What this site is
ELX Software is a catalogue of free programs for automation, networking, storage and the desktop. They are not modules of one product and they do not share a runtime — an MQTT broker and an image viewer have nothing in common except the way they were built.
That way can be stated in one sentence: the program should be a single file that runs where you put it, keep its state where you can see it, and explain itself in writing. Everything on this site follows from that.
The rules the programs follow
One file
Interface, assets, defaults and documentation live inside the executable. Deploying means copying a file; upgrading means replacing it.
No phoning home
No analytics, no crash reporting, no licence check. A program that only works when a server answers is a program that stops working when the server does not.
Modest hardware
The server programs are tested on 32-bit ARM boards. If it runs comfortably there, it will not notice a real server.
Readable state
Configuration is a text file, history is one SQLite database. Backing up means copying it; inspecting it needs no special tool.
Why it is free
Most of these programs were written for a specific installation that needed them. Once written, the marginal cost of letting someone else use them is zero, and the cost of building a licensing system around them is not. So there is no licensing system.
There is no paid edition holding back the useful features, no seat limit and no trial period. If a program is listed here, it is complete as listed.
Languages
The site is published in nine languages: English, Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese. Documentation is translated in full, not reduced to a summary.
Screenshots are another matter: they are captured in the language of the program's own interface, and re-shooting a hundred windows in nine languages would not repay the effort. Pages in other languages show the English captures — the text of the page is translated, the text inside the picture is not.