61
Lessons I learned from working full-time on a FOSS project for 503 days
This article shares some of the lessons I learned from working full-time on a FOSS project for 503 days.
62
How de-Googled is Lineage OS?
Lineage OS is based on the Android Open-Source Project, whose primary maintainer is Google. To what extent can it be considered Google-free?
63
Please stop inventing new software licences (2020)
A few weeks ago, I received an unsolicited email inviting me to try out an exciting new "quantum resistant" cryptography app called Cyph. Because I hate myself, I signed up. Of particular interest to me was the fact that the homepage loudly proclaimed that it was "Open Source" - and had a public GitHub repo. That was…
64
OpenBSD, the computer appliance maker's secret weapon
Between our ESP32 prokaryotic organisms and our 24/7 Internet-enabled megafauna servers, there exists a vast and loosely-defined ecosystem of things the B2B world likes to call computer appliances. Picture a bespoke Pi 4 packaged up neatly with some Python scripts, a little fancy plastic embossing, and maybe a…
65
KDE Asking for Donations
Why do we ask for donations so often? Because it’s important! As KDE becomes more successful and an increasing number of people use our software, our costs grow as well: Web and server hostin…
66
Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)
The GoodWatch is my replacement circuit board for Casio’s modern calculator watches, adding support for 70cm and 33cm amateur bands while retaining three years of battery life and most of the watch’s features. It uses the CC430F6147 chip from Texas Instruments, and the watchband forms an untuned random wire antenna…
67
Writing a book in the age of open source
The power of engineering applied to writing
68
The slow evaporation of the free/open source surplus
Writing at the end of the world, from Hveragerði, Iceland
69
Releasing my tools under the MIT License was probably a mistake (2023)
For basically as long as I can remember, I have been a staunch defender of permissive licenses over the more copyleft variety. I want you to use things I've written. On top of that I don't believe it's my place to force you to then open source things you have written that expand upon my source code. Hence my extensive…
70
XFCE 4.20 Released
After almost two years of work, we are happy to announce the release of Xfce 4.20.
71
A retrospective on Requests
After writing my thoughts on github3.py down here, someone was asking about Python libraries that people recommend new Python developers read for learning how to structure code and use the packaging systems. My initial reaction was "Don't listen to folks that tell you to read python-requests as a good example." When…
72
Why Linux is not ready for the desktop, the final edition
The previous iteration of this article was too technical, too long, and contained a lot of controversial points, so I've been thinking for a long time about rewriting it completely, making it accessible to the non-technical folks, and exposing the deeper core issues that still make Linux a questionable match for the…
73
OpenBSD is a cozy operating system
With the recent release of OpenBSD 7.5, I decided to run through my personal OpenBSD “installer” for laptop/desktop devices. The project is built off of the dwm tiling window manager and only installs a few basic packages. The last time I updated it was with the release of 7.3, so it’s been due for an minor rework.
74
75
Open source tools to query OpenStreetMap
Exploring different ways to make sense of OpenStreetMap data.
76
NixOS is not reproducible
Okay, sorry for the clickbait. NixOS is not reproducible according to the Reproducible Builds definition. I keep reading people making this claim repeatedly on orange-site, even LWN.net made a similar claim when writing about Nix and Guix earlier this week.1 Along with their recently launched wiki. So, what is the…
77
The end of Pepper&Carrot and my next project
Hey, I feel like I'm at a big crossroads and this is an important blog post, but you probably already guessed that from the title.
78
Did Automattic commit open source theft?
The maker of WordPress took 2M customers from its biggest rival: has a red line been crossed?
79
The Adwaita Icon Theme no longer follows the FDO spec, breaking e.g. KDE apps
How it shall look… Linux & BSDs Windows macOS State on Fedora 40 Workstation & XFCE Spin… Screenshots taken from the GNOME bugtracker, copies to not stall their GitLab instance. I think that is rather unpleasant and for e.g. the left icon-only border just an unusable insult.
80
You can contribute to KDE with non-C++ code
Lots of underrated areas to work on
81
Openly Licensed Streetview with Panoramax
A video of Panoramax in action. Starting out with a map view which has small orange lines for where images are available. Then going into the actual 360 degree images and moving around. Above: a video showcasing the panoramax viewer, with a map to see where (most[1]) images are, and...
82
Mental Health in Open Source
TL;DR : I am doing great and not going anywhere. Having some pressure but still holding up and trying to improve. Thank you and don’t worry!
83
