Altgrid

Leo Blanchette

The AltGrid Project

AltGrid, and the ViaTux mascot.

AltGrid builds tools for the world after the grid — when cloud services fail, networks fragment, and simplicity wins.
It’s a family of open projects focused on one guiding idea: that technology should keep working even when the internet doesn’t.

AltGrid systems are designed around Simplicity · Portability · Autonomy.
They favor text over apps, terminals over touchscreens, and radio over Wi-Fi. Everything can be built, run, and repaired using ordinary Linux tools.

Core Projects

  • ViaText Core — Linux command-line toolkit for sending and receiving plaintext messages through LoRa radios.
  • ViaText Node — ESP32-based field hardware for off-grid communication.
  • AltGrid Live — a portable Debian-based live OS that runs AltGrid tools entirely from a USB stick.

Together, they form a self-contained communication network — part radio, part post office, part act of defiance against disposable tech.

Build like it’s 1986. Communicate like it’s 2086.

More posts under this section will explore the hardware, firmware, and philosophy behind the project — along with field experiments, design notes, and appearances by our mascot, ViaTux, the Linux survivalist of the post-cloud world.