#opensource

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Today, we’re abnormally jazzed to announce that we’re open-sourcing the custom framework we built to power your dashboard on Tumblr. We call it StreamBuilder, and we’ve been using it for many years.

First things first. What is open-sourcing? Open sourcing is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. In more accessible language, it is any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit.

What, then, is StreamBuilder? Well, every time you hit your Following feed, or For You, or search results, a blog’s posts, a list of tagged posts, or even check out blog recommendations, you’re using this framework under the hood. If you want to dive into the code, check it out here on GitHub!

StreamBuilder has a lot going on. The primary architecture centers around “streams” of content: whether posts from a blog, a list of blogs you’re following, posts using a specific tag, or posts relating to a search. These are separate kinds of streams, which can be mixed together, filtered based on certain criteria, ranked for relevancy or engagement likelihood, and more.

On your Tumblr dashboard today you can see how there are posts from blogs you follow, mixed with posts from tags you follow, mixed with blog recommendations. Each of those is a separate stream, with its own logic, but sharing this same framework. We inject those recommendations at certain intervals, filter posts based on who you’re blocking, and rank the posts for relevancy if you have “Best stuff first” enabled. Those are all examples of the functionality StreamBuilder affords for us.

So, what’s included in the box?

The full framework library of code that we use today, on Tumblr, to power almost every feed of content you see on the platform.

A YAML syntax for composing streams of content, and how to filter, inject, and rank them.

Abstractions for programmatically composing, filtering, ranking, injecting, and debugging streams.

Abstractions for composing streams together—such as with carousels, for streams-within-streams.

An abstraction for cursor-based pagination for complex stream templates.

Unit tests covering the public interface for the library and most of the underlying code.

What’s still to come

Documentation. We have a lot to migrate from our own internal tools and put in here!

More example stream templates and example implementations of different common streams.

If you are a writer, an artist, or a creator on the internet right now, you aren't paranoid. The extraction is real.

The platforms we used to love have turned into harvesting machines, scraping everything we make to feed algorithmic models that are being used, ultimately, to replace us.

Let me be clear as someone on the front lines: the technology itself isn't the enemy. This is the corporate model. And just like the cryptography that can be used to protect your work, this is a profound misuse of a powerful tool.

I spent 8 years as a lead engineer inside the belly of the Big Tech beast. I watched the roadmap. I saw where this was going. So a few months ago, I walked out. I evacuated the burning building so I could spend my time knitting the water hoses.

Today, I’m quietly turning the first tool on.

app.daon.network is live.

DAON (the Digital Asset Ownership Network) is a sovereign ledger built specifically to protect independent creators from non-consensual AI ingestion.

“Pinchflat can technically download individual videos, but its strength lies in archiving entire channels and playlists at a time. For starters, Pinchflat lets me add channel and playlist URLs as sources, and I can modify the indexing frequency, download cutoff days, and retention settings. On conventional YouTube downloaders, I’d have to pull new videos manually every so often, while Pinchflat can archive fresh uploads after detecting them with its indexing algorithms.”

Personally I have been using TubeArchivist for this, but there are some key differences between the two:

Pinchflat acts like a “Sonarr for YouTube.” Once you set up a source (channel or playlist), it downloads the videos, names them according to your template, and saves the NFO and poster images. It uses low resources.

You install the TubeArchivist Jellyfin Plugin. This plugin talks to the TubeArchivist API to pull in metadata, thumbnails, and watches progress. TubeArchivist has its own dedicated web UI to browse your YouTube collection and is a bit heavier on resources (Requires Redis, Elasticsearch, and the App container).

Okay so hear me out.

What if you could have a desktop that looks EXACTLY like macOS — the dock, the global menu, the blur, the animations, all of it — but you're actually running Linux. Free. Open source. Yours.

That's what this is.

This is the final result of a full KDE Plasma 6 transformation, version 4.0, and honestly? It might be the most beautiful Linux desktop setup I've ever seen. Everything is intentional. Everything is polished. Nothing feels like a hack or a workaround — it just… works.

🖥️ WHAT'S IN THIS BUILD

🍏 macOS-style dock & global menu — yes, it actually moves and behaves like the real thing 🌗 Dark/Light theme switcher — because your mood changes and your desktop should too 🎨 Custom Kvantum & GTK themes — consistent styling across every single app 🔤 macOS-style icons, fonts & cursors — the details that make it feel real 💫 Blur, transparency & smooth animations — buttery, satisfying, chef's kiss 🔒 Redesigned lock screen, splash screen & SDDM login — even the parts you see for 2 seconds look good 🧱 Clean, modern layout — stable enough for daily use, not just screenshots

Here's the thing about Linux ricing that people don't talk about enough:

It's not just about making your desktop look pretty for r/unixporn clout (although, respect). It's about making your environment feel like yours. Like something you built. Like something that reflects how you think and work.

And when you hit that point — when you open your laptop and everything just clicks — there's genuinely no feeling like it.

This build gets you there.

The dock slides. The windows blur. The fonts are crisp. The theme is consistent from the login screen all the way to your file manager. It's the kind of setup that makes people ask "wait, is that a Mac?" and you get to say "no, actually, it's Arch" (or Fedora, or CachyOS, or whatever you're running).

🎬 Watch the full 3-minute final result here: ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlt_QYO5qSc

And if you want the full step-by-step tutorial to build this yourself, that's in the series too. One command auto-customization script is also available if you just want to run it and watch the magic happen. 🪄

Reblog if you love Linux. Reblog if you love beautiful desktops. Reblog if you're secretly tired of paying the Apple tax but you still want that aesthetic. 😌