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Send an Open Source Project to COMDEX
chromatic writes "O'Reilly & Associates is working with COMDEX to create an Open Source Innovation Area. We've nominated 21 important, interesting, and useful applications. Here's your chance to vote on the six most deserving applications. Steve Mallet has more details in his weblog." There's lots of good choices for applications on the list as well. Chances are that you've used one of them at least once.
With apps I use every day like OpenOffice.org, Gaim, SquirrelMail - and those that save me loads of time, phpMyAdmin and TightVNC it's such a hard choice!!
Now if only PHP-Nuke was on the list - it's what has revolutionalised my life as a webmaster!!
"We're sorry, you need to be logged in to vote for this contest."
Thank you for telling me that after I'd carefully chosen my votes. "To keep track we ask that you please log in to your O'Reilly Network account." wasn't a fair warning, you made it sound optional.
Where's Mozilla
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
Isn't PHP-Nuke one of those systems which helps webmasters create faceless, identical websites with little customisation and content beyond a colour scheme and a forum?
If you're dealing with an office worker, OpenOffice and Evolution are good candidates. Home users would like to see XMMS, mplayer, GAIM, and SpamAssassin. Admins would be interested in Tight VNC and SpamAssassin. The creative types would want GIMP and Audacity.
As for the desktop, it might be a good idea to stick with one for all your demonstration boxes (all KDE or all GNOME) but of course mention that alternatives exist.
It would be nice if Slashdot ran this poll. Internet polls like this are not so useful I suppose, but still it would be cool to see how various projects rank out. The three leaders could be the chosen ones.
My choices in the O'Reilly list are Subversion, OpenOffice.org and SpamAssassin. None of these projects have known patent issues or issues with 3rd parties such as MSN, AOL, Yahoo (the related projects such as mplayer and GAIM do an *excellent* job however).
Banu
Hello,
Consulting for several large companies, I'd always done my work on
Windows. Recently however, a top online investment firm asked us to do
some work using Linux. The concept of having access to source code was
very appealing to us, as we'd be able to modify the kernel to meet our
exacting standards which we're unable to do with Microsoft's products.
Although we met several technical challenges along the way
(specifically, Linux's lack of Token Ring support and the fact that we
were unable to defrag its ext2 file system), all in all the process
went smoothly. Everyone was very pleased with Linux, and we were
considering using it for a great deal of future internal projects.
So you can imagine our suprise when we were informed by a lawyer that
we would be required to publish our source code for others to use. It
was brought to our attention that Linux is copyrighted under something
called the GPL, or the Gnu Protective License. Part of this license
states that any changes to the kernel are to be made freely available.
Unfortunately for us, this meant that the great deal of time and money
we spent "touching up" Linux to work for this investment firm would
now be available at no cost to our competitors.
Furthermore, after reviewing this GPL our lawyers advised us that any
products compiled with GPL'ed tools - such as gcc - would also have to
its source code released. This was simply unacceptable.
Although we had planned for no one outside of this company to ever
use, let alone see the source code, we were now put in a difficult
position. We could either give away our hard work, or come up with
another solution. Although it was tought to do, there really was no
option: We had to rewrite the code, from scratch, for Windows 2000.
I think the biggest thing keeping Linux from being truly competitive
with Microsoft is this GPL. Its draconian requirements virtually
guarentee that no business will ever be able to use it. After my
experience with Linux, I won't be recommending it to any of my
associates. I may reconsider if Linux switches its license to
something a little more fair, such as Microsoft's "Shared Source".
Until then its attempts to socialize the software market will insure
it remains only a bit player.
Thank you for your time.
Yeah the problem is, that the programs with most users will definitely get most votes. Audio editing is not so common task, and most of the people haven't heard from Eclipse, so even if they were great programs, they won't be faring well in this vote.
Using some kind of grading combined with the amount of votes would perhaps solve this problem, but I guess it's too late now..
http://codeandlife.com
One thing that makes it much easier is the fact that some of the project names are not very good. MoinMoin?
....
This was the first time I've heard of Subversion and I can appreciate the clever file naming reference, but no PHB will have an app named subversion because I'm sure he'll believe it's already being used.
Those are the only 2 project names that really stand out as being bad
-B
In my previous life in marketing, I was an exhibitor in many Comdex shows. We stopped attending because so many of the 'customers' were job seekers...
I know it is not a software package (I know the scripts can be downloaded, but let me gat to what I am getting at), but the site provides a home to many of these projects i feel that COMDEX needs to add it as an honorary member of the list.
-Seriv
thankyou for the mizilla link. We slashdot readers have never before heard of it, and your commment has been insightful, informative and interesting at the same time.
Please contine to post your riviting comments.
Regards,
Slashdot readers everywhere
PHP nuke lets you choose a theme so it's not that bad... but the default themes need a visit from that tv show... Queer Eye for the straight GUI.
# Removed crap from list
sed 's/mplayer/xine/g'
I thought Slashdotters always say that open source doesn't innovate? All I hear all day from Slashdotters is how open source should stop copying Microsoft and start innovating. And how we suddenly get a story that implies open source *does* innovate?
You Slashbots really have a double standard.
I'm sure I'll get moderated down to this but that only shows what kind of an anti-open source zealot place Slashdot has become.
With Windows, you can't touch anything up, no matter what.
With Linux, you don't have to, but have the opportunity to if you like. And as long as the changes aren't publically released in any form, you still don't have to release changes.
Not even Microsoft makes rights claims on software compiled with their tools. Why would you expect GCC to?
--Dan
I nominate SCO's corporate policy: on the basis of dubious reasoning, lay claim to the work of thousands of Open Source programmers, while simultaneously ensuring that if your claims are accepted, you'll kill the Golden Goose in the act of getting your hands on it!
I'm sure we'll all miss SCO (soon), even if you weren't a fan of their thievery there's no denying their contribution to popular culture. Truly an American icon.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
IMHO Gimp and Mplayer are most important projects on list.
GNOME and KDE are something everyone is talking about, but not really using (you think you use GNOME or KDE? what except *libs or *wm? do you know how large are these projects?). You can say many good things about OpenOffice, but it's similiar to MS Office: huge and slow. BTW Where is Mozilla? Evolution is MS Outlook replacement. Well... MS Office, MSIE, MS Outlook, where the hell is any innovation?
No Blender. No games/emulators. No LyX. No X-Chat.
Click on the definitions of the projects and you get a MySQL 'too many connections error' from osdir.com.
Which is using PHP. Its interesting given the recent PHP vs Java scaling article. The situation at osdir.com right now highlights the real world need for connection pooling, which PHP is currently very much lacking in.
Yeah... It's the Open Source folks stealing code from the Closed Source products... Uh huh. Um, did you ever stop to think how difficult this would be? In comparison to say a closed source software company freely downloading the source to an open source project and taking a peek under the hood? Hmm... Look at all these nice open source products proudly shipping with SCO OpenServer 5.0.7:
r es /
http://www.sco.com/products/openserver507/featu
That said, I'm just impressed with this short list. All of these are good options. This really shows how far Linux on the desktop has come. So much so I'm running Linux on my work-issued laptop in a Windows environment now. Many thanks to all the developers who have made this possible.
That's what it tells me to do.
But..
I don't have any...
Excuse me while I go to my room and cry a bit..
No, that's called a web designer.
I have never really understood what is so great about an unstable, GTK1 (!)-utilizing clone of one of the worst Windows audio players ever.
they're all over. LIEk the "grass roots" letters from yOUR soldiers.
this is what you waNTed?
the rest of the wwworld looks on in disgust/sympathy/dismay, not neccessarily in that order.
Haha, funny stuff! Real funny.
I can't find the Cowboy Neal option!
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Gee I thought phpNuke was long dead, I remember submiting patches to fix some trivial errors, (years ago) and the maintainer acted like I had personaly insulted him; next release had the same errors. The postnuke people forked off and have completely rewritten a fairly versital and more secure system. give it a look.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Where's Sir Haxalot, we need a Google Cache of the poll in case it gets /.'d!!!
I choose:
-OpenOffice
PHBs don't know about it. They should and I guarantee you when people see it they'll be impressed.
- Eclipse
Showed this IDE to mid-level managers the other day as part of our processes for choosing an IDE for a new project we are starting. All they kept saying it can do all of this and its what? Free? Are you sure we don't have to pay for something?
-Gimp
We are already using this and if its good enough for the special effect guy in Hollywood by god its good enough for your average joe shmuck GUI developer.
-----
One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
These are all great applications. But why do any of them want to go to COMDEX? COMDEX tends to show off cool new technology like PDAs, video game hardware, and anything flashy. The fanboys won't care about a great email client. I like the idea of these projects getting exposure, but this may not be the best place.
Yeah the problem is, that the programs with most users will definitely get most votes.
It's for COMDEX, so that's probably a good thing. This is a chance to demonstrate mainstream apps to the mainstream.
Send lawyers, guns, and money. Dad, get me out of this.
GAIM: we need a killer,compatible IM with all features
MPLAYER: we need a media player that plays everything
OpenOffice.org: we need a document viewer that views and does everything.
See a trend in my choices? Repeat after me:
I-N-T-E-R-O-P-E-R-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
Toothfairies have recently complained about Windows users.
We all know that Linux is dying. It almost goes without saying. Yes, ever hapless Linux continues to be mired in an irrecoverable and mortifying tangle of fatal trouble. It is perhaps anybody's guess as to which distro is the worst off of an admittedly suffering Linux community. The numbers continue to decline for Linux but Debian may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The erosion of user base for Debian continues in a head spinning downward spiral.
Linux leader Linus states that there are 7000 users of Debian. How many users of Linux are there? Let's see. The number of Debian versus Gentoo posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Gentoo users. Red Hat posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of Gentoo posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Red Hat. A recent article put Debian at about 80 percent of the Linux market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Debian users. This is consistent with the number of Debian Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles from SCO, abysmal sales and so on, Debian went out of business and was taken over by IBM who sell another troubled OS. Now IBM is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major marketing surveys show that Linux has steadily declined in market share. Linux is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Linux is to survive at all it will be among hobbyist dilettante dabblers. In truth, for all practical purposes Linux is already dead. It is a dead man walking.
Fact: Linux is dyingAs we all know, Linux is dying. It almost goes without saying. Yes, ever hapless Linux continues to be mired in an irrecoverable and mortifying tangle of fatal trouble. It is perhaps anybody's guess as to which distro is the worst off of an admittedly suffering Linux community. The numbers continue to decline for Linux but Debian may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The erosion of user base for Debian continues in a head spinning downward spiral.
Linux leader Linus states that there are 7000 users of Debian. How many users of Linux are there? Let's see. The number of Debian versus Gentoo posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Gentoo users. Red Hat posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of Gentoo posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Red Hat. A recent article put Debian at about 80 percent of the Linux market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Debian users. This is consistent with the number of Debian Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles from SCO, abysmal sales and so on, Debian went out of business and was taken over by IBM who sell another troubled OS. Now IBM is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major marketing surveys show that Linux has steadily declined in market share. Linux is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Linux is to survive at all it will be among hobbyist dilettante dabblers. In truth, for all practical purposes Linux is already dead. It is a dead man walking.
Fact: Linux is dyingnever a read a more confused badly formed rant.
you are implying that women dont have the intellectual capacity to handle the linux command set and that because theres no cartoon dog jumping around the screen women cant use it. most womens groups would probably take offense at such a two faced ignorant opinion which does more to damage womens adoption of IT in the workplace than better it.
Some of the projects are highly usable now as they are, though the core tools are available to create your own customized company-wide applications.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
I voted for Evolution, the Gimp, and OpenOffice. I picked them for the marketing potential. These three products have mass-market potential, and COMDEX is a good way to get them in front of people who would otherwise perhaps never know there are alternatives to Exchange/Outlook and MSOffice.
Oh, great, let's send a legally questionable program to COMDEX and get it in the spotlight. MS , Real, Intel and Apple won't care that we ignore the EULA's and strip out dll's from their applications in order to make it work.
Maybe do a dual booth with Mplayer and DeCSS just to really make certain two of our most important desktop apps get removed.
Great thinking guys...
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
Yes, this is a commen problem with this type of polls.
That is why I have made eigenpoll
which try to solve this.
Out of all the folks that I have ever known, those that use MS for an OS have stolen something to put on it, often times the whole OS is stolen. Let me think here if I know of anyone who hasn't,,,, hmm nope. My dad, my wife, random folks met at school, friends, enemies, you name it. It's many times a brag to see how much monies worth and who has most. Crazy though that all that P2P that just works flawlessly with MS. So far as illegal activity among Linux users, I am the only one in my area I know of that even knows what the heck it is,, now thats a crime, your right I guess. The font issue I never had any trouble with, knowing of course that there was't much that could be done about it considering those pixels were taken from all us by the big dogs. SCO is irrelevant, cept that they are shed more light on the true intentions of corporate lack of cooperation with people. SCO is flappy flappish maybe because they are lose and playing the stock fools and cash out bye bye. Blatant in front of the whole worlds trained to be blind eyers. I shouldn't even comment for you show clearly that you, Mr. Anonymous, have a similar limited view and no personal experience a subject of human science.
The chance for us to demonstrate such a direct competition to Microsoft at COMDEX would be well worth leaving leaving another project behind.
I'm choosing projects that are cross platform, such as Gimp, OpenOffice, and tightVNC.
As important as it may be to move away from Windows, it is just as important to support it and show people what open source can do for them now with no long term investment.
You can't replace the OS until all the Apps are in place and equivilant, and it'll be so much easier to convert people if they are already using popular opensource/free software on their current platform.
When the next round of office upgrades come around, they'll look at the price and switch. When the next round of OS upgrades come along, they'll look and switch.
-Adam
for me... 1) OpenOffice 2) GAIM 3) GIMP
It looks like a good Wiki, though.
What about Gnumeric? It's one of the most powerful + useful Free s/w apps. I don't know where I'd be without it.
"if only PHP-Nuke was on the list - it's what has revolutionalised my life as a webmaster!!"
Funny that out of the countless open source cms projects, only plone was included in the list.
Meanwhile, my vote would go for Drupal!
It also lets you vote more than once - that is, once per day. That right there throws the whole concept out the window.
Gee, I vote, they get an account. Lets run this poll on Slashdot instead!
The usefulness comes from what is not there; the profit comes from what is there.
I'd agree with all of the apps on this list as being very worthy of nomination, but I am shocked that Samba is not there.
i would take gnuCash off that list and put something like Compiere. gnuCash is nice and all but at comdex it would look silly. it would be like taking Amanda there.
... maybe you could toss that into my qmail mix below somehow.
same with Xmms, 'wow it looks like just winamplinux has a winamp clone, how cute.'
MoinMoin? twiki blows this project away, you lost me on this nomination.
spamassassin? wont mcafee already have spamassassin there in the form of spamkiller? but seriously
how about showing off snort? or swan interopering with some real world hardware
how about setting up five little machines running qmail and blast a million delivered mail messages between the machines per hour and have a big led bank sign as a counter? then add and import thousands of users dynamically using ldap.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
What the hell is a Wiki?
Isn't it among the most innovative open source applications of recent times?
I had no problem hitting Evolution, GIMP and OpenOffice. Of course mortals aren't allowed to vote.
Put the serious apps up front and the rest will follow. Gotta put on a good show against the competition too. All IMHO.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
Wouldn't be very much on-topic, per se, but it could be really funny...
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Are even 2 of those titles innovative? The majority of them are copies of commerical software and poor copies at that.
The audience is anyone attending COMDEX - therefore you don't want development or admin tools, no matter how good they are.
I actually chose OpenOffice, Evolution, nad Gimp to give more exposure to them to the general public. But on reflection Audacity would have been a much better choice than Evolution for that crowd.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...this guy's company must have had some stupid people in their legal dept.
mod parent up please. clears a lot up.
Is there any media format that Mplayer will not play?
When you're using warez codecs, nope.
Where is PHP-Nuke?
Or the biggest and the most popular CMS/Portal software ever wrote isn't so important?
There are project on that list that I never heard about. Just FYI.
99.5% of Linux apps are blatant rip-offs from Windows/MacOS. What innovation are we talking about here?
It's the most mature content management system that I have ever come across, built on top of the mature zope application server. I am dismayed at how few people actually know of this project or have used it.
I am in the plone mailing list and I am reading about 50,000 user installations and larger. I have been using it to create a cognitive map of everything I read and it's an incredible tool. In the context of a knowlege base or knowledge sharing in academia or in a company, it makes it easy to decide who is a contributitor, who is a reviewr, who is an editor.
Anyway, enough, just check it out.
Zoe is also very, very cool.
And both applications have tremendous enterprise and home user appeal.
Pragmatism as an ideology is not particularly pragmatic in the long term. Keep it in mind when you dismiss Free Software
Some of the best open source projects are the Jakarta projects if you ask me. Although, PHB folks wont find the real open source very interesting.
Hey... I just thought you might want to know there's a typo in your sig.
If you open your pudgy little bubble lips at me once more, so help me God, I'll teach you what it's like to be violently raped.
I nominate FreeBSD and OpenBSD.
Then send them to David Wheeler's report on quantitative data which shows the strength of open source projects.
___
Cognitive Overflow
more than yo