Open Source Projects That You Should Know About?

cosyne asks: "Seeing the recent announcement about FreeS/WAN reminds me that there are many cool projects that I'm mostly unaware of (or, more often, completely oblivious to), which I only hear about when Slashdot posts a 'Developers finally giving up on this cool project' story. What projects (software or otherwise) are out there that would benefit from more involvement if only they had the publicity?"

Comments

PocketWarrior

[Emrikol]

Wow...sure is quiet in this post. I'd figure this one would be a fun one that I could look and find some cool new programs to try out. Guess I should've known better. (I'm not new here)

Anyways...

I like PocketWarrior but it saddens me that it will not currently work with my Dell Axim X3i and the built in Wi-Fi. Otherwise, I'd be having a lot more fun with my little PPC.

Eerie

[Mmm coffee]

I can see tumbleweeds rolling through this thread. Too "Just woke up" to link, google for this stuff. xfce - Nice little window manager for X, a slight hassle to build but otherwise a great WM for those who want something that screams "minimalist". If only they'd allow me to shove the menubar into the taskbar so I don't have to have two bars on autohide then I'd be using it right now. Ruby - Goddamn, this is a wonderful language! It's as close to "I think, it does" as you can get without having neural implants. That's about all that I can think of. Ignoring the usual (gaim, etc) because they're very well known.

Open Music Registry

[SnakeStu]

This isn't open source software, but copyleft applied to music... The Open Music Registry is an interactive database of music that is licensed under copyleft-style licenses, including the Open Audio License, one of the Creative Commons licenses, and more. Follow the link in my signature to check it out.

(Not that anybody will probably see this now... not sure what's up with this story and its lack of visibility...)

Tooting my own horn...

[Yaztromo]

My Open Source Project, the jSyncManager Project (http://www.jsyncmanager.org) could certainly use more help and attention. It's a pure Java solution for synchronizing PalmOS based handhelds with applications and databases. It has a completely object-oriented protocol stack, and only requires jUSB or the Java Communications API to communicate, making it completely platform-neutral. It doesn't need to be ported between platforms ala pilot-link, nor does it rely on the Windows HotSync Manager like most other PalmOS-based Java sync solutions, so it will run the same on Linux, OS/2, Windows, MacOS, *BSD, and anything else that can run Java.

We've been doing pretty well attracting users, particularily in the corporate space because the applications and APIs are mature (the project will be celebrating 5 years since its initial 1.0 release this May), stable, and allow easy development in Java.

But getting people to contribute code has been a real hassle, as has been trying to get developers of other Java-based Open Source applications to use our code and specs (like our jConduit plug-in spec for creating your own pure Java conduit plug-ins) -- even in cases where it makes perfect sense to do so (like for JPluck -- a pure Java toolkit for Plucker, which while being pure, cross-platform Java in the toolkit itself, provides only a native Windows conduit for synchroniation).

The project is at the state right now where we have tons of potential users who would like to se more plug-ins, but a complete dearth of willing Open Source developers to actually write them. Sure, now and then some user/developer might supply a patch to fix something minor, but it's exceedingly rare than anyone ever volunteers to develop something new (and when they do, it's rarer still that they actually follow through).

Sorry for the rant -- but the project has long been close to my heart, people who have seen and used it rank it quite highly, and we have lots of willing users -- we're just lacking the developers. It makes me understand why some other OS project administrators (like the LRP guys) can be willing to throw in the towel. Everyone wants new features, but finding the willing developers who will actually put any real time into development can be exceedingly frustrating.

Yaz.

My SourceForge bookmarks

[exhilaration]

These are my bookmarks on SourceForge.net:

audacity - multiplatform audio editing
bluewalk - automated bluetooth 'hacking' for Symbian smartphones
dcl - a web-based project mgmt systems
gaim - multiplatform AIM / MSN\Yahoo Messenger clone
gallery PHP/web-based photo gallery
opl-dev - scripting env for Symbian smartphones
s2putty - SSH for Symbian smartphones
semagic - LiveJournal client
sodipodi - multiplatform illustration app
squirrelmail - PHP-based webmail
ultravnc - best VNC client/server for Windows
winscp - SCP (and secure FTP) client for Windows
xplanet - funky app that shows you the earth + current cloud cover

Well

[immyz]

If a project isn't popular, there won't be anyone to tell you it's cool.

At best, you'll have a bunch of solo project owners hoping to get some help. In which case, you may as well just browse through the SF.net directory.

For small office/home networks

[j()nty]

...which is where I do most of my work.

• dnsmasq - A DHCP+DNS server that is simple to configure, lets you set up names for local machines and local services, lets you block external names of your choice, etc, etc
• masqmail - A mail server for machines with intermittent connections to the internet (dialup, laptops, wireless)
• Xmail - A slightly bigger mail server for when you want to run your own domain. Linux and Windows.
• Icewm - The window manager for people who want to get their work done
• Bluefish - Text/HTML/Perl/PHP/Java/etc editor that just works.

a few more

[smartalecvt]

Lilypond: A great open source music notation program.

Cinepaint: Painting and retouching.

CDex: CD Ripper and converter.

Panda 3d: 3D rendering engine.

Mambo: Content management

Gordian Knot:DivX/XviD encoding

Helix: Media player

7 Zip: Zip

Here's Mine

[shyster]

Since this thread is so quiet, I'll go ahead and add one.

Unattended is a system for installing Windows and apps hands-off. Great use of Perl and BATch files to do something useful. Kind of a PITA to set up, but once going, it's well worth the time investment.

Re:Here's Mine

[The Angry Mick]

There's a typo in the link, here's the right one.

Caudium

[Anonymous Coward]

Caudium

Fast, secure, extensible, modular, easy to admin (for newbies) without sacrificing power (you can still edit the config files if you wish). With the sole exception of installed user base, it beats Apache in every category.