About

oblak is an online platform operated by a small, friendly community.

Our goal is to make sure that you, your friends and your family can have reliable, easy and private conversations where ever you may be in the world.

To make this happen we host an integrated suite of open source apps that are based on federated protocols. With these apps you can chat, call, mail and collaborate on documents and media. To learn more about the apps we support visit the Apps section.

The history of oblak

Around 2016 Eddie collaborated with another anonymous engineer on a platform that allowed small businesses to use open source apps to run their operations. However, due to lack of interest by these businesses Eddie and his partner decided to change course. Eddie registered the domain oblak.be in 2018 to repurpose the platform. He was looking for a name that's easy to remember while it also means something. oblak means cloud in Serbian.

Since then the platform caters to individual users (not businesses) that are fed up with being big tech product. At oblak your data is not being collected, sold or abused in any other way.

Eddie strongly believes that eating your own dogfood makes your dogfood better. Until 2021 it was impossible for visitors to create an account themselves, so they had to send an email to Eddie to get access to the platform. From 2021 onward oblak people could sign up easily for an account themselves and enjoy all the apps.

Around 2024 Eddie was joined by Eddi (yes, two Eddi(e)'s, what a coincidence). Together they continue to develop oblak to make it the most useful and exciting cloud platform on the internet.

Reasons to register for an oblak account

A few reasons for creating an oblak account:

  • You love open source software but find it hard to install and maintain it yourself.
  • You are part of a community and you need a place to meet online.
  • You own cryptocurrency but find it frustrating that you barely can buy services with it.
  • You are tired of all the advertising, AI slop or spam making its way to your inbox or chat app.
  • You have friends and family in countries where the commercial messaging platforms are banned.

If you recognize yourself in these reasons, don't hesitate to go ahead and register