decoded.legal, a small English law firm specializing in Internet, telecoms, and tech law, has operated on Free and open-source software for approximately five years, according to the firm’s founder.
On the client side, the firm uses Debian Linux with GNOME as the primary operating system, running on a ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6 laptop. For email, the setup includes Thunderbird and mutt, with specific add-ons for rapid keyboard-based filing. Document production relies on LibreOffice Writer for compatibility with other lawyers, alongside pandoc and typst for converting Markdown files written in vim. Presentations are built using reveal.js with Markdown, generated through a bash script template. Other client-side tools include Firefox for web browsing, vimwiki for knowledge management, Xournal++ for PDF markup, and espanso for text expansion shortcuts.
The server infrastructure is entirely self-hosted, primarily using Intel NUCs rather than Raspberry Pi devices. Email services run on postfix and dovecot. File synchronization uses Syncthing, replacing Nextcloud after the founder experienced compatibility issues. Calendar and contact services run on radicale for CalDAV and CardDAV. The firm previously ran Jitsi for video conferencing but switched to Signal after recognizing minimal internal usage.
Specialized business applications include InvoicePlane for generating PDF invoices, Kimai v2 for time tracking, and EspoCRM for case management. The website is a static site built with mkdocs and hosted on apache2, with a Tor .onion version available. The blog uses BSSG, a bash static site generator, with automated publishing through bash scripts. Additional infrastructure includes WireGuard for VPN, OpenVAS for vulnerability scanning, Uptime Kuma for monitoring, Forgejo for git repository hosting, and Wazuh for security information and event management.
The founder attributes preference for terminal-based tools to comfort and reduced distractions, using mutt, vim, ikhal, and other text-based interfaces frequently. Knowledge management and policy documentation use dokuwiki with a Markdown plugin. Password management employs vaultwarden on the server side, with YubiKeys for sensitive credentials on the client side.
Key facts
- A UK tech law firm has operated on Free/open-source software for approximately five years
- Client-side infrastructure uses Debian Linux, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and Firefox
- Server infrastructure is self-hosted using Intel NUCs, running postfix, dovecot, Syncthing, and radicale
- The firm migrated from Nextcloud to Syncthing for file synchronization due to compatibility issues
- Business applications include EspoCRM for case management, Kimai for time tracking, and InvoicePlane for invoicing