I use 100% open source software on my hardware and electronics projects I build. Not only because I’m cheap and don’t have a lot of extra money to waste on software, I like the idea of software that is generally future compatible, and is easily adjustable to my needs. If I have a problem with the open source software I am using, solutions are usually only a short internet search away.

At this point, open source software is generally as good as commercial software, at least for my needs. It also is free of advertising, and doesn’t sell my personal data to other vendors. If only such things existed for my Android Smartphone. Software is easily obtained using an internet connection the apt-get system, no anti-virus software is required, updates are free and automatic for the life of your hardware. The Unix-based system is well designed, robust and sensible – it lacks many of the idiosyncrasies of other person-computing operating systems built on DOS. Terminal scripts and applications make quick work for basic tasks, once you learn the commands.

The only downside of Linux is hardware support. While Windows and Mac OS are never plug-and-play as they claim to be, Linux hardware support much more mixed. Many things are plug-and-play with Linux, especially common hardware that has straightforward industry-based interfaced or a vendor willing to let their hardware secrets out there. Many generic China-made hardware works really good with Linux.

But somethings don’t work well or at all, and I’ve noticed that to be a real problem with my laptop’s built-in wifi and Bluetooth. I’ve long gotten the the wi-fi to work permissably well, although lately it broke at the public wi-fi at the library. Eventually I got it fixed, but it was a pain. Bluetooth not so much, but I was able to fix that with an external $1.12 dongle I got from AliExpress, and I may look at getting a similar low-cost wi-fi dongle. Kind of a pain though carrying around all those extra dongles. Now to figure out the bluetooth serial – that’s not a hardware problem, but a permissions problem.

Linux and open source software is a lot of fun to use, even with it’s problems. And I am enjoying using the simple interfaces and working with microcontroller, sensors, and electronic components with the Arduino IDE, especially now that I’ve obtained one and will get more ESP32 based microcontrollers which have much more memory and capacity.