Top Ten Open Source Projects

arclightfire writes "We recently wrote an article for The Independent listing the top ten open source projects. It was hard getting the list down to ten, but we did; here's the top ten - Wikipedia, Firefox, Open Office, Bittorrent, MediaWiki, Xvid, pbb, Outfoxed, dyne:bolic, GIMP, Apache and SourceForge." What would you call your favorite projects? Obviously, this list isn't strictly software projects, so be creative.

RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about "...best open source websites where users can change the content" and not best open source projects. It comes that even posters don't RTFA.

Best projects

[squoozer]

Some that aren't in the list but I use regularly.

I suppose the kernel has got to feature in the list because without it a lot of other projects are fairly pointless. I like NetBeans (although it's giving me grief today). Amarok is pretty good (but is let down by the poor state of sound on Linux). KMail is very nice especially as part of Kontact. Synaptic is a very nice project that seems to be coming along well.

Re:Ummmmmmm.....?

[oneiros27]

It would be one of the top open source projects, but it seems that the blurb posted on slashdot, and the actual article don't match. The article states:

Ana Kronschnabl and Tomas Rawlings pick the best open source websites where users can change the content

Which of course ... would be open content, not open source. (unless the users can change the code used to drive the websites, perhaps).

Re:RTFA

[BenjyD]

But how can I change the content on http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ [mozilla.com]? I would guess that there was a confusion between the author and whoever wrote the summary at the Indy. Another reason for the "Independent isn't a serious newspaper any more" pile, perhaps?

Strictly software...

[Noryungi]

Watch out, since this is heavily sysadmin biased...

1. Slackware Linux. [slackware.com] Still the best after all this time.
2. OpenBSD. [openbsd.org] Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out there trying to get you.
3. OpenSSH. [openssh.com] Because you just can't use plain text telnet anymore.
4. Rsync. [samba.org] Just because.
5. GNU Screen. [gnu.org] Triple your terminal productivity. Now with minty-fresh taste!
6. GNU Wget. [gnu.org] Because you have better thing to do than watch over a download.
7. Vim. [vim.org]Because Emacs is for losers.
8. Nmap [insecure.org]. Look at 'OpenBSD' above.
9. IPTables [netfilter.org]. Lock that machine down, admin boy.
10. pf [openbsd.org]. I said, lock that machine down , admin boy!

Of course, number 11 is Google [google.com], Google [google.com], and Google [google.com]. But that's neither software nor open-source.

Re: dyne:bolic?

[torpor]

i would say because dyne:bolic is more 'multimedia-oriented' than knoppix, which is still fairly generic/general purpose.

with dyne:bolic, any PC becomes a multimedia production studio in a heartbeat (well, bootup, anyway), and you really can get to creating with it fast and easily .. this is important in this day of "iWhatever" style apps being churned out by the big-nerds, so i'd wager thats why dyne:bolic is being pitched, in lieu of knoppix.

which isn't to say knoppix isn't cool .. but its certainly not the first, nor the last, linux-booting liveCD with productivity tools on it (far as i can remember, yggdrasil was first..)

Re:Eclipse

[jtwJGuevara]

How can a Java IDE be one of the most important Open Source projects when there is no usable Open Source Java implementation available?

Well, although its just a JRE, I find that Eclipse runs fine using the blackdown JRE. I haven't developed using the blackdown sdk, but I'd consider running eclipse just fine at least one point in favor of blackdown's usabiliy as a Java environment.

Secondly, Eclipse is more than a Java IDE. It has so many damn plugins [eclipseplugincentral.com] it literally is a swiss army knife, albeit a bloated one. I personally use pydev [sourceforge.net] for eclipse as my python editor.

The actual list

[Per Abrahamsen]

The actual list is a mixture of free software projects, and user editable web sites. At least reading the description, it often seems to refer to the software, not the web-site. Despite what the blurp in the article claims.

Both Wikipedia and MediaWiki is on the list.

Re:Dyne:bolic

[joeljkp]

dyne:bolic is interesting because it's one of the few completely Free OSs, without a bit of proprietary code in sight. Its default desktop is WindowMaker, too.

Re:"this list isn't strictly software projects"

[Cybersaint2k]

While the parent humbly admits that he's not an expert or theologian, I must admit that I am. And his father taught him well; everything he says is accurate concerning the linguistic history of the Bible. Except that I would say it is a certainty that all our oldest texts from which we translate the Bible into various languages are copies. Anti-*nix OS Troll-boy who started this Bible thread should not be modded insightful. Where are my meta-mod points....

Re: dyne:bolic?

[m50d]

Because knoppix sucks in comparison to more modern efforts. It's just going on the name these days. dyne:bolic has better state saving, and actually focuses on and does something better than windows (multimedia), rather than giving you basically a worse equivalent to the OS you're already running.

Re:"this list isn't strictly software projects"

[meringuoid]

Hm yes, let's change some of the texts in those books. I'm sure it'll go down well with the readers.

Well, weren't they all the same project originally? St Paul forked the Torah, and then Mohammed did the same a few centuries later? They're still open-source, then.

Personally, I'd want someone to go in and fix some of the more dangerous exploits in the code. The bit about 'while I'm not around, kids, please obey my official representative, MR BLACK! I'll be coming along real soon now, but for now here's MR BLACK!' has got to be sorted out.

Oh, and a there are a good few bugs related to conflicting definitions early on in the codebase. The scope of 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' and the scope of 'Kill all the unbelievers in the land I have given to you' really need to be more clearly defined.

Political agenda

[jag7720]

Nice... I would expect this from both sides of the political movements...but from the technology movement... OutFoxed should not be included in this line up. Sure it is an opensource project but would a similar project about CNN have gotten in the top 10... doubtful...

This choice seems to not really be about "opensource" but rather a way to get the Outfoxed onto Slashdot...cheap

In the future, leave your petty political agendas out of a "TECHNOLOGY" top ten list.

Re:Eclipse

[shaka]

How can a Java IDE be one of the most important Open Source projects when there is no usable Open Source Java implementation available?

Eclipse runs very nicely with GCJ thank you very much.