Fellow open-source enthusiasts,
We all have that mental backlog of promising projects — those distros, tools, and systems we keep tabs on but haven’t yet deployed. Perhaps you’re waiting for that mythical free weekend, lacking a spare/compatible device or just holding out until that one killer feature drops.
FWIW, my ‘someday’ list includes:
Operating Systems/Distros:
- Gentoo – Source-based meta-distribution driven by Portage and USE-flags for near-granular control; binary packages also available if you’d rather skip marathon compile sessions.
- Guix System – GNU’s functional, declarative distro built with Guile Scheme.
- MocaccinoOS – Image-based, container-built distro that originated from Gentoo/Sabayon but now uses the Luet package manager and OTA-like updates.
- NixOS – Declarative Linux distribution using the Nix package language.
- Qubes OS – Security-focused OS that uses Xen virtualization to compartmentalize your digital life into isolated environments with a unified desktop.
- Spectrum – In-development security-oriented OS built on Nixpkgs using KVM-based microVMs for compartmentalization.
Desktop Environments/Window Managers:
- COSMIC - System76’s comprehensive Wayland-native desktop environment written in Rust.
- Hyprland – Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor with scriptable layouts and impressive animations.
System Security/Firmware:
- coreboot – Open source alternative to proprietary BIOS/UEFI firmware (though recent x86 still needs vendor blobs such as FSP/AGESA).
- Heads – coreboot + Linux payload providing TPM-measured, tamper-evident boot for select laptops.
- nix-mineral - NixOS module for convenient system hardening.
- TrenchBoot – Framework for dynamic root-of-trust (DRTM) launches via Intel TXT, AMD SKINIT, or SEV-ES.
Applications/Tools:
- Android Translation Layer - Run Android apps natively on Linux (still in early development).
- Emacs – The self-extensible Lisp machine masquerading as a text editor; someday I’ll embrace the config rabbit hole.
- Olive – FOSS non-linear video editor in alpha.
- systemd-sysext – Overlay read-only
/usrand/(or/etcvia confext) with extra images; extensions auto-activate at boot or can be merged/unmerged/refreshed live with a single command. Handy for immutable distros, though it’s additive-only and not a full package manager.
What open-source projects are you admiring from afar? Time to compare notes!
As someone with a perpetual desire for clean system management—even back in my M$ days[1]—I deeply resonate with the desire to declare the desired state within a config file and treating it as the single source of truth; this is exactly why NixOS with the Impermanence module has captivated me ever since it appeared on my path, like a long-sought truth.
I’ve only abstained this long due to lacking a spare device for a proper test run that might lead to permanent adoption. Perhaps this summer will finally be the time to take the plunge.
Looking forward to bringing order to chaos at last.
Which I ‘dealt’ with by factory resetting every few months 😅 ↩︎
Wow resetting every few months must have been a lot of work… I never had the courage to do fresh Windows installs often, especially considering how long it took after every install to manually go through each setting, each pre-installed program and each service to manually clean everything up, and with each new Windows version a lot more crap to clean up 😭
I had never heard of the impermanence module, that seems really cool !
Perhaps it was just placebo, but my system always felt snappier (even if momentarily) right after a reset. As such, it would slowly but surely reach a proverbial boiling point where starting fresh was the only thing that truly salvaged it for me. So yeah, while not exactly easy, it felt so gratifying that I couldn’t do anything but.
I had never heard of the impermanence module, that seems really cool !
It’s pretty great, isn’t it? And honestly, hearing folks get excited about it definitely nudges me closer to finally diving in this summer. Wish me luck!
Heh, I worked in IT for many years, I remember the days of obsessive wipes of Windows machines to restore ghosted drive images because users couldn’t keep from installing malware or other bullshit on their system. One guy I had to wipe it every day for a fucking week straight to get the message across, and only then because he came whining to me about resetting his machine again and I got fed up and gave him what-for.
