And, maybe what would have been better/cuter would be if i had said that TLS is necessary for bare minimum of secure environments...but by itself does not help reach enlightenment lol :-D

By the way, for years now, i have used a little python (cli) app to send messages into a private matrix room. This room has 2 people in it: me and a bot. (The bot is simply the matrix account that sends the messages.) I went this route because i did not want to install another app - such as ntfy - on my mobile simply to receive server notifications, etc. And, since i had ben on matrix already chatting with friends, it happened to be a low-effort approach. To clarify, i am no longer self-hosting my own synapse home server...so i'm simply piggybacking on the matrix.org one...but that has helped at least unify my notifications and comms to a good degree.

Now, if you were to aske me to implement my "notifications system" via a different approach, funny enough, i would gauge between XMPP and ntfy to see which is lighterweight....because i believe them to both be quite light on the need for resources. I don't know which is lighter (sorry, i know i'm not answering your question). however, i *think* the ntfy server is less hasle....Only because xmpp takes a little more work to setup...at least that was my experience a couple of years ago. I cast no shade on either xmpp nor ntfy - because to me boh are awesome...i' m merely saying that resources needs aside, i wonder if ntfy might need less time from YOU.

* chronilog.org ...as in, a log of one's chronicles.

* And if you will include this into KDE, then can use a 'k' instead, such as kronilog.org :-)

Both seem to be available. ;-)

I think if we focus on "has been", and not consider something dire like "will always be"...then i see it as an opportunity (and opportunity for LibreOffice and others like it). Because i do agree that a small % of people do use/need advance features from excel...so if i were the European Union, then i would gather such data for advanced usage (which is best done when pilots are rolled out), and throw a little money at addressing that (by a little, i mean little for big governments, so talking like a few million, etc.). I'd throw some money at the devs who contribute to LibreOffice, openDesk, whatever...and specifically address whatever shotcomings might exist in the free and open source offerings. Maybe its not an overnight solution, but it would serve to produce 2 things:

1. You pay devs to address the issue...reducing or removing any gaps between excel and offerings like LibreOffice, etc.

2. The devs you threw money at will gain ever more experience addressing needs for this now more expanded marketplace...creating possibly some more jobs and/or opportunites for more local vendors to support these govs, and any businesses that follow suit in adopting such open source offerings...

...I think these create or expedite a marketplace...and one that is not controlled by the U.s. or any single dominant player. So, i think while it might be slow, its a good long-term approach.

One nitpick is that while the site looks clean, and there seems to be some good amount of documentation, i think there was a lost opportunity for a simple, yet more universal description of *what this is*! I mean, i get that this descends from FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE...but why could they not add a small, single line of text that also helps explain it to other folks who don't know fully what the means? Here is a crappy but at least slightly more descriptive option:

"FreeCORE is an operating system and associated software for your network attached storage (NAS) needs. FreeCORE descends from FreeNAS and TrueNAS® CORE, and builds on FreeBSD and OpenZFS..."

I'm not going to win the Pulitzer prize any time soon, i get that. But at least most folks will get a little more of the gist of what this FreeCore thing is or could help them. I'm only making this suggestion because i want more folks to participate and enjoy free and open source software. I'm not expecting someone's grandparents to understand this, but i betcha other folks who for example might be migrating from Windows NAS-like offerings might have an interest...so making the intro at least a tiny more descriptive helps.

Again, even with my comments, i do wish the team well, and only want them to succeed. So please take my comments as merely a suggestion for improving things for all to benefit. In fact I'll be playing around with this to set it up and test on my homelab.

The beginning of your sentence - "I can’t believe how few choices we have..." - can be applied equally sadly to other areas here in the U.S....such as but not limited to lack of choice of residential ISPs, or lack of choice (or generally mis-incentivized) healthcare providers, or lack of choice of mobile service providers, or, etc., or etc. And, of course, your last part of your comment asking where the innovation is? Well, innovation often is pocketed in those who control the capital, and only released little by little at the whims of releasing more capital. Sorry, i have to step away, cuz felt sad instantly just citing my own comments here. :-(