A desktop-wide search application can be the key to speeding up your workflow by a significant amount, as anything you might look for will almost be at your fingertips at any given moment.

Today, we'll be looking at a GUI desktop application that does exactly that.

FSearch: Fast, Feature-rich GUI Search App

FSearch is a fast file search application, inspired by Everything Search Engine on Windows.

It works in an efficient way without slowing down your system, giving you results as you type the keywords in. The way it does this is by indexing the files from the directories in advance, updating them at a fixed interval, and storing that information to search through whenever the application is used.

It is written in C and based on GTK3, which is ideal for GNOME users but might not look as good on Qt based desktop environments like KDE. Let's look at some of the features this utility offers.

Index Inclusion/Exclusion

The first thing that you need to do after installation and the most crucial aspect of all is to specify to the utility what are the directories that you want it to search for anything in. Besides the inclusion category, you can also specify what directories you want excluded from the search. Another extremely helpful option is to exclude the hidden files from being searched which can be the case if you only want to search the files as you see them on your file explorer.

Besides that, you can also configure how often the database needs to be refreshed and updated. This will depend on how often the relevant files on your system change, and hence should be your own choice.

Wildcard and RegEx Support

The search input supports the wildcard mode by default, which are often used for specifications on the command line. For example, if I want to search for all files that contain "Black" in the name, I can give the input as such:

Here, "*" essentially means everything. So any files with anything at all before and after the word "Black" will be listed. There are many more wildcards like this such as "?" for one missing character, and "[ ]" specifying ranges. You can read more about them here.

The other option is to specify the search results by the RegEx formatting, which is a different style in itself. It can be activated using Ctrl+R, and switched by the same.

Fast Sort

You can quickly sort out the results based on name, path, size or last modification date right from the interface, as the results are shown with these details present. All it takes is one click on the right detail header (or two clicks if you want them in a descending instead of an ascending order).

Filetype Filter

The searched files can be of different categories defined in the utility itself, which are defined by the extensions of the files that the results yield. There is a button on the right of the search bar where the search results category can be specified, the default being "All". The categories are:

• All
• Files
• Folders
• Applications (such as .desktop)
• Archives (such as .7z, .gzip, .bz)
• Audio (such as .mp3, .aac, .flac)
• Documents (such as .doc, .csv, .html)
• Pictures (such as .png, .jpg, .webp)
• Videos (such as .mp4, .mkv, .avi)

The excellent feature is that these categories and their list of extensions are modifiable. You can add or change any of the options if it doesn't fit your needs well.

Search in Specific Path

Another interestingly important search option is to also search in the path of the filenames. This becomes relevant when you remember the approximate location of the file or part of the path or something as such. It seems like a minor detail but can be a real savior when the appropriate time arises. An example of it can be this:

This mode can be activated using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+U.

Other Features

There are other minor features that help in the customization, such as toggling the case sensitivity of the search terms (which can also be done with the Ctrl+I keyboard shortcut), single-clicking to open files, pressing Esc to exit, remembering window size on closing, etc.

Installing FSearch on Linux

FSearch is available on various distributions in multiple different ways. First, to cover the distro-independent option, Flatpak. FSearch exists on Flathub and can be installed with a simple search on any distribution where Flathub is enabled internally in the app store such as Fedora. If not from the store, you can find the .flatpakref file here and (considering it is downloaded in the Downloads folder) install it with:

sudo flatpak install io.github.cboxdoerfer.FSearch.flatpakref

On Ubuntu based distributions, there are two options, a stable release and a daily one. To add the repository the stable version, enter this command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:christian-boxdoerfer/fsearch-stable

Whereas for the daily release:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:christian-boxdoerfer/fsearch-daily

In either case, then enter the following commands after to install the application:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install fsearch

On Arch-based distributions, use the following command:

sudo pacman -S fsearch

On Fedora, the installation can be done by entering:

dnf copr enable cboxdoerfer/fsearch
dnf install fsearch

If none of these apply, you can always install from source or find instructions on the official website.

Final Thoughts

FSearch does what it claims to do without exceptions and hurdles. It is very fast, not very taxing on the hardware, has very sensible configuration options, and looks pretty good while doing its job. A huge recommendation from my side would be to add a keyboard shortcut to open FSearch (the process will depend on your distribution), something very accessible like Shift+S perhaps to easily open the utility and use it immediately.

I know that for many Linux users, nothing replaces the find command clubbed with xargs and exec but still, not all desktop Linux users are command line ninjas. That's why desktop search apps like FSearch, ANGRYsearch and SearchMonkey exist. Nautilus' built-in file search works well, too.

Mastering Nautilus File Search in Linux Desktop

Become a pro finder with these handy tips to improve your file search experience with GNOME’s Nautilus file search.

It's FOSSSreenath

Please let us know in the comments if this is an application you'd like to use, or if you have any other preferences. Cheers!

When open source is spoken about, it is done so just as a licensing model for software. But when you think about it, it is often deeper than just that. With the open source philosophy, developers make good software exist just for the sake of its existence. Sometimes this good software is so good, that it disrupts the already existing players of the area, tipping the balance entirely. We'll be looking at the most significant cases of such an event in this article. So sit back and enjoy this casual read.

1. Git decimates BitKeeper

Imagine being the creator of Linux and yet people know you more for creating Git. That's the story of Linus Torvalds.

Before Git, BitKeeper was the primary software used for distributed revision control of Linux kernel source code. And it was revolutionary because before that, according to Torvalds, the only good option was to manually check the patches and put them in.

While Stallman and some others crticized the use of a properitary tool for the development of open source Linux kernel project, BitKeeper remained the choice of VCS tool.

It was in 2005, that BitKeeper revoked the free license for Linux kernel project. They blamed Andrew Tridgell who tried creating an open source version of BitKeeper, the same way he had created Samba protocol, by resevre engineering existing project.

This move violated BitKeeper's terms as Tridgell was employed by OSDL, predeccors of Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization pushing the Linux kernel development.

After a public feud with Tridgell, Torvalds started working on his own source control software and released the first version before the month ended. And that's how Git was born, out of necessity, just like Linux project.

Fun fact, this incident also led to the birth of Mercurial, another open source VCS. Popularity of Git overshadowed Mercurial.

BitKeeper then turned open source before eventually being discontinued. Git, however, remains the most popular software control tool, with GitHub and GitLab, etc. being the most massive code bases used by everyone.

2. X.Org takes on XFree86's advertising clause

X Window System, aka X11 is one of the graphic windowing systems that are used in many Linux distributions as of now, and was used almost exclusively all major distributions before Wayland came along.

The most popular implementation of X11 used to be XFree86. It began to go sour when the development of the software started to stagnate, as the core team began to resist progress. Things changed in 2004 when XFree86 wanted to include an advertising clause in their license, making it incompatible with the GPL license. This caused some tension within the community with the developers of major distributions warning to pull out.

As a response, X.Org Foundation made the X.Org Server based on the last open source compatible version of XFree86. It became really popular really fast, replacing XFree86 in most of the major distributions within months. With a modular structure and transparency in development, X.Org became integral in graphical Linux operating systems, only now starting to be slowly replaced by a different windowing system entirely, Wayland.

3. Icinga takes on Nagios

In an IT workplace, all the technological elements of the system need to be monitored well. This is what is done by a network and infrastructure monitoring system, like Nagios. It is an application that can watch over servers, devices, applications, computers, etc. over a network, and report errors, if there are any.

Nagios dominated this area, being open-source and extensible. This modularity, however, became the reason for its downfall as the developers made the decision to move certain plugins and features behind paid tiers. Due to this increased commercialization and closed development, they started losing their users.

As a response, Icinga was made from a Nagios fork in 2009. They kept the backward compatibility to keep system from breaking, but put a step towards the future. Icinga offered a new web-interface, configuration format and improved scalability, essentially replacing Nagios as the preferred platform.

4. Illumos carries the legacy of OpenSolaris

Sun Microsystems had been a major player in the tech world, both hardware and software wise, during the dot-com boom. Solaris was a proprietary, UNIX based operating system designed by them that became really important in the industry. They then released OpenSolaris, which was their daring attempt at open-sourcing their powerful OS. Eventually, however, Oracle acquired Sun in 2010, abruptly abandoning the OpenSolaris project, leaving a lot of people hanging in the process.

The solution? Some of the former Sun engineers and the open-source community came together to build Illumos from the last open-source version of OpenSolaris. It aimed to carry forward the userbase and legacy of OpenSolaris, and to continually develop new features, keeping the OS relevant. It has retained the excellent and distinguishing features of OpenSolaris such as the ZFS filesystem and DTrace. It has since then been the basis for other operating systems as well, like OpenIndiana, OmniOS and SmartOS.

5. OpenSearch when ElasticSearch went SSPL

ElasticSearch, soon after its release became the preferred search engine of enterprises all across the world. Providing rich analytics and usage statistics, it seemed to fulfill all the needs. Initially open source under Apache 2.0, ElasticSearch was later on moved to the SSPL (Server Side Public License), which is not a license recognized by the OSI. Amazon saw the opportunity and picked up the slack by forking the last open source release of ElasticSearch and adding their own spin to it, bringing about OpenSearch, which is open source.

OpenSearch retains most of the important features ElasticSearch had along with the look and feel, and adds more on top such as easy AWS integration and cloud alignment, which proves to be a great advantage for most web service purposes.

ElasticSearch came back as open source project again in 2024. But the damage was done as big players like Amazon has already put OpenSearch at the forfront of cloud servers.

6. VeraCrypt continues TrueCrypt

Disk encryption is one of the most, if not the most important security feature on an operating system. For a very long time, this job was reliably done by TrueCrypt, with automatic and on-the-fly encryption. However suddenly in 2014, TrueCrypt announced that they would not develop the program any further, and that the program was "not secure". It is unclear what the proper reasoning was (as flaws that major were not found) but in their message, they asked the users to switch to Microsoft's BitLocker.

That didn't seem to take with the open-source community, which them proceeded to build VeraCrypt, forked from the last version of TrueCrypt. VeraCrypt carried on the existing features well, also improving various factors including stronger encryption algorithms, better key derivation functions and rapid bug fixing. It is known for being transparent and community-driven and hence very trusted.

7. Rocky Linux born in the aftermath of CentOS fiasco

CentOS was an operating system by Red Hat that was based on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Limited) source code, getting all of its features a few months after RHEL itself, only free of cost. CentOS was eventually transitioned into CentOS Stream, which is a rolling release. The features now came in faster, but the stability was significantly hindered. This made is unsuitable for development environments, commercial uses or even personal usage.

To resolve the situation, one of the original creators of CentOS created Rocky Linux in 2021, filling in the gap that CentOS left behind. It was, and ever since has been enterprise-ready and rock-solid stable. Being based on RHEL, it can be used in high-performance computing, cloud and hyperscale computing, as well as for smaller commercial systems.

8. OpenELA tackles RHEL's partially close source moves

Following up the previous point, this one carries it further. RHEL had announced that the only source code that will be publicly available related to RHEL would be the CentOS Stream, and for Red Hat customers, it would be available through the customer portal. Understandably, the developers of the distributions based on RHEL were not pleased with the decision.

CIQ, the company backing Rocky Linux, SUSE and Oracle responded by forming OpenELA (Open Enterprise Linux Association) with the goal of creating distributions compatible with RHEL, while keeping the source code open to all. It was supposed to be an answer to the hole that the dependency of enterprise operating systems on CentOS had left behind.

The group has automated the task of paying to get access to the source code and then publishing it on a public repository, out for everyone to be able to access it and make an operating system out of it. Several distributions like Rocky Peridot, SUSE Open Build Service, Fedora Koji, and the AlmaLinux Build System were born out of the same.

9. OpenTofu fills the void after Terraform opted for Business Source License

The story starts with Terraform being a terrific open source for IaC (infrastructure-as-code) purposes. The idea is that it will let you visualize, manage and plan your computing infrastructure (such as VMs, databases, VPNs, etc.) not manually, but as code, which automatically then executes the needed action.

Terraform started as as open source, cross-cloud and was very extensible, which made it the go-to choice for everyone to the point where other services were being build around Terraform. In 2023, however, they decided to move from the open source MPL license to a BSL (Business Source License), which put several restrictions that put certain users at risk.

Concerned about the problems that might occur in the future, open source developers forked the last open source version of Terraform and released OpenTofu, which then was backed by the Linux Foundation itself. Now after some time has passed, OpenTofu has not only proven successful in its mission, but has features that Terraform lacks. Listening to the community and its needs, OpenTofu has found great success.

10. Valkey forked from Redis as it changed license

Redis (REmote DIctionary Server) was built to be an in-memory data store with blazing speed and utility. This meant that it could contain and retrieve data from RAM (with optional persistence to disk) with microsecond latency. This has several essential uses such as caching, session storage (like shopping carts), real-time analytics (like, share counts, etc.) and so on. Initially open source under the BSD license, it became wildly popular and an integral part of the internet's infrastructure.

In 2024, however, Redis announced a change in license which would restrict its use in commercial clouds, heavily affecting the users. In response, Valkey was created, which was born out of the last open source version of Redis. 100% Redis compatible and not governed by a single company, Valkey thrived as a drop-in replacement for Redis.

11. LineageOS carries on after CyanogenMod's demise

For a very long time, CyanogenMod had been the go-to option for Android users to install an alternative open-source operating system which could give them more control, customization and most importantly, freedom from any of the manufacturer's proprietary trackers, etc. Eventually, Cyanogen Inc. shifted its focus to more proprietary projects and discontinued the project.

The developers' response was to fork the last known version into LineageOS, successfully taking the place of CyanogenMod. It is still going strong as the best open-source option for Android, different ROMs for different devices, with enhanced security and customization. Not only that, but it offers extended software support to older devices that are not supported by their parent companies any longer.

12. MariaDB, the OG Business Source Licensee

MySQL is an open-source database management system that has been the biggest program of its kind, and for good reason. It has had amazing support and documentation, can be used for extremely large databases with read-heavy purposes, and is very simple to use (so easy that it is taught to schoolchildren). It was acquired by (yet another time) Oracle, and the open-source community feared that the development might become slow, features might become proprietary, and it might lose the openness.

In response, the original creator of MySQL Michael "Monty" Widenius created MariaDB, keeping it under the GPL license. It acted as a drop-in alternative to MySQL while also introducing new and exciting features that set it apart. It has since become the preferred management system in open-source projects.

Conclusion

Time and time again, the open source philosophy often trumps some rash business decisions, favoring openness and innovation. The twists and turns of these changes come from all sorts of different directions, but more often than not, good open source software has existed and thrived solely because people wanted them to. Let us know if you enjoyed this article in the comments. Cheers!

Arduino has been the cornerstone of embedded electronics projects for a while now. Be it DIY remote-controlled vehicles, binary clocks, power laces, or as is relevant to the month of publishing, flamethrowing Jack-O'-Lanterns! The versatility and affordability of the board has been uniquely unparalleled.

But now that Qualcomm has acquired Arduino projecting more AI-forward features with more powerful hardware, there might be some changes around the corner. Perhaps I am reading too much between the lines but not all of us have favorable views about Big Tech and corporate greed. We thought it might be a good time to look at some alternatives.

Since Arduino has a lot of different models with different features, we will not draw a comparison between Arduino and other boards, but just highlight the unique features these alternative boards have.

1. Raspberry Pi Pico

Raspberry Pi needs no introduction, it being the one company besides Arduino that has always been the favorite of tinkerers. While Raspberry Pi is known for its full fledged single-board-computers, the Pico is a development board for programming dedicated tasks like the Arduino boards.

There are two releases of the Pico at the time of writing this article, 1 and 2. The major upgrade being the processor. There are certain prefixes which denote model features, "W" denoting wireless capabilities, "H" denoting pre-soldered headers. Here, I describe the cutting-edge model, the Pico 2 W with Headers.

• Processors: Dual Cortex-M33 (ARM) upto 133 MHz and optional Hazard3 processors (RISC-V)
• Memory: 520 KB on-chip SRAM
• Input-Output: 26 GPIO pins
• Connectivity: Optionally 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2 on the W model
• Power: Micro-USB
• Programming Software or Language: MicroPython or C/C++
• Price: $8
• Extra Features: Temperature sensor

The greatest advantage of Raspberry Pi is the huge userbase, second probably only to Arduino. Besides that, the GPIO pins make projects easier to construct, and the optional RISC-V processors give it an open-source experimental edge that many long for.

2. ESP32

ESP32 is a SoC that has soared in popularity in the past decade, and for all the right reasons. It comes in very cheap, screaming "hobbyist" and is committed to good documentation and an open SDK (software development kit). It came as a successor to the already very successful and still relevant ESP8266 SoC.

The categorization is a little to get a hang of because of the sheer number of boards available. The original ESP32 SoC boards come with dual-core Xtensa LX6 processors that go up to 240 MHz, and they come with Wi-Fi + Bluetooth classic/LE built-in. The ESP32-S series are a little enhanced, with more GPIO pins for connectivity. Now the ESP32-C series transitioned to RISC-V chips, and finally the ESP32-H series are designed for ultra low-power IoT applications. If the board name has WROOM, it belongs to the original basic family but the ones with WROVER indicate modules with PSRAM and more memory in general. You can find all the "DevKits" here.

Getting over the whole naming culture, I will directly describe one board here that might fulfill your Arduino-alternative needs, ESP32-DevKitC-VE:

• Processors: Dual-core 32-bit LX6 upto 240 MHz
• Memory: 8 MB
• Input-Output: 34 programmable GPIOs
• Connectivity: 802.11 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 with BLE
• Power: Micro-USB
• Programming Software or Language: Arduino IDE, PlatformIO IDE (VS Code), LUA, MicroPython, Espressif IDF (IoT Development Framework), JavaScript
• Price: $11
• Extra Features: Breadboard friendly, rich set of peripheral interfaces

I encourage you to do your own research based on your needs of the board and choose one, as the support and hardware is rock solid but the sheer number of options can be a little tricky to figure out.

3. Adafruit Feather

Adafruit Feather isn't a single board, but a category of hardware boards that come with all sorts of different features and processors each. The idea is getting a "feather", which is the board, and then getting "wings" which are hats/shields, basically extending the features and abilities of the board, and there are a huge number of them. This extensible versatility is the most attractive features of the boards but also the reason why I cannot describe one board that best suits the needs of any user. I can, however, tell you what options they provide.

All Feathers

• Can be programmed with Arduino IDE
• Come with Micro-USB or USB-C
• Are 0.9" long and breadboard-compatible
• Can be run with either USB power or a LiPo battery

Processors

The boards are available with several different processors, such as:

• Atmel ATmega32u4 and ATmega 328P - 8 bit AVR
• Atmel ATSAMD21 - 32 bit ARM Cortex M0+
• Atmel ATSAMD51 - 32-bit ARM Cortex M4
• Broadcom/Cypress WICED - STM32 with WiFi
• Espressif ESP8266 and ESP32 - Tensilica with WiFi/BT
• Freescale MK20 - ARM Cortex M4, as the Teensy 3.2 Feather Adapter
• Nordic nRF52832 and nRF32840 - ARM Cortex & Bluetooth LE
• Packet radio modules featuring SemTech SX1231
• LoRa radio modules featuring SemTech SX127x

A good model to look into for an Arduino alternative is Adafruit ESP32 Feather V2.

Connectivity and wings

The "feathers" have different categories based on their connectivity. The categories include:

• Basic Feathers
• Wi-Fi Feathers
• Bluetooth Feathers
• Cellular Feathers
• LoRa and Radio Feathers

This doesn't mean that these connectivity features are mutually exclusive, there are several boards which have more than one of theses connectivity options.

The Wings add all the functionality to the boards, and the number of options are immense. I cannot possibly list them here.

4. Seeeduino

As Arduino alternatives go, this board seems to be one of the most worthy of holding that title. It looks like an Arduino, works with the software that Arduino is compatible with, and even supports the shields made for UNO-R3. Here is the description of the most recent model at the time of writing this, Seeeduino V4.3:

• Processors: ATmega328
• Memory: 2 KB RAM, 1 KB EEPROM and 32 KB Flash Memory
• Input-Output: 14 digial IO pins, 6 analog inputs
• Power: Micro-USB, DC Input Jack
• Programming Software or Language: Arduino IDE
• Price: $7.6

If you need a no-brainer Arduino alternative that delivers what it does with stability and efficiency, this should be your go-to choice.

5. STM32 Nucleo Boards

STM32 offers a very, very wide range of development boards, among which the Nucleo boards seem like the best alternatives for Arduino. They come in three series as well: Nucleo-32, Nucleo-64 and Nucleo-144, the numbers at the end of which denote the number of connectivity pins that the board offers. Every single series has a number of models within, again. Here, I will describe the one most appropriate as an Arduino alternative:

STM32 Nucleo-F103RB

• Microcontroller: STM32
• Input-Output: 64 IO pins; Arduino shield-compatible
• Connectivity: Arduino Uno V3 expansion connector
• Power: Micro-USB
• Programming Software or Language: IAR Embedded Workbench, MDK-ARM, STM32CubeIDE, etc.
• Price: $10.81
• Extra Features: 1 programmable LED, 1 programmable button, 1 reset button
• Optional Features: Second user LED, cryptography, USB-C, etc.

STM32 provides great hardware abstraction, ease of development, GUI based initialization, good resources and more. If that is the kind of thing you need, then this should probably be your choice.

6. micro:bit

micro:bit boards are designed mostly for younger students and kids to learn programming, but offer some really interesting features that can help anyone make a project without buying many extra parts. In fact, this is one of the ideal tools for introducing STEM education to young children.

Here are the details of the most recent version at the time of writing, micro:bit v2:

• Processors: Nordic Semiconductor nRF52833
• Memory: 128 KB RAM, 512 KB Flash Memory
• Input-Output: 25 pins (4 dedicated GPIO, PWM, I2C, SPI)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, radio
• Power: Micro-USB
• Programming Software or Language:
• Price: $17.95 (other more expensive bundles with extra hardware are also available)

The extra built-in features of the board include:

• 2 built in buttons that can be programmed in different ways
• Touch sensor on the logo, temperature sensor
• Built-in speaker and microphone
• 25 programmable LEDs
• Accelerometer and compass
• Reset and power button

If a plethora of extra hardware features capable of executing almost anything you might want, or if you want a development board with extensive documentation for younger audiences, this should be your go to choice. The company doesn't only make great boards, but also supports inclusive technological education for children of all abilities, and sustainability, which is admirable.

7. Particle Photon 2

The Particle Photon 2 is a board designed with ease of prototyping in mind. It enables IoT projects, giving broad customization options to both hardware and software. The Photon is also Feather-compatible (from Adafruit), giving the ability to attach Wings to extend the features.

• Processors: ARM Cortex M33, upto 200 MHz
• Memory: 3MB RAM, 2MB Flash Memory
• Input-Output: 16 GPIO pins
• Connectivity: Dual-band Wi-Fi and BLE 5.3
• Power: Micro-USB
• Programming Software or Language: VSC plug-in
• Price: $17.95

The Photon also has a built-in programmable LED. Particle also provides a Wi-Fi antenna add-on component if your project requires that. If building new product ideas is your need, this might just be what you're looking for.

8. Teensy Development Boards

The Teensy board series, as the name suggests, aims for a small board with a minimal footprint with a lot of power packed at an affordable price. There have been several releases of the board, with the most recent one at the time of writing being Teensy 4.1:

• Processors: ARM Cortex-M7 at 600 MHz
• Memory: 1024K RAM, 8MB Flash Memory
• Input-Output: 55 digital IO pins, 18 analog input pins
• Power: Micro-USB,
• Programming Software or Language: Arduino IDE + Teensyduino, Visual Micro, PlatformIO, CircuitPython, command line
• Price: $31.50
• Extra Features: Onboard Micro SD card

If you need a stable base for your project that just works, this might be your choice. It is worth noting that the Teensy boards have excellent audio libraries and offer a lot of processing power.

9. PineCone

PineCone is a development board from one of the foremost open source companies, Pine64. It provides amazing features and connectivity, making it ideal for a lot of tinkering purposes.

• Processors: 32-bit RV32IMAFC RISC-V “SiFive E24 Core”
• Memory: 2 MB Flash Memory
• Input-Output: 18 GPIO pins
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, BLE 5.0, Radio
• Power: USB-C
• Programming Software or Language: Rust
• Price: $3.99
• Extra Features: 3 on-board LEDs

The RISC-V processor capability gives it the open-source hardware edge that many other boards lack. That makes it quite good for IoT prototyping into devices and technologies that might be very new and untapped.

10. Sparkfun Development Boards

Sparkfun has a whole range of boards on their website, out of which the two most notable series are the "RedBoard" series and the "Thing" series. A big part of some of these boards is the Qwiic ecosystem, in which I2C sensors, actuators, shields, etc. can be connected to the board with the same 4-pin connector. Not only that, but you can daisy-chain the boards in one string, making it more convenient and less prone to errors. Here's a great article to learn about the Qwiic ecosystem.

Sparkfun RedBoard Qwiic

This is another board that is a perfect alternative to Arduino with extra features because it was designed to be so. It is an Arduino-compatible board, supporting the software, shields, etc.

• Microcontroller: ATmega328 with UNO's Optiboot Bootloader
• Input-Output: 20 Digital IO pins, 1 Qwiic connector
• Connectivity: 20 Digital I/O pins with 6 PWM pins
• Power: Micro-USB, Pin input
• Programming Software or Language: Arduino IDE
• Price: $21.95

Sparkfun Thing Plus Series

The Sparkfun Thing Plus series comes in with sorts of different processors and connection abilities like RP2040, RP2350, nRF9160, ARM Cortex-M4, ESP32-based, STM32-based, etc. We've chosen to describe one of the most popular models here, SparkFun Thing Plus - ESP32 WROOM (USB-C).

• Microcontroller: ESP32-WROOM Module
• Input-Output: 21 Multifunctional GPIO
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, dual integrated Bluetooth (classic and BLE)
• Power: USB-C, Qwiic connector
• Programming Software or Language: Arduino IDE
• Price: $33.73
• Extra Features: RGB status LED, built-in SD card slot, Adafruit Feather compatible (you can attach the "Wings")

Sparkfun offers a lot of options, especially based on the form-factor. They not only provide /new unique features of their own, but also utilize the open technologies provided by other companies very well, as you can see.

Conclusion

The Arduino boards clearly have a lot of alternatives, varying in size, features and practicality. If Arduino being acquired puts a bad taste in your mouth, or even if you just want to explore what the alternatives offer, I hope this article has been helpful for you. Please let us know in the comments if we missed your favorite one. Cheers!

The e-ink display technology arrived on the scene as the answer for a long list of issues and desires people had with digital book reading. The strain on the eyes, the distractions, the low battery life—all of it fixed in one swoop.

While the most popular option that remains in the category is an Amazon Kindle, not everyone of us would want a DRM-restricted Big Tech ecosystem.

As a Linux user and open source enthusiast, I wanted something more 'open' and thus I scoured the World Wide Web and came up with a few interesting options.

I have put them into two categories:

• DIY: You use a board like Raspberry Pi Pico and you build it yourself thanks to the blueprint provided by the project developer. This is for hardware tinkerers.
• A couple of non-DIY options that may be considered here.

Needless to say, you should not expect a polished, out of the box eBook experience like Amazon Kindle but that's not what we are aiming for here, are we?

Also, I have not tested these projects on my own. As much as I would like to, I don't have enough money to get all of them and experiment with them.

1. The Open Book

The Open Book project is the definitively DIY ebook reader project. It is based on the Raspberry Pi Pico, and makes a point of having to buy a minimum number of components. The pins on the Pico make it easy to control all necessary actions including button controls, power controls, etc. The firmware is called libros, which needs to be flashed onto the Pico. It also uses a library called Babel that gives it the ability to display the text of all languages in the world, which is a major advantage.

• Display: 4.2" GDEW042T2 display, designed for fast refreshing
• Formats supported: Plain UTF-8 text, TXT files (a converter is given by the creator)
• Battery: 2 AAA batteries
• Cost: Can differ depending on the cost of the hardware you decide to go with, but a decent build can be made at about $130.

The PCB for the main board as well as the e-paper driver are easily printable because the schematics are given by the creator. The instructions for setting up the device and getting books ready to be read on the device are given very clearly and concisely on the website.

2. ZEReader

ZEReader is a device inspired by The Open Book, making another iteration of the Raspberry Pi Pico based e-ink device. This project is relatively more convenient as it provides a USB-C port for charging. The convenience is not only limited to the usage, but also the assembly. The software is based on Zephyr Real-Time OS, which makes it easier for the software to be adapted to other hardware boards as well.

• Display: 7.5" Waveshare ePaper display
• Formats supported: EPUB, very basic HTML parsing
• Battery: LiPo battery
• Cost: Unknown

For navigation, there are 4 buttons designed on the casing. The board is printable with schematics available online, and the parts can be gathered as the user pleases according to the requirements. There's a micro SD card necessary for storage of files. The instructions can all be found on the GitHub page, along with the information of the parts and software commands. Get more information on our news article about the device.

3. Dual-Screen E-Reader

The big idea behind this project is getting back to the feeling of reading a two-paged book instead of a single-page pamphlet-like structure like a Kindle provides. A button press to change the page moves both the pages ahead, making it feel more natural, similar to an actual book.

Instead of a full single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi, this uses a SoC, ESP32-S3. This provides a significant edge to the power consumption, drawing very low power as it is in the reading mode, but in the deep sleep mode, which occurs after 10 minutes of inactivity, it reduces power consumption even more dramatically, basically never needing to be turned off.

• Display: 2 x 4.2" panels
• Formats supported: EPUB, basic HTML
• Battery: 2 x 1300 mAh batteries
• Cost: Original creator's estimate is a little over $80.

The parts are all laid out in a very concise list on the originating Reddit post with all the relevant information linked there effectively. The project is posted on Yanko Design as well in a well written post.

4. piEreader

The piEreader aims for a fully open approach, that includes the hardware, software, and even a server to host a library. The heart of the device is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module, giving it more capabilities than an average microcontroller.

The display on the build has a touch-screen as well as a backlight. The software revolves around MuPDF, which is a very well known popular e-book reader on the Linux platform.

• Display: 4.2" e-paper display
• Formats supported: EPUB, MOBI, CBZ, PDF, etc.
• Battery: Lithium battery
• Cost: Unknown

The Hackaday page contains all the necessary information, and the GitLab page hosts all the necessary code. It is worth noting that the creator has been able to successfully try out the software on other boards like PINE64-LTS, SOQUARTZ, etc. as well. Read more about this device in our news article.

5. TurtleBook

Taking an extremely practical approach, the creator of TurtleBook made some really innovative choices.

First, and as they mention, most e-book readers have a lot of unnecessary features when mostly all that is needed is turning a page. As such, the reader doesn't have any physical buttons. It works on gestures, which can be used to switch pages, open menus and adjust brightness, among other things.

Also since e-ink technology doesn't require a lot of power, the power setup is solar with hybrid capacitors, making it truly autonomous and one-of-a-kind. The device is based on an Arduino MEGA2560 board.

• Display: Waveshare 5.3" e-ink display, and a small OLED panel for easily accessing the menu options
• Formats supported: CB files (custom formatting website is given by the creator)
• Battery: Hybrid capacitors
• Cost: $80-$120

All the necessary parts and the links to them are provided by the creator in a list on the GitHub page, as well as the schematics for the PCBs and 3D-printable casing. There are two options, one with SRAM, a charger and WiFI capabilities and the other one with no charger or WiFi. The Instructables page for the device has very detailed instructions for the entire process, making it one of the most friendly options on this list.

6. EPub-InkPlate

Inkplate 6 from Soldred Electronics is basically an ESP-32 based e-Paper display. Inkplate uses recycled screens from old, discarded e-Book readers. Excellent intiative.

The project is open source both software and hardware wise. While you can build a lot of cool devices on top of it, the EPub-InkPlate project allows you to convert it into an eBook reader.

Although, the GitHub repo doesn't seen any new updates since 2022, it could be worth giving a shot if you already have an InkPlate display.

7. PineNote (not DIY)

While not DIY like the other projects on the list, PineNote is from the company Pine64, which has been one of the most actively pro-open source companies in recent times.

Since it is pre-built by a proper manufacturer, it can provide a lot of stable features that the DIY projects might lack. To start with, it is immensely powerful and has a Linux-based OS. It has a 128 GB eMMC storage, 4 GB RAM, and an ARM processor.

• Display: 10.3" multi-touch e-ink panel with frontlighting and an optional Wacom EMR pen
• Formats supported: PDF, MOBI, CBZ, TXT, etc. virtually any format
• Battery: 4000 mAh lithium battery
• Cost: $400 (I know but it's not just an e-Book reader)

It also is charged by USB-C and can be expanded into different sorts of projects, not just an e-book reader since it is based on an unrestricted Linux OS.

Special Mention: paper 7

Don't confuse this paper 7 with the Paper 7 e-ink tablet from Harbor Innovations. That Paper 7 is also an excellent device but not open source.

Yes. The paper 7 I am talking about is an open source device, or at least it is in the process. It is developed by a company called paperless paper based in Leipzig, Germany. It has been designed mainly as a photo frame, but I think it can be repurposed into an e-book reader.

Presently, the official integration shows that you can save and read webpages on it. Adding the ability to read PDF and ePUB files would be wonderful.

Conclusion

There are a lot of options to choose from, each with something more distinct than the last. The extent of the open-source philosophy, the amount of effort it might require, the extra features the devices have are some of the factors that might influence your decision when choosing the right device for yourself.

Whatever your choice may be, you might find yourself with a new device as well as a new interest, perhaps, after dabbling into the DIY side of open technology. We wish you the very best for it. Let us know what you think about it in the comments. Cheers!