playbook
← back to home
THE PLAYBOOK

practice what we preach.

The playbook is a mix of internal defaults, lab-tested options, and client-fit tools Kastro can explain before recommending.

Operating Systems

wasWindows 10/11
now

Fedora Workstation

Open Source
internal default

No telemetry, no licensing, full control. Rapid release cycle for latest security patches.

wasWindows Server
now

Ubuntu Server LTS

Open Source
server default

Stable, well-supported, zero licensing. LTS releases align with infrastructure lifecycle planning.

wasmacOS
now

Asahi Linux (internal only)

Open Source
lab only

Linux on Apple Silicon. Used internally for experimentation — not yet recommended for production. macOS still supported for clients.

Productivity & Collaboration

wasMicrosoft 365
now

Nextcloud + ONLYOFFICE

Germany
preferred pattern

Self-hosted office suite on EU infrastructure. Real-time collaboration with lower US SaaS control-plane exposure.

wasOutlook / Exchange
now

ProtonMail

Switzerland
evaluated option

End-to-end encrypted, Swiss jurisdiction, zero-access architecture, and reduced US provider exposure.

wasMicrosoft Teams
now

Element (Matrix)

UK
evaluated option

E2E encrypted, decentralized, self-hosted homeserver. Used by French and German governments.

wasZoom
now

Jitsi Meet

Open Source
evaluated option

Self-hosted video conferencing. No account required for guests, no recordings on US servers.

Dev & IT Tools

wasGitHub / Azure DevOps
now

GitLab (self-hosted)

Open Source
preferred pattern

Self-hosted Git platform with built-in CI/CD. Code never leaves European infrastructure.

wasTerraform
now

OpenTofu

EU (CNCF)
preferred pattern

Community fork after HashiCorp's BSL switch. Drop-in replacement, no vendor lock-in.

wasDatadog / Splunk
now

Zabbix + Prometheus + Grafana

Latvia / Sweden
preferred pattern

European-friendly observability stack: infra monitoring, app metrics, dashboards, and less reliance on US SaaS.

was1Password / LastPass
now

Vaultwarden

Open Source
preferred pattern

Self-hosted Bitwarden-compatible password manager. Secrets never leave European infrastructure.

want us to build your playbook?

We'll audit your dependencies and build a practical roadmap to better-fit tools, European alternatives, or scoped self-hosting where it actually makes sense.