markdown post is not that easy. AVIF turns videos into lightweight animated images.
- [Kubernetes can give you a shell into a crashing container](https://ergaster.org/til/kubernetes-crash-shell/): I didn't get why my container crashed, but I couldn't check from within. It turns out that Kubernetes has the tools for it.
- [Helix and Typst are a match made in heaven](https://ergaster.org/til/helix-typst-match-in-heaven/): Helix makes extensive use of Language Servers, but tinymist pushes it beyond what I thought was possible.
- [Git can locally ignore files](https://ergaster.org/til/git-local-ignore/): Everybody knows about .gitignore, but you can also ignore files locally without littering the shared .gitignore.
- [You can filter Helix pickers](https://ergaster.org/til/helix-filter-picker/): Helix has a system of pickers. They can get crowded, but you can filter out information.
- [Sveltia is a good CMS for Astro](https://ergaster.org/til/sveltia-cms-astro/): I needed a CMS to blurt out quick thoughts on my website from my phone. Sveltia does the job.
- [Proxmox can provision Kubernetes Persistent Volumes](https://ergaster.org/til/proxmox-k8s-volumes/): Proxmox can spin up VMs for a Kubernetes cluster and provision Persistent Volumes, opening the door to volume snapshots and better storage management.
- [GNOME has launched a fellowship program](https://ergaster.org/til/gnome-fellowship/): When open source nonprofits ask for donations, one common answer is "I only want to fund code, I don't want to fund anything else."
- [You can spot base64 encoded JSON, certificates, and private keys](https://ergaster.org/til/base64-encoded-json/): A colleague spotted base64-encoded JSON in a long string of gibberish without any tools. I was amazed, until he explained how anyone can do it.
- [Micro habits can bring you down](https://ergaster.org/til/micro-habits-bring-down/): Emma McAdam argues micro habits build up into depression, but can be unlearned. Here's a list of behaviors that reinforce depression, and what to do instead.
- [htop can display more useful metrics](https://ergaster.org/til/htop-is-super-useful/): A program on my Raspberry Pi ran unusually slowly. Was it CPU-bound or I/O-bound? A colleague suggested htop to find out and it delivered.
- [Signal Stories are Fun](https://ergaster.org/til/signal-stories-fun/): When Signal introduced Stories, I didn't see the point. Signal is about sharing as little as possible. I started using them and now I get it.
- [I can ask my smartphone to respect my attention](https://ergaster.org/til/ask-smartphone-attention/): Ditching your smartphone for a dumb phone sounds great, but it's not realistic. Smartphones can also respect your attention.
- [Google Docs can preview suggestions](https://ergaster.org/til/gdocs-preview-suggestions/): Google Docs is unbeaten for collaborative editing. But its review tool can be frustrating. There's a trick to make it more useful.
- [It’s okay to relax](https://ergaster.org/til/its-okay-to-relax/): I took a few days off in Copenhagen with my wife. Being offline made me so happy I realized online pain was self-inflicted.
- [Paris Métro app is great, actually](https://ergaster.org/til/paris-metro-by-phone/): It is now possible to buy tickets for Paris Métro or even charge a pass from your phone, and it works surprisingly well
- [Forums are not dead](https://ergaster.org/til/forums-not-dead/): Notifications pull me away from focused work. Forums and email let me catch up on my own time. In 2025 they're still alive and kicking.
- [There are still great apps to play local music](https://ergaster.org/til/great-apps-local-music/): Whether on macOS, iOS, or linux, there are still great apps to play local music for those of us who don't want to subscribe to music streaming services.
- [iOS has a useful downtime mode](https://ergaster.org/til/ios-downtime/): Mobile devices are quite addictive. iOS has a downtime mode that lets you limit your screentime all while keeping you in charge.
- [CSS list markers are hard to style](https://ergaster.org/til/css-lists-hard-to-style/): Sometimes it's best to hide bullets with CSS and rely on the ::before pseudo element.

## Thoughts

Short reflections and realizations Thib wanted to share.

- [A cheap VPS is a good front](https://ergaster.org/thoughts/front-server/): I host services at home, but I don't want to give me ip to the world. A small VPS and haproxy protect me.
- [Niri can have gorgeous animation](https://ergaster.org/thoughts/niri-gorgeous-animation/): I already loved having my windows neatly organized on my computer, but now I'm also in awe when they appear.
- [You don't care](https://ergaster.org/thoughts/you-dont-care/): A lot of us maintain our own website, and you don't care. And I don't expect you to.
- [I created too much friction to publish](https://ergaster.org/thoughts/less-friction-publish/): I love writing on my blog. I love taking a complex topic, breaking it down, understanding how things work, and writing about how things clicked for me.

## Gear

Reviews and notes on the tools and devices Thib uses daily.

- [Gear overview](https://ergaster.org/gear): Full list of current, retired, and wishlist items.
- [Garmin Forerunner 165](https://ergaster.org/gear/garmin-forerunner-165/)
- [EagkeCreek Compression cubes](https://ergaster.org/gear/eagkecreek-compression-cubes/)
- [The North Face Borealis](https://ergaster.org/gear/north-face-borealis/)
- [Apple EarPods](https://ergaster.org/gear/apple-earpods/)
- [Casio GW-M5610U-1ER](https://ergaster.org/gear/casio-m5610u/)
- [Kobo Clara 2E](https://ergaster.org/gear/kobo-clara-2e/)
- [iPhone 15 Pro](https://ergaster.org/gear/iphone-15-pro/)
- [MacBook Pro M1 (2020)](https://ergaster.org/gear/macbookpro-m1/)

## Feeds & Blogroll

- [Blogroll](https://ergaster.org/blogroll): Curated list of blogs and RSS feeds Thib follows, organized by topic.