We are pleased that we regularly receive questions about LinkAhead. Here we have collected and answered those that have been raised more frequently. If you have any other question or query, please feel free to contact us.

„What is the difference between LinkAhead and LinkAhead Pro?“

LinkAhead is a free and open source software package. Linkahead Pro is a paid service offered by IndiScale that provides additional advantages and convenience. LinkAhead Pro customers benefit from priority bug fixes, professional support, and a LinkAhead optimized for professional use and many users.

You will find more details on our pricing site.

"Why choose LinkAhead?"

Compared to conventional systems, LinkAhead is designed to easily respond to changing, new requirements. The semantic data model makes it possible to link research data according to their meaning. This significantly improves the findability of your research data and gives you more flexibility. And thanks to an intuitive search language, LinkAhead is outstandingly searchable.
Comic mit LinkAhead Roboter, der das Datenchaos selbstständig aufräumt.
Benefit from the advantages LinkAhead offers you and leave the times of unstructured research data behind you. You will see: research data management can be really simple. And you can begin to fully exploit the value of your research data.
LinkAhead gives you the opportunity to make working with your research data fun again.
Where enormous amounts of research data accumulate, it is not always easy to keep an overview:
Where do I find my valuable research data? What is the relationship between the research data? How do I deal with changing data structures? My workflow is already optimized, so I can’t use the new research data the way I would like to.

No matter how your research data is formatted, with LinkAhead it is possible to integrate almost any file type automatically. And also presents your research data in a versatile and easy way (e.g. as tables, graphs, etc.).

Other software and hardware can be used together with LinkAhead or even connected to it conveniently. LinkAhead adapts to you, not the other way around!

„What happens if I am no longer interested in LinkAhead Pro?“

It is very important for us to emphasize that you are not bound to us with LinkAhead Pro. If you cancel your subscription, you will still have access to LinkAhead and your data. But you lose access to the additional LinkAhead Pro services like priority bug fixes, that we detailed above.When you cancel your LinkAhead Pro subscription, the configuration of your LinkAhead instance needs to be changed such that the freely available LinkAhead version is used in future.

„What programming skills do I need to use LinkAhead?“

Good news: To use LinkAhead you don’t need any programming skills at all! Why don’t you give it a try and explore it for yourself with our interactive tour? Or alternatively download the software and try it on your own device.

„What operating system does LinkAhead run on?“

LinkAhead was developed and tested for a debian based operating system. That means the “installation by mouse click” only works on debian, ubuntu or similar systems. However, since we use Docker for deployment, you basically need Docker and Python and you can start with LinkAhead Control to run you own instance. Users even reported succesful installation in the Windows Subsystem for Linux. 

“What are the terms for using LinkAhead and LinkAhead Pro?”

LinkAhead is free and open source software and distributed under the terms of the AGPLv3 license. LinkAhead Pro is simply a service that provides LinkAhead with additional benefits and thus the license is the same.

“Can I modify LinkAhead by myself?”

Sure. You find the source code on GitLab.

“What means open source?”

Free and Open-Source Software, FOSS in short, means that you are free to use, examine, copy and change it. The source code is openly accessible, so that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the development and design of the code.  You might also want to check out the definition of the open source initiative.

„And what was CaosDB again?“

Once upon a time in a Max-Planck-Institute far far away…
Even though the term caosdb will probably disappear from most people’s minds soon, it remains a very special term for us. LinkAhead originally started as a project under the name CaosDB at Max-Planck-Institut for Dynamics and Self-Organisation. In a physics environment this name is great and we had a lot of fun with jokes like “We do not miss the “h” of Chaos.”. However, with a growing number of institutes trusting the software we wanted a name that better resembles what our Software stands for. Initially, the new name LinkAhead was only used for the commercial version of the software. In order to avoid confusion the old name was dropped with the LinkAhead Relauch

„Do you offer LinkAhead as a cloud service?“

LinkAhead as a cloud service would be possible, but it is not necessary. We recommend to run LinkAhead at your own location or service provider (on-premises installation). This way, you have a full control over your and your customers’ data, for a maximum of data protection and transparency.

„What is the AGPL?“

The Affero General Public License (AGPL) is an open source software license developed by the Free Software Foundation. Its aim is to ensure that software code remains permanently open and freely accessible and that all users benefit from further software developments. Software published under the AGPL cannot be converted into proprietary software.

„What does the AGPL mean for me?“

The AGPL license assures that the LinkAhead code will remain permanently open and that access to further developments is guaranteed.
However, the openness of the software code affects in no way your sovereignty over your data managed with LinkAhead. This data is only accessible to users in accordance with their authorizations in LinkAhead.
LinkAhead also automatically refers to the AGPL license and makes the source code available for download. This means that all license requirements are automatically fulfilled if you operate LinkAhead as a publicly accessible server.

„I want to publish software myself that uses LinkAhead libraries - what do I have to consider?“

As LinkAhead is licensed under the AGPL license, certain requirements apply to the publication of software that uses LinkAhead libraries. In principle, this new software must also be under the AGPL license if it is to be published or distributed. Further information on this topic can be found at the Free Software Foundation.

„Do I have to share my data?“

No, you retain full sovereignty over your data. The AGPL license essentially only stipulates that LinkAhead may not be distributed as proprietary closed source software. The license has no influence on the use, confidentiality or distribution of your data.

Any open questions?

Do you have any further questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us!