Deeper on Open Source

Hot Open Source Summer

A look back to see if Summer 2025 was the summer of open. We track social’s shift to open standards (AT Protocol vs. ActivityPub), bridges like Bridgy Fed and their new Bounce, Europe’s push for sovereign OSS, and open-mapping. Plus: Windows 10’s looming EOL and Windows 11’s Recall concerns spark a Linux revival with End of 10! * Ice Cubes App [https://github.com/Dimillian/IceCubesApp] * Mastodon apps [https://joinmastodon.org/apps] * BlueSky Registered Users Count [https://backlinko.com/bluesky-statistics] * BlueSky Self-hosting [https://atproto.com/guides/self-hosting] * Bridgy Fed [https://fed.brid.gy] * Bounce [https://blog.anew.social/bounce-a-cross-protocol-migration-tool/] * Mastodon Migration [https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/] * End of 10 [https://endof10.org] * Microsoft’s 1 Year Update Extension for Windows 10 [https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/end-of-support?r=1] * massgrave.dev wiki on 3 year support [https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol] * Linux Mint [https://linuxmint.com] * Ubuntu [https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop] * [Asahi Linux for M# macs] * [OpenStreetMaps] * Overture Maps [https://overturemaps.org] * CoMaps [https://www.comaps.app] * Organic Maps [https://organicmaps.app] The music for the show is by Bohdan Kuzmin. Don’t forget to FOSS is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Email [https://letterbird.co/rpm], Toot [https://monks.city/@robin], or Skeet [https://bsky.app/profile/robinmonks.com] me with new episode ideas!

FLOSS Game Remakes

This week, another short one where I talk about the open sourcing of my favorite childhood game, SimCity; as well as more open source remakes of beloved 90s titles. Links: * micropolis original source code [https://github.com/lincity-ng/lincity-ng] * One Laptop Per Child [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child] * micropolis Java [https://github.com/dheid/micropolis] * micropolis Unity [https://github.com/bsimser/Micropolis] * WiNTown [https://github.com/tenox7/WiNTown?tab=readme-ov-file] * micropolisJS [https://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/] * DOSBox [https://www.dosbox.com] and DOSBox-X [https://dosbox-x.com] * 86Box [https://github.com/86Box/86Box] and MacBox [https://github.com/Moonif/MacBox?tab=readme-ov-file] * OpenTTD [https://www.openttd.org] * OpenRCT2 [https://openrct2.io] * OpenRCS [https://rsc.vet] * Vanilla Conquer [https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Vanilla-Conquer] Email [https://letterbird.co/rpm], Toot [https://monks.city/@robin], or Skeet [https://bsky.app/profile/robinmonks.com] me with new episode ideas!

Open Weather

This week in a shorter summer episode, we explore how open-source tools can turn you into a neighborhood “weatherman.” We start with rtl-433 and a budget RTL-SDR dongle to read data from backyard weather stations (and more), then show how WeeWX builds beautiful dashboards and archives, and wrap with FediMeteo—a Fediverse weather project that scales globally on tiny infrastructure with snac and Open-Meteo. * rtl-433 package [https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433] * Using FOSS to read backyard weather stations [https://mastodon.social/@geerlingguy/114758460919506538] * WeeWX [https://weewx.com] * Home Assistant with Cheap Flood Sensors [https://1projectaweek.com/blog/2023/8/7/rtl433-home-assistant-and-cheap-flood-sensors-oh-my] * ESPhome Sensors [https://esphome.io/components/sensor/index.html] * Meshtastic sensors [https://meshtastic.org/docs/configuration/module/telemetry/] * ESP32 devices for building your own sensors [https://amzn.to/4fmWjzB] * FediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands [https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/?__readwiseLocation=] * Open-Meteo [https://open-meteo.com] Email [https://letterbird.co/rpm], Toot [https://monks.city/@robin], or Skeet [https://bsky.app/profile/robinmonks.com] me with new episode ideas!

Open Technology in Healthcare

This week while I’m travelling, I’m sharing the webinar I got to host last week at HIStalk on the importance of adopting open technology in the US healthcare system. It’s not quite our typical fare, but I hope you’ll find it interesting! Next week, we’re back to regular episodes! Email [https://letterbird.co/rpm], Toot [https://monks.city/@robin], or Skeet [https://bsky.app/profile/robinmonks.com] me with new episode ideas!

Deeper on Open Source

This week on Don’t Forget to FOSS, I’m digging into how I got started in open source, what kept me involved, and how you can get started too with no coding required. I also break down different open license types, reflect on the culture of open initiatives, and share some thoughts on the sustainability of FOSS. Plus, I give updates on snac, Komo.do, and a new proposal to relicense PHP under BSD-3. * Komo.do [https://komo.do] * snac [https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2] * PHP RFC for BSD [https://narrativ.es/@janl/114827374918719627] * Linux Magazine [https://www.linux-magazine.com] * Linux Format [https://linuxformat.com] * Knoppix [https://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html] * OpenSource.com Survey [https://opensource.com/article/21/4/motivates-open-source-contributors] * GitHub 2024 Open Source Survey [https://opensourcesurvey.org/2024/] * Drupal’s Novice System [https://www.drupal.org/community/contributor-guide/task/triage-novice-issues-and-tasks] Email [https://letterbird.co/rpm], Toot [https://monks.city/@robin], or Skeet [https://bsky.app/profile/robinmonks.com] me with new episode ideas!