Why Noiz runs on open-source software
Every server Noiz runs for clients runs GNU/Linux, with free and open-source software wherever there is a sound choice, and the company itself runs on the same principle: our business system is Odoo Community, and the services we offer are built from software anyone can inspect. We do it because it is the only way to promise clients what our values promise: no proprietary dependency they cannot escape. This piece explains what that means in practice.
What "open source" means here
Two definitions sit behind the term. The Free Software Foundation defines free software by four freedoms: to run a program for any purpose, to study and change it, to share copies, and to share changed versions. The Open Source Initiative sets out ten criteria for an open-source licence, including free redistribution, access to the source code and no discrimination against any person or field of use. In practice most software meets both. What matters for a business is the result: the software can be examined, changed, moved and kept, whatever happens to the company that wrote it.
What Noiz runs on
- Servers: GNU/Linux. Every server we run for clients runs GNU/Linux. Our Cloud servers come with Ubuntu or Debian, and nothing else until you install it.
- The business: Odoo Community. When Noiz replaced Sage, we moved the whole company onto Odoo Community, licensed under the GNU LGPL version 3, and we still run Noiz on it.
- Files, calendars and contacts: Nextcloud. Client accounts are on the Nextcloud service we run.
- Email: Thunderbird. For desktop email, Noiz recommends Thunderbird, which is free and connects straight from your device to your mail server.
Why it matters to clients
You can leave
A client on free software can take the system elsewhere, or run it themselves, without a licence standing in the way. An Odoo database runs on any Odoo server; a Nextcloud's files, calendars and contacts sync out through open standards. That freedom is good for clients and good discipline for us: we keep clients by running things well, not by making them hard to move.
The code can be checked
When the source is public, anyone can find a flaw and anyone can fix it. Security does not depend on trusting one vendor's word, and fixes do not wait on one vendor's roadmap.
Costs follow the work, not the seat count
Most of the software we run carries no licence fee per user or per server. What a client pays for is the work of running it: the server, the updates, the backups and the support.
It fits who we are
Noiz describes itself as an organised cypherpunk movement focused on digital privacy, software freedom, open source, decentralisation and censorship resistance. A company with that purpose cannot ask clients to trust a black box. Running on open software is how we keep our own principles where clients can see them.
Built on free software
The services we sell are built on free software:
- Managed Odoo, Odoo Community run for you on infrastructure we control
- Nextcloud accounts on the service we run
- Private Email, built on an open-source mail server
- Cloud servers running Ubuntu or Debian, with full root access
If you would like to move a part of your business onto free software, our About page sets out how Noiz works, and a ticket reaches the people who run the servers.
Sources
Checked 19 October 2026.
- GNU: What is free software?
- Open Source Initiative: The Open Source Definition
- About Noiz
- Why we choose Odoo ERP
- New Outlook hands your mailbox to Microsoft
- Nextcloud run by Noiz
Note: while some of this content was produced with the help of AI, the final editing has been done by a real human being.
