--- title: Best Hackaday posts — January 2026 | daily.dev description: The most upvoted Hackaday posts from January 2026, curated by the daily.dev community. canonical: https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday/best-of/2026/01 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:url: https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday/best-of/2026/01 og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Best Hackaday posts — January 2026 | daily.dev og:description: The most upvoted Hackaday posts from January 2026, curated by the daily.dev community. og:image: https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VAY5ToZt--/f_auto/v1724209435/public/daily.dev%20-%20open%20graph --- # Best of Hackaday — January 2026 1. 1 [](https://daily.dev/posts/get-bored--xyjxzjsbi "Get Bored!") Article Hackaday·33w Get Bored! Constant busyness and digital distractions prevent the kind of boredom that sparks creativity and problem-solving. Unstructured, do-nothing time allows minds to wander and generate ideas for projects and solutions. Deliberately scheduling slack time or finding guaranteed periods of boredom can help maintain creative thinking in an always-connected world. 223 27 2. 2 [](https://daily.dev/posts/the-distroless-linux-future-may-be-coming-tqc3lzwin "The Distroless Linux Future May Be Coming") Article Hackaday·34w The Distroless Linux Future May Be Coming A counter-movement to Linux distribution fragmentation is emerging through 'distroless' initiatives like Project Bluefin's Distroless and KDE's switch to BuildStream. The distroless approach uses a common base (Freedesktop SDK) with customization layers applied on top, similar to how FreeBSD handles specialized variants. This could reduce duplicated effort and fragmentation, though it risks reigniting debates over standardization issues like package managers that previously challenged the Linux Standard Base. 89 8 3. 3 [](https://daily.dev/posts/pi-compute-module-powers-fully-open-smartphone-gkwkt8amj "Pi Compute Module Powers Fully Open Smartphone") Article Hackaday·31w Pi Compute Module Powers Fully Open Smartphone The Spirit smartphone project uses a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 as its core processor, combined with off-the-shelf components including a 5.5" LCD display, a Quectel EG25-GL LTE/GPS module for cellular connectivity, and a 3D-printable enclosure. The design emphasizes modularity with swappable components like the display, camera, and compute module. While the carrier board and enclosure designs are still evolving, the project aims to create a fully open-source smartphone using readily available hardware modules, with active community development ongoing. 47 2 4. 4 [](https://daily.dev/posts/ram-prices-got-you-down-try-ddr3-seriously--zmdi7m7pt "RAM Prices Got You Down? Try DDR3. Seriously!") Article Hackaday·32w RAM Prices Got You Down? Try DDR3\. Seriously! With modern RAM prices skyrocketing, DDR3 memory presents a viable budget alternative for gaming PCs. Testing shows that systems built with 12-15 year old DDR3-supporting motherboards (x79 and z97 chipsets) paired with modern graphics cards can run current games at playable framerates. The z97 chipset with Haswell processors is recommended for better compatibility with modern games requiring AVX2 instructions. DDR3 costs less than $1/GB, making maxed-out configurations affordable despite slower transfer speeds compared to DDR5. 45 9 5. 5 [](https://daily.dev/posts/a-linux-power-user-puts-steamos-to-work-vme39cquy "A Linux Power User Puts SteamOS To Work") Article Hackaday·34w A Linux Power User Puts SteamOS To Work A Linux power user shares their experience adapting to SteamOS, an immutable Linux distribution on the Steam Deck. The journey involves learning new paradigms like Flatpaks instead of traditional package managers, configuring network tools (Syncthing, NFS, Tailscale) within immutable constraints, and discovering workarounds for system-level tasks. Despite initial confusion and limitations compared to traditional distributions like Debian, the author finds value in the stability and portability of immutable systems, recommending them as worthwhile tools for experienced users willing to adapt their workflows. 33 2 6. 6 [](https://daily.dev/posts/ssh-over-usb-on-a-raspberry-pi-2xznvnvte "SSH Over USB On A Raspberry Pi") Article Hackaday·32w SSH Over USB On A Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi OS now includes a package for SSH over USB using gadget mode, simplifying headless Pi setup. The rpi-usb-gadget package allows a Raspberry Pi to present itself as a network adapter when plugged into a host machine via USB, enabling direct SSH access without Wi-Fi configuration. The feature can be enabled through Raspberry Pi Imager, though Windows users need an additional driver for Internet Connection Sharing. This approach eliminates common headless setup frustrations like Wi-Fi configuration issues. 11 7. 7 [](https://daily.dev/posts/github-disables-rockchip-s-linux-mpp-repository-after-dmca-request-218qlujdm "GitHub Disables Rockchip’s Linux MPP Repository After DMCA Request") Article Hackaday·35w GitHub Disables Rockchip’s Linux MPP Repository After DMCA Request GitHub disabled Rockchip's Linux MPP repository following a DMCA takedown from the FFmpeg team. Rockchip allegedly copied FFmpeg code verbatim, removed copyright notices and authors, and relicensed it from LGPL 2.1 to Apache. FFmpeg privately contacted Rockchip about the violation nearly two years ago with no response. FFmpeg now demands Rockchip either comply with LGPL terms or remove all infringing files. Despite being aware of the license issue in public communications, Rockchip has deferred addressing it indefinitely. 10 [See all Hackaday archives](/sources/hackaday/best-of) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"CollectionPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday/best-of/2026/01#page","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday/best-of/2026/01","name":"Best Hackaday Posts — January 2026","description":"The most upvoted Hackaday posts from January 2026, curated by the daily.dev community.","isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","url":"https://daily.dev"}},{"@type":"ItemList","@id":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday/best-of/2026/01#items","numberOfItems":7,"itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"url":"https://daily.dev/posts/get-bored--xyjxzjsbi","name":"Get Bored!"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-distroless-linux-future-may-be-coming-tqc3lzwin","name":"The Distroless Linux Future May Be Coming"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"url":"https://daily.dev/posts/pi-compute-module-powers-fully-open-smartphone-gkwkt8amj","name":"Pi Compute Module Powers Fully Open Smartphone"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ram-prices-got-you-down-try-ddr3-seriously--zmdi7m7pt","name":"RAM Prices Got You Down? 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