$ man foss

Why open source

Open source is infrastructure. I advocate for it because remote regions like Ladakh can't afford to depend on closed black boxes that disappear when invoices, treaties or APIs change. Self-hosted platforms give communities and startups real agency over their tools and I've made it my work to simplify that path.

  • Advocate for self-hosted platforms and open infrastructure
  • Active in cloud-native and CNCF community spaces
  • Helping startups in emerging regions break free from SaaS lock-in
  • Simplifying complex DevOps systems for teams in bandwidth-constrained environments

$ cat principles.md

The case in four arguments

Ownership

When you run FOSS, you own the software. No invoice, geo-block or acquisition can take it away.

Auditability

Remote regions can't afford black-box infrastructure. You need to read the source when the satellite goes dark.

Community resilience

Shared infrastructure built by many is harder to kill than a single vendor's product line.

Cost reality

Cloud SaaS lock-in compounds. The migration cost later is always higher than the switching cost now.


$ cat community.md

fossla.org — from Leh to the world

Everything I know about infrastructure, I learned from the FOSS community. Open documentation, public code, and strangers on mailing lists answering questions from a kid in Leh that's what got me here. The community gave freely, and that debt doesn't go away.

So I'm giving back. I started fossla.org as a local community right here in Leh a space for students, engineers, and curious people to learn open-source tools, collaborate on real projects, and support each other. The goal is to grow it beyond Ladakh, connect it with the wider global FOSS movement, and prove that world-class open-source communities can be built anywhere including 3,524 metres above sea level.