The Good Tech Companies - 5 Open-Source & Free Software Projects to Celebrate Christmas —And Support Via Kivach

Starting point is 00:00:00 This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. Five open source and free software projects to celebrate Christmas, and support via Kiva, by Obite. The holiday season seems like a great time to mix creativity, generosity, and technology. Around GitHub, you'll find plenty of open source and free projects that capture the Christmas spirit, from animated light displays and festive games to apps that help plant trees or organize gift exchanges. They're built by people who simply love to share what they create. With Kiva, supporting them is easier than ever. This open platform, based Onubite, lets you donate cryptocurrency directly to any GitHub project you care about.

Starting point is 00:00:41 It's fast, decentralized, and perfect for spreading some digital goodwill. A small contribution can help keep these joyful ideas alive while celebrating the season in a way that gives back to the open source community. Now, let's explore some festive software, Secret Santa. things say, holiday teamwork, like the annual gift exchange. Back in the winter of 2015, developer Mile Nissen decided to make that experience simpler and more stylish, and created secret Santa planner, a cheerful web tool that helps groups organize gift swaps without confusion. It's available in English and French and keeps the focus on the fun part, who gives to whom. It was built with Christmas in mind, but it works just as well for office parties, family gatherings,

Starting point is 00:01:25 or any event that needs a little mystery and generosity. The tool's charm lies in its simplicity. You just add names, set a few rules, and it randomly pairs people up. Each participant gets a private link with a colorful letter showing who they'll be buying for, making the process quick and secret. Everything runs directly in the browser, hosted through GitHub pages, a service that lets developers publish static websites straight from their code, meaning there's no need for user accounts or servers.

Starting point is 00:01:53 It's easy to use, share, and trust. Today, Secret Santa Planner keeps its warm community feel. Mile maintains IT publicly on GitHub, where anyone can report ideas or bugs. There's no business model behind it, just goodwill. Users can leave a kind message or send a one-time sponsorship as a thank you. If you want to send a crypto tip, Kivich Gold be your best alternative. Wish This. In 2022, developer J.Trees released Wish This, a sleek platform design. tow make gift planning effortless. It helps people collect their wishes for any occasion, but it feels

Starting point is 00:02:29 right at home during the holidays when finding the perfect present can be a puzzle. Available in 99 languages, it's built to be shared with family and friends, so everyone knows what will make you smile while avoiding duplicate gifts. Wish this is packed with practical features. You can create, manage, and share wish lists that automatically hide items once they've been, claimed, by someone else, keeping surprises intact. Every wish can be described with a URL, image, priority, and price. This web-based tool can even be paired with Secret Santa Planner, since you can link your list and let your anonymous gift giver browse without spoiling the mystery. Jay maintains the project with the help of users who contribute code, tests, translations, or sponsor development through

Starting point is 00:03:13 GitHub sponsors. It also earns small commissions through Amazon affiliate links, a non-intrusive way to keep the project sustainable. No ads, no trackers, just a collaborative effort that earns gift giving into something joyful and simple. Find it useful? Send them some love with Kiva. Advent calendar. An Advent calendar is a classic countdown to Christmas, revealing a little surprise each day from December 1st until December 24th. Some of them, physically, offer chocolates and other gifts every day. Developer Nicholas Devnet brought that same anticipation online in 2013 with his own Advent calendar. This small, lightweight app lets you display a new image, message, or even a short video each day leading up to the holidays. Whether you use it to share family photos,

Starting point is 00:03:59 daily greetings, or company surprises, it adds a sense of ritual and fun to the digital space. You just upload your pictures or clips, name them by day, and let the app do the rest. Each box opens to reveal a hidden image and an optional caption, just like the cardboard calendars many grew up with. Advanced customization is also available, from the title and background image to the number of days you want to display. It can even be turned into a simple countdown calendar for birthdays, launches, or any special occasion. With cryptocurrencies in the picture, you can also include some new wallets or obite text coins as gifts. The project is still active and regularly updated on GitHub, where users can download it or share improvements.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Nicholas maintains it as a personal creation, welcoming feedback through comments and issue reports rather than formal funding. Kivajan be used to send him some cryptos if you like this project. Lead games. Have you ever thought about playing Tick-Tac-Tow or the Snake game, on your Christmas tree? Well, in 2019, the developer Jordi Moose sure did and found a way to make it possible. He built the software for it and shared it with everyone on GitHub, along with a lengthy video tutorial. It's not exactly a plug and play process, but it could become a fun activity for Christmas. https colon slash slash x com jordy moose status one quintillion 206 quadrillion 568 trillion 610 billion

Starting point is 00:05:26 275 million 24 embeddable equals true lead games start with hardware. Anyone willing to build their own gamified Christmas tree will need a WS 2,811 LED light strip, a microcontroller teency three two with extension board some ethernet cables a raspberry pi microcomputer some wire connectors a DC 5 volt power supply and a raspberry pi camera all of these are low cost small devices easily available online paired with geordy scote and teensy dueno to control the teensy the final result after following the assembly instructions will be an LED game on your tree connected to your video game controller of course This is a personal project, but it's open to anyone who may want to contribute on GitHub.

Starting point is 00:06:14 If you wish to send some thank you coins, Kiva is there for you. Eco Raies. The felling of Christmas trees each year may not seem quite ecological, but the truth is a real tree is more beneficial than a fake one, for everyone, not just for us humans. In reality, it promotes the conservation of various ecosystems, the creation of green jobs, and, at the same time, prevents the waste of non-recyclable materials. You can can even go and plant a few trees yourself in places in need of them, and we all will be winning. The app Eco Raies, created in 2025 by Siria Narayanon, could help us with it. This is a smart planting platform designed to identify where new trees can grow best,

Starting point is 00:06:55 helping turn dry or deforested areas into green spaces again. A digital way to give back to the planet after the holiday season. The system is Simpleto use. You upload a top view photo of a piece of land, input basic details like temporary. temperature, humidity, and soil pH. That's a measure of how acidic or alkaline the soil is. And Eco Raies analyzes it all to recommend long-living tree species that fit each micro area. The software is still in active development, hosted on GitHub, and welcoming both environmental

Starting point is 00:07:26 experts and coders to contribute. It runs without corporate funding and relies on community input. If you want to be part of the building process, you can contribute with code or send them a crypto donation via Kiva. and receive good wishes. If you want to spread some digital holiday cheer, donating through Kiva IS Easy. First, install and fund an Obite wallet with any Obite compatible token. Basically, most of the popular ones are available through the CounterState Bridge. Then, go to the Kiva website, search for a GitHub repository you want to support, choose how much and what token to

Starting point is 00:08:00 donate and send it. Even if the project's owner hasn't set up a thing yet, your donation safely waits for them to be informed. Don't forget to tell us. them, for developers, receiving donations is just as smooth. You'll need to link your GitHub account to your Obite wallet using the GitHub attestation chatbot. This confirms you're the real repo owner. From there, you can set how you want to distribute donations, keep them all or share a part automatically with other projects that power yours. It's a simple, transparent way to get rewarded for your code while supporting the open source chain that keeps it alive. Merry Christmas and Happy Giving. Check other interesting open source projects.

Starting point is 00:08:38 below. Five open source and free operating systems to donate via Kiva. Five open source blogging and writing tools to donate to via Kiva, EPV. Five open source, free software you didn't know you needed to protect your data. Five open source crypto tools you can use for free, and support with Kiva. Five open source projects to donate via Kiva. Episode 7. Games to play for free. Five open source software for global teams to donate via Kiva. Author your own adventure with these five must try free tools, five open source and green projects to donate via Kiva, five funny and weird software you can use for free, and donate via Kiva featured vector image by Piki Superstar, Freepig. Thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by artificial

Starting point is 00:09:26 intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.

The Good Tech Companies - 5 Open-Source & Free Software Projects to Celebrate Christmas —And Support Via Kivach

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