My Year in Linux/FOSS (Dylan)

2021 is coming to a close which gives us a chance to look back on the previous year and a chance to look forward to next year when COVID will hopefully be behind us (why does that sound familiar).

The ItsMoss crew will each offer their thoughts using this form for the discussion. Feel free to join in with your thoughts in the comments section.

Favourite Distribution(s): Linux Mint Cinnamon (always), Lubuntu, Manjaro XFCE (for ARM)

Favourite New Hardware (that you own): Powerlead Mechanical Keyboard with volume knob. I’ll write a review on this eventually.

Hardware that I Want: System76 Thelio Major

Favourite FOSS project in 2021: Krita. This answer was tough. I feel like so many projects deserve recognition. I picked one that I haven’t had a chance to support just yet.

Favourite closed source project (if any): Master PDF Editor. Going in to 2021 the lack of a decent pdf editor was my last barrier to switching to Linux. Master PDF is so good that is now my go-to editor for Windows 10 systems too. I’ll write a review on this soon.

FOSS projects that I have contributed to in 2021 (financial or otherwise): Linux Mint, Firefox, Libreoffice, Inkscape (donations). ProtonMail, Bitwarden, and Linode (pay for services).

Project/Product release that I am most looking forward to in 2022: Pinenote. You know I love my Pine64 products and this one has the potential to be a gamechanger.

Best News in 2021: Nextcloud hub 22. There were plenty of other options here but I really wanted to find a way to recognize this amazing project.

Worst News in 2021: Leo, Moss, and Tony all leave Mintcast. They were all instrumental in the early stages of my Linux transition. That said, I do like the new hosts.

Positive Prediction for 2022: Raspberry Pi foundation gets ahead of the curve and releases a RISC-V board for the masses.

Negative Prediction for 2022: Steamdeck disappoints and the project is cancelled before it can get off the ground. I hope that I am wrong here.

Favourite Linux/FOSS Podcast: Mintcast, Distrohoppers Digest (don’t make me choose). Linux for everyone would also be listed here if Jason and co could ever get things together.

Favourite Linux/FOSS News Source: Linux Action News

Ambitious goal for 2022: Compile from source for the first time