Towards a Local-First Linux Desktop with Modal, Reflection and p2panda

This talk will introduce our work within various collectives working together toward a more local-first future for modern Linux desktop and mobile platforms.

We'll introduce you to Modal, a collective focused on bringing local-first principles to Linux Desktop and Mobile. We'll also showcase Reflection, our GTK-based text editor, and p2panda, the underlying peer-to-peer stack.

Modal is a new collective dedicated to development, design, organizing, policy campaigning, and more, to make computing more useful, secure, and resilient. Our work centeres around software infrastructure projects, including GNOME, postmarketOS, p2panda, systemd, and the Linux kernel. We aim to make it simple to sync data across your devices while providing easy-to-use local-first APIs for applications. By doing this, we're creating an ecosystem of free software apps that leverage this infrastructure for synchronization and real-time collaboration. The foundation of all this technology is the p2panda project, which is built with "walkaway" principles in mind. p2panda's modular networking stack allows applications to operate autonomously on a wide variety of infrastructures—whether it's the Internet, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct / Aware, or even sneakernet - giving you flexibility and control over how and when your devices sync.

p2panda aims to provide everything you need to build modern, privacy-respecting and secure local-first applications. Over five years of research, testing, exploration and collaboration with other teams, we've identified emergent patterns which have been solidified in p2panda's "building blocks". We'll present an overview of the peer-to-peer problem space and describe how each of our modules are designed to provide Connectivity, Discovery, Sync, Encryption, Access Control, and more.

We'll showcase concrete software built around Modal and p2panda, including Reflection, our native, GTK-based text editor. Reflection not only serves as a real-world example of a local-first application, but also as a "template" for developers looking to build similar apps. Alongside Reflection, we're developing a GObject interface for common p2p primitives, wrapped around p2panda and UI components. This interface aims to simplify the process of integrating decentralized networking into applications.

Finally, we'll discuss our work on a system service designed to enhance applications with p2p features, enabling a unified user experience at the OS level. This system service manages key tasks like permissions for networking activity, node trust management, multi-device support, and identity management through the address book. It is agnostic to any specific p2p framework, which we hope will foster greater interoperability across different platforms and p2p technologies in the future.