Open Source Directory

Anonymous Coward writes: "I saw this article on NewsForge. It looks like these guys are going to stop preaching to the converted & start showing off open source software to those who need showing of to." I usually figure that if it isn't in Debian unstable, I don't need it. :) But perhaps this site will be useful to people once it has some submissions.

Comments

Re:Who is their target audience?

[Ian Bicking]

many times I'll see an interesting app on Freshmeat, but it's not Free

Freshmeat has all the information to filter out non-Free or unstable (alpha/beta) software. Right now the interface isn't so great for doing those selections, but that's a much easier thing to fix than getting the data in the first place. (though, I suppose with cooperation from Freshmeat they could simply move all that information over)

How is this gonna convert people?

[Sabalon]

First off - there are 2 items listed as stable now. Okay...so that'll grow.

2nd - why they are different than freshmeat - I'm sure uncomprehendable IRC logs will give people the info.

3rd - Why the needless Windows bashing? Is it that impossible to think that people can develop open source programs for Windows???

thoughts

[mattdm]

It's a good idea, but why not just search freshmeat by license? Their new interface makes this very easy to do.

My main impression is that the site looks very unprofessional -- poor grammar, and weird random placement of paragraphs, but beyond that, the "Why we are not Freshmeat" section isn't an explaination, but looks like an IRC log where someone just bursts in on an adminstrative discussion and without explaining what they're looking for starts asking random annoying questions.

Their definition of "open"

[yerricde]

But how open is open? - they don't seem to say what definition they are using!

Or do they? I looked in the site dics and found that OSD's definition of open source is any software under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative, from free GPL2, BSD2, X11, and Clarified Artistic to flawed QPL, BSD1, and Python 1.6 to too-vague-to-be-free Original Artistic. (Sources: free | open)

This is Spaceman.

[blab]

Hi everyone. I urge anyone to view our site explanation about "why we aren't....SourceForge & Freshmeat."

We've been extremely careful to make sure we didn't fork something. Everyone, especially at SF, has been very helpful and supportive of OpenSourceDirectory.org

Cheers from the Great White North,

Steve Mallett

Use dmoz maybe...

[VValdo]

I think the easiest way to search and navigate through multiple types of software is via a Yahoo-style selection page that moves downward into a heirarchy. Doing so makes it really easy to find what you're looking for in just three clicks or so. It's far superior to the gopher-like category lists.

isn't dmoz.org's software open? I know its content is.
-------------------

Who is their target audience?

[locutus074]

We decided to build the site after a quick email to a certain higher mammal at OSI. Right now we are in the first growth stage which is to get authors to register their stable releases. Come one, come all. The basic idea of the site is to provide one hub where someone will know the software they are looking at is open-source and is developed to the point it should work.

So who's their taget audience?

It would seem to me that it's at least partially aimed toward businesses. It would appear that way since they want to want to "present a place for developers and endusers to find information about STABLE Open-Source products". I wish them well, though they need to clean up their spelling mistakes and not post IRC logs as an explanation for what they do. This has the potential to be really great; many times I'll see an interesting app on Freshmeat, but it's not Free. Don't get me wrong, non-Free software has its place, but this ought to be nice, to have a place where you can go to search only stable, Free software. (Konqueror fills an important gap on the Free/Open Source side of things... all the pieces are falling into place now.)

Good luck guys, and please take this for the constructive criticism that it's intended as.

--

Seems pretty un-polished..

[Tom7]

I think these guys should have waited a bit longer before appearing on slashdot et al... The site looks like ass.

If this proposes to be the hub of stable, polished software, then the site itself should reflect that desired level of quality. Right now it looks like the home page for a shareware app.