February 7, 2026
Workspace Wars: Bring Popcorn
Eigen: Building a Workspace
DIY Google in 2 months—“WordPress it” vs “browser-only”
TLDR: A solo developer launched Eigen, a bare-bones Google-like suite you can try today. The comments erupt over strategy: build a WordPress-style plugin ecosystem or keep it simple and browser-only, skipping old app standards and heavy encryption for now; everyone’s debating what makes a DIY alternative actually stick.
A solo dev just rolled out Eigen, a DIY workspace — think mini Google — with mail, file storage, shared docs, contacts, and Trello-style boards, all in real time. You can try it at eigen.is. The twist: your data lives in its own little folder, like a personal locker; backups are copy‑paste easy; no big shared database. It’s scrappy and missing big-ticket items like end‑to‑end encryption (locked messages), calendar, spreadsheets, and compatibility with old-school apps (IMAP/CalDAV/WebDAV), but the vibe is: build small, see if it flies.
Commenters instantly turned it into strategy theater. synthBirba pushed the “WordPress route” — a plugin ecosystem — while warning that fediverse (decentralized social) add‑ons right now would be chaos. jon9544hn chimed in: “Agreed.” Then stackskipton dropped a hot take: skip email/calendar app compatibility for now and keep everyone in the browser; self-hosters can encrypt files themselves. Security purists clutched pearls, pragmatists clapped. Memes flew: “Two months? My coffee break isn’t that productive,” and “SQLite nation rise up.” The mood: cheering the underdog while arguing whether simplicity or standards will make Eigen stick.
Key Points
- •Eigen is a proof-of-concept self-hosted alternative to Google Workspace built in two months of spare-time development.
- •Current modules include mail, drive, docs (with Yjs), contacts, and kanban boards with real-time collaboration; available at eigen.is.
- •Architecture uses per-user directories, per-user SQLite databases for metadata, and file-based content storage, avoiding shared databases.
- •Benefits include strong data isolation, simple backups, scalability when adding users, and potential for user-owned storage backends.
- •Missing features include end-to-end encryption, calendar, spreadsheets/presentations, organization support, standard protocol compatibility (IMAP/CalDAV/WebDAV), and backup/migration tools; scalability and user-to-Linux mapping are open questions.