Passless — a Virtual FIDO2 / Passkey device and client for Linux
https://github.com/pando85/passless

https://redd.it/1pibsmz
@r_opensource

I decided to open source my social platform project

Over the last few months I have been working on a project that allows you to spin up your own self-hosted social platform, complete with a web interface, iOS/Android client apps, and a robust backend.

https://axionnode.com

It is similar to Reddit in terms of functionality (communities, posts, user accounts, comments, upvote/downvote), except now with it being open source, you can customize it for your personal or corporate use, and then run your own version of a social platform.

The frontend is React Native using Expo, and you can build clients for iOS and Android easily. On the backend it uses Django / Python.

I originally designed it to work seamlessly with Google Cloud Platform (using Cloud Build, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, etc), but I’m hoping that others may assist me to make it cloud agnostic, and add improved video functionality support.

Thanks for checking it out. Fork away and let me know if anyone might want to contribute to it.

It has been a labour of love and a fun project to try and tackle.


https://redd.it/1pidz0z
@r_opensource

Rant I'm completing my first serious project but looking back it mostly feels a waste of time

I love technology and programming but as I'm approaching the release of my first "grown-up" open source software (a software needed by school in my local community and that probably will be adopted by many other school in my region since they all share that niche need) I wonder if open source programming is a worthy investment of my limited time.

I totally believe in the beauty of having open source software implemented with love (especially in this age of enshittification where even a simple app to split expenses is ad-filled to the brim) and in the importance of digital sovereignty the issue is... people around me (and I'm pretty sure around many of you) don't care about this nerd stuff and its totally okay but at the same time its very hard to stay motivated when people close to you perceives you as a loser who spends many nights each week staring at funny code or an idiot which could "make bank with apps" but wastes his time giving away his work for free.

The other big motivations which pushed me to embark in open source programming were the opportunity to upskill and improve at day job and the sheer fun in building something without the constraints I have at my 9-5 programming job but I'm gradually finding out that in jobs once you get your foot in the door "playing the game" and selling yourself is much more important than actual skills and while I had definitely many fun and creative moments writing my application I'm not sure they're worth the expenditure of mental energy they costed. Even surfing Reddit is fun but unlike programming it doesn't require significant effort so I may as well do that or... use that time and energy to do volunteering that actually benefit people around me in more immediate ways than "free custom school software", both makes much more sense from an utilitarian POV.

Said that even if at the moment I'm pretty demotivated what I'm planning to do is to stay disciplined, complete the project and give it the maintenance and bugfixes it needs (it's not a complex software so I don't expect many bugs), regardless if its going to be fun or unfun. I'm still grateful that I was trusted to do this project and I want to repay the trust with a good job.

I'm just wondering if it makes sense to keep programming as an hobby, I enjoy it and already had many other projects and stuff to learn in the pipeline but considering the negligible job benefits and "negative" social benefits maybe its better to invest that time in:

\- Stuff I still enjoy but takes less effort
\- Stuff which gives me more tangible benefits
\- Stuff which gives other people tangible benefits

https://redd.it/1pif5kv
@r_opensource

I built stay-active - keeps Microsoft Teams showing "Active" on macOS

Problem: Teams marks you "Away" after 5 minutes. No setting to change it.

Solution: A shell noscript that simulates natural activity (mouse + keyboard) at random intervals.

GitHub: https://github.com/sleekhost/stay-active

Tech: Bash + cliclick

Install: One curl command

Size: \~6KB

Would love feedback!

https://redd.it/1pibqzu
@r_opensource

Snapchat now charges for >5GB Memories — so I made a free open-source downloader that actually works

Snapchat now wants you to pay once your Memories exceed 5 GB, and their official export tool is unreliable — some files download, some don’t, and it still shows “100%” even when large parts are missing.
I built an open-source downloader that fixes this by parsing the memories_history.html, reliably fetching every memory, correcting timestamps, adding EXIF metadata, extracting overlays, retrying failed items, and cleaning duplicates.
If your Snapchat export is incomplete or inconsistent, this solves the problem properly.

Repo:
https://github.com/ManuelPuchner/snapchat-memories-downloader

https://redd.it/1pig90p
@r_opensource

Here’s a project I made to facilitate my researcher life
https://youtu.be/_Y-NQ0-TpJ4

https://redd.it/1pih8gx
@r_opensource

Building a new way to reason with LLMs (we're also paying contributors to the repo)

Training reasoning models is really expensive and I had a suspicion that there was a lot of performance to be gained by exploring the models states better.

I’ve open-sourced a lightweight framework for latent-space reasoning, and the results have been more interesting than expected. With no fine-tuning and no access to logits, it consistently outperforms baseline outputs across a range of tasks just by evolving the model’s internal hidden state before decoding (including being able to solve problems that the base model struggles with). This uses a minimally trained judge (200 samples on a simple scorer; cost less than 50 cents to do completely) and preexisting models with no other tuning.

It works with any HF model, and the entire pipeline is intentionally simple so people can tear it apart, extend it, or replace pieces with better ideas. I’m putting up bounties for improvements because the goal here isn’t to claim we’ve solved reasoning, but to build a shared playground for exploring it. We're already collaborating with researchers in 2 of the top 5 AI Labs in the world to extend this with more sophisticated mechanisms (especially around aggregation and projections) but would love to have you guys in as well.


Let's make sure the new generation of reasoning is open source--

https://github.com/dl1683/Latent-Space-Reasoning

https://redd.it/1pimeg1
@r_opensource

How to get started with open source as a new CS grad?

Hey what's up y'all. I just graduated with a undergrad in CS and have been working as a software engineer at a mature tech company for about 6 months. I've learned quite a lot about how large scale applications and services are built and engineered, and I'm very appreciative of it.

However I'm soon going to a different company (better pay + standby flight benefits) where I'll work as a data engineer, but the actual engineering is much weaker there, and the projects I work on will be smaller scale and internal. I'll also be more accountable for my own work so I won't really have much senior help in engineering and designing of solutions.

But I still want to become a better software engineer overall as I see myself eventually going back into big tech/AI or quant (I'm doing a masters degree in ML, have undergrad degrees in applied math and CS).

I think the best way to hone my skills at that point is to become an open source contributer to well maintained projects, but I honestly don't know where to start. Just picking up issues, or reading forums all seems so daunting and hard to even begin.

For starters, my biggest problem is understanding large codebases. At my current job, I eventually understood mine better due to extensive architecture notes and just working on stuff for 40 hours a week. Obviously I wont have that same time or support level in open source software. GPT makes it easier to get started and reason about a codebase, but past that, it's still hard to work on software I'm not familiar with at all, my current job is my first experience with that, and its about to end :(


Second is the long term motivation. I think my job is very interesting, and the product I'm working on applies the concepts I learned in college very well, but ultimately I'm still doing it for the salary. I have a lot of hobbies outside of work, and staying motivated to stick to a project long term, for free, may be an issue. I dont know if that means this type of work just isn't for me, but I'd appreciate tips on how to actually stay committed to this stuff for no extrinsic reward.

https://redd.it/1pimwc8
@r_opensource

Async web scraping framework on top of Rust
https://github.com/BitingSnakes/silkworm

https://redd.it/1piodn1
@r_opensource

Is there an opensource dataset/app that shows national factory farms?

Im thinking of creating a dataset of U.S. factory farms since there isnt any good dataset or website that shows that so far from what Ive seen. But before I start I was wondering if anyone knew of one already?

If I end up making one then it would be completely opensource and would make a website displaying that information on a map.

https://redd.it/1pitree
@r_opensource

Releasing AnthroHeart: A Public-Domain Animation Project (Seeking Hosts for 8GB Bundle)
https://anthroentertainment.com/

https://redd.it/1pito7f
@r_opensource

Building a markdown based browser

Taking inspiration from my Kindle, I'm hobbling together a browser for hyperlinked markdown documents. I'm writing it in Python, and using Pyglet as the UI.

Why?

Honestly. . . I'm tired of getting online and having everything vying for my attention. I just want to read. To read documentation. To read news articles. To read blogs again, instead of Facebook.

Pages where I set the styling. And there aren't floating boxes everywhere. Where I'm not straining to see tiny Xs which need to be clicked with the precision of military marksman.

I'm tired of being fingerprinted and tracked from one domain to the next, like livestock.

I'm tired of a document standard so convoluted that Google's the only company capable of implementing it in its entirety.

What's your solution?

So, I'm combining the feel of a modern web browser with the simplicity of gopher, and a text styling somewhere in-between. Document-oriented formatting, like Kindle, where you can flow from page to page on a "website." Probably more like a webbook.

It doesn't block ads, but it shouldn't have to. Since most of its content will be in-line.

There is a query box at the end of the URL bar (think Firefox search box before they unified search and URL). Anything you enter into that box is appended to the end of the URL request as: ?q=query. Other than that, there's no other way to send information to the server. No headers. No cookies. Nothing.

What do you hope to accomplish

I don't plan to replace the web. More like. . . encourage people to blog again. Bring back directories (instead of search engines), where people can learn how to find their own information, instead of relying on what an AI tells them. Give documentation a space of its own. Encourage people to use other protocols to interact (email, FTP, Bittorrent). Lower server bandwidth requirements.

Basically, type out an email in Thunderbird to post to your blog, or post a classifieds listing.

My main goal is change how people use the web, from just logging onto Google and entering the information they want, to actually making them look for it and reason out how they got there.

So many people are asking Google for medical advice. Google is showing every single one of them custom tailored results. No one can tell what's real and what isn't. Whereas, if we went the card catalog (online directory) route, it'd actually force people to be aware of what they were doing and looking for. People wouldn't be zombies online anymore.

So. . .

1. Do you think anyone would actually use it?
2. Do you have any suggestions for it?

https://redd.it/1piveey
@r_opensource

Open Source Without Borders: Reflections from COSCon’25
https://opensource.org/blog/open-source-without-borders-reflections-from-coscon25

https://redd.it/1pix9az
@r_opensource

How (almost) any phone number can be tracked via WhatsApp & Signal
https://github.com/gommzystudio/device-activity-tracker

https://redd.it/1pizdi5
@r_opensource

Rephole - semantic code-search for your repos via REST API
https://github.com/twodHQ/rephole

https://redd.it/1pj0wfq
@r_opensource

How to Cultivate an Open-source Platform for learning Japanese from scratch
https://github.com/lingdojo/kana-dojo

https://redd.it/1pj1s1j
@r_opensource

AutoCAD LT Replacement?

I know this question has been asked multiple times, but I'd like an update from people that know about the advancements in the past few years, as well as what I'm looking for specifically. We use LT, which I believe is strictly 2D only, so no need for 3D. I believe the biggest thing we'd like are simplicity and similarity moving from AutoCAD LT in terms of UI layout and workflows. DXF and DWG support would be nice but I don't think it would be a deal breaker. I'm willing to pay for a perpetual license, but I'd like to stay away from adding subnoscriptions if possible.


I've seen people recommend FreeCAD, QCAD, LibreCAD, and nanoCAD. FreeCAD seems to have a focus on 3D which I don't believe we would need. I like the idea of QCAD having a one-time purchase perpetual license and having DXF/DWG support. LibreCAD seems to have a closer UI to AutoCAD LT? nanoCAD seems to mimic commands but it's subnoscription based. I know it would still be much cheaper than paying AutoDesk.

https://redd.it/1pj31pj
@r_opensource

I made a site that turns your GitHub history into a cinematic 2025 recap

Try : https://gitstory.pankajk.tech/
Repo : https://github.com/pankajkumardev/gitstory-2025

https://redd.it/1pj487y
@r_opensource

Chemical plant equipment cost database

Hi y'all. One of the major things that holds back green tech and climate tech hardware startups is making good estimates for the cost of their tech. This is my specialty.
One of the big reasons for the difficulty in making good estimates is the lack of good equipment cost data available. Large engineering firms keep this proprietary information in house.
I know it's a long shot, but does anyone know of a database of chemical plant equipment that is or could be open sourced?
I'm currently using notebooklm to search through textbooks but it's not ideal, especially as the data is very old.

https://redd.it/1pj6dyp
@r_opensource

Is there a real proof of an open weights AI model sending data to an external server

I'm wondering if there was an incident with a self hosted open weights AI model leaking data. I find it hard to believe that these companies are releasing their open weights models for free with no security threats.

https://redd.it/1pj6wfw
@r_opensource

Made a small project to turn images into pixel art using edge detection to preserves significant features
https://github.com/yogthos/pixel-mosaic

https://redd.it/1pj9fdn
@r_opensource