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 /usr and /opt (or /etc via 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!