Gift ideas for FOSS enthusiasts
Nikita Gusarov
Personally I have rather mixed feeling towards the wishlists. Even though having a list of gifts is convenient, it somewhat reduces the joy. However, after some recent discussions I’ve realised that probably creating some sort of wishlist may be not such a bad idea. But making this “wishlist” useful for some other people may be an even better idea.
So, what can be interesting for people who adore gadgets and tinkering, preferring at the same time to stick with some Open Source solutions? Well, first of all I’ve looked through some suggestions and gift-lists over the Internet, but was astonished by sometimes ill chosen ideas. Mugs with UNIX memes? Tee-shirts with TUX? FOSS based symbolic and sometimes absolutely useless accessories? Evidently, it’s only my point of view, but such things are rather boring and uninteresting.
As I see it, the gift should always have at least some utility and giving a mug has sense only when you know that the person has nothing to drink from. But what are the alternatives?
OSH and near-OSH phones
There are two different categories of phones on the market. First of all, there are brand new OSH or near-OSH phones, that were designed to run open source software. Secondly, we face a number of after-market solutions: phones with reinstalled OS and de-googled phones (among the most popular devices for this purpose now are Google Pixel phones).
Brand new phones
For full list of Open Source Hardware phones one may look at this wikipedia page. Here are some examples:
- Pinephone: from 149€
- Volla Phone: from 359€
- Fairphone: from 399€
- F(x)tec Phone: from 599€
- Librem Phone: from 899€
Not all the examples in this list are completely OSH. Most of them have some non-OSH components, but they will be still quite interesting for the enthusiasts.
After-market phones
There is quite a number of companies who develop and reinitialise the devices to better suit FOSS enthusiasts:
- NitroPhone: from 549€
OSH laptops
Identically to phones this category may roughly be into two parts: (1) new OSH or Linux certified laptops and (2) refurbished and reconfigured machines. The second category includes mostly Libre- or Corebooted devices. Take in mind that it is more cheap to install the required software yourself and that someone who is interested in FOSS can probably do it.
New machines:
- Pine ARM based laptops: starting from 219$
- Slimbook laptops: starting from 549€
- Entroware laptops: starting from 579£
- June laptops: starting from 649£
- TUXEDO laptops: starting from 724£
- MNT Reform modular laptop: from 899€
- System76 laptops: starting from 1099$
- Purism laptops: starting from 1570$
Refurbished solutions:
- Ministry of Freedom refurbished solutions: starting from 278€
- NitroPad: starting from 550€
- Viking refurbished solutions: no info
Identically to previous category not all the examples are completely OS, some of them are simply Linux certified hardware. This particular list was inspired by this “It’s FOSS” post.
Single board computers
The single board solutions can be very interesting if one has some projects in mind (otherwise it risks collecting dust).
- Raspberry Pi: from 5.50€
- Pine64 production: from 21$
- ODROID boards: from 53$
- ASUS tinker boards: from 95$
However, it may be more exciting to look at the prebuild packs instead of the standalone boards. For example, the retro-gaming Recalbox solutions.
Security Keys
In 2021 it becomes a plain necessity to use more elaborate security measures than a simple password. The two-factor authentification is now strictly indispensable. Here is a short list of hardware password managers inspired by this techradar post:
- Yubico YubiKey: from 24€
- NitroKey: from 29€
- SoloKey: from 20€
- OnlyKey: from 46€
- Thetis keys: from 24€
Have in mind that the cheapest devices do not support as many applications, which can lead to a discouraging experience. It is good to know that for better reliability it’s suggested to buy two devices at the same time in order to avoid resetting all the credentials in case of loss or damage to the key.
OSH gadgets
As you have probably remarked, all the products except some of simplest single board computing modules are rather expensive for casual gifts. Moreover, many of these options are rather controversial when it comes to making a gift: can you be sure that the person will be ready to switch the hardware? For example, I cherish my X220 ThinkPad and would doubtfully replace it with something else.
This section regroups some more ideas of various tech items, which may be interesting.
Smart Watches
This category becomes more and more popular, with only disadvantage being the lack of OSH products. Here is one of them, which will be a nice replacement for any non-OSH alternative:
- PineTime: from 26$
Privacy oriented Home Servers
Even though such devices are usually based on available single board computers, they are usually bundled with all essential setup materials and software. This makes the installation more easy and makes such solutions much more attractive for casual users. For example:
- FreedomBox: from 69€
Tablets
I rarely use my tablet and do not see any particular advantage in them. For me they are mostly a product filling the gap between the phone and the laptop.
- PineTab: from 99$
Smart Home
Open source alternative to Google Home or Amazon Echo? It exists!
- Mycroft: from 150€
Keyboards
For many of tech enthusiasts a good keyboard may be as interesting. Although here I can no means to confirm the OSH behind the proposed items.
For ThinkPad enthusiasts a keyboard with their preferred layout and a TrackPoint may be particularly interesting:
- TEX Shinobi: from 109$ for DIY kit
- TEX Yoda II: 295$
More alternatives can be found in this LaptopRetrospective post. Unluckily nearly all of the keyboards in this post can be found only as after-market.
For other users, who prefer standard layout:
- System76 Launch keyboard: from 285$
And finally, a full spectre of foldable or other types of portable keyboards.
E-ink notebooks
Once again a category represented by Pine64 produced specimen. Probably somewhere other alternatives exist.
- PineNote: unknown
Not OSH but may still be interesting
The last category regroups non OSH (or not fully OSH) gadgets. There are always more fascinating things for tech-lovers over the Internet.
- Alternative Health tracker: 314€
- 3D printers as discussed here or [here]: the cheapest ones may go under 200€ (ex: Delta Mini V2)
- Portable projectors (another list on techradar): from 139€
- External GPU’s: among the best specimens we can name EXP GDC Beast for around 50€, but pay attention to the connectors)
- Headphones (for those, who still did not have found their best solution): from ~10€
- USB/SD drives (one can never have enough mobile storage): from ~10€
And a lot more interesting tools not directly related to tech:
- GPS trackers as an AirTag alternative: around 25€
- Key Organisers: from 24€
- Toolkits (ex: IFixIt toolkits): from 14€
- Card Holder Wallets: from ~10€