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What OSS Programs are Still Needed?

Posted by Cliff on from the itches-that-need-scratching dept.

suso asks: "I was thinking yesterday about how much open source software is out there already. Most categories are filled, but I wonder about what pieces of software still need to be written. What programs would you like to see in OSS form that are currently not available?"

54 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Voting software. by Sierran · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anything to put Diebold out of business, thank you. Auditable, open-source, tested. Please. Before the U.S. Midterms.

    --
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    1. Re:Voting software. by np_bernstein · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Open Voting Consortium is doing a pretty good job. The program itself is written in python which is a good idea (despite being a perl guy) since there is always the risk that someone could keep additional code out of CVS for compile time, has paper verification w/ barcodes for quick recounts/auditing... all in all they're doing a pretty good job.

      I understand that there are hardware requirements for security as well, but this provides a good way for businesses to still sell and add value to this software.

      They are currently having a fund drive so if this seems like something important, consider giving them $10 (what they're asking for)

      --
      RandomAndInteresting.comdefending the world from stupidity since 1979
  2. DRM by sevinkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Need a reliable open source DRM solution that can be proven trustworthy so we can finally have pay content that's not platform dependent.

    If you can build a linux box for $70 and call it a linksys router, then with a OSS DRM you should be able to create the equivalent of MCE2005 for $250.

    1. Re:DRM by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 2, Interesting

      With an open system, copying the unencrypted stream is always possible (via /proc/kcore even).

      You need something secure from the driver up to support crap like Digital Restrction Management.

      There's 2 defences that the media companies have. One is the law. Two is heavy watermarking of movie files. If you cant guarantee to prevent copying, put the peoples' name and computer hardware information inside it.

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    2. Re:DRM by finkployd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept. The only implementations of it that exist involve basically turning the concept of public key cryptography upside down. Giving someone a private key with which to decrypt data but then trying to prevent the user from ever coming in contact with that key is just silly.

      The way it is SUPPOSED to work is the owner of the key is the only one who controls it and nobody else ever comes in contact with it. The way DRM is supposed to work is by having the content producers control what you can and cannot do with your own private key, and try to keep it from you.

      This is why DRM (in its current form) is so easily (and constantly) broken and also why it will never work in an OSS implementation. Even strong proponants of DRM (you can find them at the Digital Identity World conference pontificating about how great DRM will be for the computer industry) admit that someone will be able to break it, they just want to keep everyone from breaking it. Of course once one person breaks it it and unencumbered media is released, then it is all over anyway.

      Finkployd

    3. Re:DRM by cgenman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Unfortunately, you can't open-source DRM. At a fundamental level, you can't prevent the computer from having enough information to decrypt a file, without the user also having enough information to decrypt the file. The only way to do that would be to store the key in the decryption hardware in a write/decrypt only location. Even then you'd have to have special hardware to intercept the decryption key as it is transmitted to the machine and before it hits the processor, in order to deflect it to the proper area without the machine having any say. Even then you have man-in-the-middle attacks, which would require a layer of communication encryption that the processor doesn't have control over, etc.

      In other words, you fundamentally cannot give the user full knowledge without relinquishing full control.

      --
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  3. A 100% functional and universal audio mixer by Beatbyte · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Having been on linux 100% for the last 3 years, I've never had an audio mixer work right (even on a sound blaster live! value) out of the box.

    The channels are not labelled correctly, the fader doesn't work on most of them, the inputs are changed on the back of the card (i.e. from rear out to line in!).

    The only reason this is so important to me is the 5.1 surround setup I have has no volume control. The volume is at whatever level the computer sends to it. I'm sure this is not the standard setup so it doesn't get much attention.

    --
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    1. Re:A 100% functional and universal audio mixer by dalutong · · Score: 2, Interesting

      audio editing software. This includes programs like ProTools, FruityLoops, etc. While a little bit exists it all competes very weakly with the closed-source software.

      --

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  4. Database by adam+mcmaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hate to say this, but a database frontend that's as good as MS Access would be nice - there are attempts at such applications currently in development, but nothing that's even close to usable.

    1. Re:Database by Rysc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are two theoeries as to why Access is bad:

      1) It's DB engine is primative and a joke making all databases created for it fundamentally inferior.

      2) It dumbs down databases making DBAs annoyed that their boss' can say "My 12 year old sun threw together a database that works fine in 20 minutes! Why am I paying you?"

      The first argument is the only one which is good. You do NOT want to use a technically inferior DB.

      The second argument is NOT good. For some people, for some things, you really do not need a DBA. The fact that people CAN build databases without really understanding them is not fundamentally bad, it's an empowerment and fundamentally good... so long as it is understood (as, of course, it some times will not be) that a DB designed by an amature in a WYZIWYG DB app is not the same as a DB designed by a professional, just as some kids VB bitmap editor is not Photoshop.

      Free software, in my view, is ultimately about empowerment: My ability to do more. Not necessarily without knowing more, but without spending more, and without being forced to do it someone else's way. To empower more people it can be necessary to allow for people to do more while knowing the same or less (see some aspects of the GNOME philosophy of late). That isn't bad, in fact it's definitively good.

      So, just as a WYZIWYG html editor is not bad just because FrontPage blows, a GUI database designer is not bad just because Access blows.

      --
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    2. Re:Database by megabyte405 · · Score: 2, Informative

      GnomeDB Mergeant ?

      --
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  5. CAD by ikeleib · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Serious CAD software. There are a few projects that do some 2D drafting. That is not sufficient. A serious CAD package can not only serve as an end application, but the backend to many tools.

    I have thought on more than on occasion of starting a foundation to get such an effort off the ground. I felt then as I do now that there are many places that would contribute serious money to the effort of an OSS CAD. Organizations spend serious money on CAD. Additionally, there is lots of out of work talent that would be willing to devote serious time to such a project if it were financially possible for them.

    1. Re:CAD by Noksagt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Salome is one such LGPL program that is built on Open CASCADE and other F/OSS projects. Looks quite promising.

  6. A Simple, End-User Oriented Database by Dragonmaster+Lou · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Something along the lines of Access (though with a better DB engine that Access), FileMaker, Paradox, etc., would be nice.

    It should use local files (so you don't need to have a server running, although that could be an option) and have an easy to use form layout system. I don't want to have to administer a database daemon, and I don't want to have to have to hand-hack code for a simple database.

    I have mucked around for a while looking for something like this. The closest I've seen in Rekall, but it looks like it still needs to hook up to an external database of some kind, as best as I can tell.

    1. Re:A Simple, End-User Oriented Database by Isomer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Like Glom or GNU enterprise. Both prefer to use postgres, but failing that, at least gnuenterprise can use sqllite for local database use (dunno about glom).
      Both projects seem pretty good, they just need mindshare :)

  7. Cross-Platform Game Design Studio by xanderwilson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know I'm probably dreaming, but I'd love something like an Open Source alternative to Director or Flash.

    Alex.

    1. Re:Cross-Platform Game Design Studio by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 3, Informative

      If OOo Impress gets a bit more polished and a bit more capable (even more than PPT) with respect to custom animation, especially motion paths and the like, it will probably suffice. It has an "Export to SWF" option. I've done some cheesy yet impressive Flash-like animations in Microsoft PowerPoint, and I know OOo can support everything I used.

      Maybe Impress should be further developed with this goal in mind, in addition to presentation-making.

  8. Re:Automated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    See nget, pan, mldonkey, and pornview

  9. WYSIWYG web design by Johnny+Mnemonic · · Score: 4, Interesting


    I've tried netscape etc, but I would sure like to see a web designer that will allow me to drag a picture anywhere inside a box, and build a table that positions it correctly relative to the other elements in the page. For instance something like this. If OSS can design a PhotoShop killer (GIMP), why not a truly WYSIWYG web designer?

    Oh, and while we're dreaming, how about a desktop HIG standard? So each time I load a new distro I don't feel like I'm learning a new OS? While that's cool for hobbyists, it hurts corp adoption because Linux continually feels "unpolished." Why can't some consortium develop, decide on the lowest common denominator, and make it a standard that shrinkwrap developers and trainers target? And then you can leave the other stuff for preference panels.

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    1. Re:WYSIWYG web design by vigilology · · Score: 2, Funny
      "I would sure like to see a web designer that will allow me to drag a picture anywhere inside a box, and build a table that positions it correctly relative to the other elements in the page"

      The '90s called. They want their table-based layouts back.

    2. Re:WYSIWYG web design by name773 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      so you want to do something quickly without learning how to do it, and you want the tool for free. have fun :P
      also, considering that the people who could build the tool are most likely proficient in both html and c/c++/etc. they probably consider html to be a piece of cake and therefore would not have much motivation to build the program.

    3. Re:WYSIWYG web design by thulsey · · Score: 2, Interesting

      CANNOT give you the same control is a strong phrase to use about a tool that is basically giving you a front end to... um.... create markup. Which is text. That you can control. In a text editor. Or in wysiwyg html editor of choice.

      That being said, I've always found that even if I use a wysiwyg html "layout tool" I've had to go in and manually tweak the markup by hand. In the end I just figured out what i wanted and let my fingers do the walking...

      But, with table layouts going the way of the dodo, why bother?

    4. Re:WYSIWYG web design by PylonHead · · Score: 2, Informative
      • faster page loads
      • style decisions centralized in one file
      • complete nightmare getting it to work across all browsers
      • multi-column layouts rediculouly tedious to get working
      Oh, f*** it. I would just stick with tables if I were you....
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      # (/.);;
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    5. Re:WYSIWYG web design by angst_ridden_hipster · · Score: 2, Informative
      Reasons to use tables:
      • CSS *sucks* for cross-browser compatibility. It takes a lot of work, and still will not support legacy browsers.
      • Easy, since all the programs do it, and we've all been doing it since 1995. How tricky could <TR><TD> etc get?
      • Multi-column layouts without intense pain. CSS can do this, but you have to play silly games.
      Reasons to use CSS:
      • Separates the design into a cachable file. Faster load times.
      • Your HTML pages will be tiny. And probably usable on wierd devices. Again, faster load times.
      • Skinnable sites, based on arbitrary criteria (server side or client side).
      • Control. If you want pixel-level control, you can have it. At a price. And if you don't care about legacy browsers.
      • Easier to change layouts generated by code. Change the stylesheet, not the code. I found this important when working on a site that statically built large numbers of pages and took a long time to create.
      • Elitist Wankerdom. You know you want to be an Elitist Wanker like the rest of us. If you can't sling acronyms like CSS and XSLT (oooh!), you just have to face up to the fact that you suck.
      There you go folks. A handy guide. Now back to your regularly scheduled quibbling.
      --
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  10. QuarkXPress/InDisign replacement by rekrutacja · · Score: 3, Insightful

    DTP on linux is simply impossible. Scribus doesn't work (yet?) for most of us...

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    This Is Not a Sig
  11. Done and done. by sethadam1 · · Score: 4, Informative


    Nvu is your answer.

  12. Good Project Management software by Tye_Informer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Until my manager can create/update project plans under Linux, it will not even be considered as a replacement on the desktop.

    1. Re:Good Project Management software by Darth_Burrito · · Score: 2, Informative

      I looked at dotproject for a while. Never used it in a real world setting, but others have.

  13. Collaborative calendar app... by cjpez · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... that's cross-platform and lets you reserve conference rooms, schedule meetings, etc, etc, etc. Haven't found anything quite like that yet, not that can be used on coworkers' windows machines too, anyway.

    --
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    1. Re:Collaborative calendar app... by acaird · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree and am suprised that no one else mentioned this. We have decent (not great, but passable) word processors and spreadsheet programs. Good web browsers. Very good networking and server level stuff. But when people talk about why they use Windows, it's because of Outlook and the calendar. If there was a "firefox" of calendaring it would be really nice. It's more than a client though (unless you can manage to get Exchange calendaring working), so you have to get the server, and it has to operate with the huge MS Outlook base out there.
      So, um, good luck.
      .

      --
      Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. E. Tufte
  14. _all_ FOSS software "still needs to be written" by LeninZhiv · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The simple fact that the lion's share of a given niche is clearly held by one F/OSS offering (think LAMP), does not mean that there aren't parts of every F/OSS application that cannot be improved upon by anyone. Look at the bug trackers and todo lists of the projects that interest you; contributing, even to a well-entrenched project, is not impossible!

    Dreams of geek celebrity status aside, making Linux/Apache/OO.org/YourFavouriteProject better does just as much for 'advancing the cause' as starting a new "killer app" from scratch does (and in 99% of cases, probably more).

  15. How about... by r3m0t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    CAD
    Good IDEs
    Movie/animation editing
    Professional DVD menu editing (Look, it's complicated)
    Graphical LOGO
    Macromedia Flash or Shockwave editor (or editor of something similarly good)
    Vector-based drawing

    1. Re:How about... by Noksagt · · Score: 2, Informative
      Good IDEs
      This is the most surprising request. What IDEs do you like? What is it about KDevelop, Anjuta, eclipse, and others that don't meet your needs?
  16. My vote: by BrokenHalo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    An equivalent to Endnote that interfaces with OpenOffice. That would be a big plus for those of us who write scientific documents on linux machines in a MS-based world, where BibTex is not an option.

    Oh, and while we're at it, a gui-based stats package along the lines of PASS or SPSS would be nice too.

  17. Mapping! by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a Macintosh and I've seen no good modern mapping software for either Mac or for OSS Unix-likes (I don't mind BSD/X Window). In theory, it should be easy to take the USGS TIGER roadmap data set and combine it with local road data from governments and user-submitted manual road additions.

    Especially if it's open source, there are some interesting possibilities with it: automatically download USGS's free satellite photos (probably hosted by a certain company's TerraServer), add GPS tracking and maybe automatic road additions, add routing and proper speed-limit data, make a nice 3D perspective view from some point, etc.

    1. Re:Mapping! by josecanuc · · Score: 2, Informative

      We sort of have something like that in the Xastir project.

      It true purpose is a client for the APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) used by Amateur Radio operators to do object tracking, but as a side-feature, it supports a multitude of map formats.

      We're currently partway through integrating GDAL/OGR, which will add a couple dozen new map formats, including TIGER. TIGER support exists if you compile in GDAL/OGR, but it currently doesn't allow customizing of line widths/colors per layer. Fortunately, some users have converted all of the TIGER data to shapefiles, hosted at http://xastir.tamu.edu.

      Xastir uses an awk-like language that we call dbfawk for describing the attributes of line segments in shapefiles, which allows you to set the display to look like whatever you like, with some work.

      Be default it does GPS tracking -- that's the initial purpose. If you're a Ham radio operator, you can even rig it up to a radio and TNC (radio modem) and see what other hams in your area are up to.

      It can also download raster maps on-the-fly from various sources including the TIGER map server, TERRAserver, and maybe another. A "GEO" file describes the raster image source as well as the tiepoints (pixel->real coordinate) for ANY OTHER raster image you have. And the image source can be a local file or a remote file via HTTP -- so getting live radar background to your GPS tracking is a snap.

      Items not yet added, but requested: routing, speed limit display, and 3D views -- all those were also requested by our users.

      It has extensive documentation and includes explicit instructions on running it on MacOS X.

  18. Pr0n Indexer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I need a program to index all my pr0n!!!

  19. Spreadsheets by Free_Trial_Thinking · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can I please have a spreadsheet program that doesn't limit me to 64,000 rows? If anyone knows of an easy way to do this please let me know! I've been searching for years. Otherwise please build it into gnumeric, OO, etc, please!

    1. Re:Spreadsheets by magefile · · Score: 3, Interesting

      WTF? If you have 64,000+ rows, doesn't that suggest that gnumeric/OO/Excel are not the right tool to be using?

    2. Re:Spreadsheets by Matt+Perry · · Score: 2, Insightful
      If you have 64,000+ rows, doesn't that suggest that gnumeric/OO/Excel are not the right tool to be using?
      They are the right tool as they meet all the requirements except for the arbitrary limitation on the number of rows. If you have a single table of data with a lot of records, why resort to a RDBMS to deal with that? Spreadsheets are perfect for displaying that single table of data and then looking at it in different ways, or editing parts of it quickly and saving back out.

      With a RDBMS you'd have to write some code to import the data, then use SQL queries to extract the data and some more code to format it in a way that works for you. Sure, you could put it into an HTML table, but what if you want to lock the top row and the first column like you can in a spreadsheet? Then you'll probably have to end up writing a custom application just to present the data.

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  20. clarity by elliotj · · Score: 5, Insightful

    oss needs clarity. think about the mac. everything is immediately obvious to the end user. apps are sensibly named, things make sense. look at .net on windows. again, this is an easy to understand system.

    oss is great, but since it's a voluntary collaboration, things are named after inside jokes or poor conventions. the "k"rap naming of kde stuff for example. or "vi", "gawk", "sed" etc. come on.

    I know this will be flamed, but I think some kind of clarity council should be setup to provide consistency and simplicity across applications, tools and platforms. with a bit of this kind of organization, linux could really make a dent on the desktop, and new developers and users wouldn't face such a high barrier to entry.

    1. Re:clarity by Gilk180 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree that clarity comes in handly, but I think the main issues you may have are with the distributors.

      I use Fedora (bring on the flames) at home and a Mac at work. Everything I can think of on the Mac is easy to find on my Fedora box. Whatever you have chosen for email is labeled email. web is "Firefox Web Browser". Text editor is "Text Editor".

      As for programs like vi, gawk, sed, etc. anyone whoe needs to use or knows how to use any of these as well as grep, lex, bison, emacs knows the commands right off.

  21. Vector Drawing by poindextrose · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm rather impressed with Sodipodi. Not exactly an Illustrator killer, but good nonetheless.

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  22. Re:Heres a few: by forsetti · · Score: 3, Informative

    2. XMMS is pretty decent, and has a handful of plugins
    4. CLAMAV, Sophos, OpenAntiVirus

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  23. Heres something... by spreerpg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A Mathematica replacement, please.

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    Kwanza is not a Polish holiday!
    1. Re:Heres something... by Noksagt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Mathematica is under active development by some smart people. It will be difficult to catch-up. Still, Maxima is really quite good. Many of the Matlab clones (scilab, octave) are also great.

  24. Digital A/V by Apreche · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Digital Audio and Video editing. Stuff like Premiere. Acid Music. Reason. CoolEdit. ProTools. iMovie. Doing audio and video editing should be as good on Linux as it is on a Mac.

    Also, burning of optical disks. Yes k3b exists. yes, technically you can burn just about anything. But nothing linux can do comes close to Nero. I need all the perfect functionality of Nero in linux.

    Steam. The only pc game I play other than puzzle pirates, which is java, needs to run better on linux. Using cedega I can only get the resolution up to 800x600. Anything higher drops the framerate from perfect to less than 1 fps.

    Someone else mentioned audio mixers. Alsa is very good, and is about as good as I can expect, but not as good as I can hope for. I have an SBLive! Value with the latest alsa kernel drivers. It works and plays music very well. But if I use winamp in windows with directaudio not only does the mixer work properly and is labeled correctly, but the sound quality is imporoved tenfold. I don't know what the difference is, but even my non-audiophile self can hear a noticeable difference. All my friends hear it too. It's the same hardware, it should work the same regardless of OS.

    That's really what linux has to do now. Firefox and 2.6 brought us to the top of the hill, we're just nearing the peak of the mountain. We have support for most hardware and enough software to replace windows as a non-gaming desktop machine that is technologically superior in almost every fashion. But a lot of the hardware support is existent but non-perfect. Sound works, but not perfectly. CD burning works, but not as simple and perfect and beautiful as nero. ATI cards work, but are a pain in the ass. Nvidia cards work, but with closed source drivers. It's like everything works 90% perfectly, we need to push it to perfect, then linux will have smooth seas.

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  25. Re:It's obvious! by Rysc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    On the contrary, PySol is the best solitaire suite, bar none.

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  26. Games by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Given how many people dream about writing games, it's surprising how few good open source games there are. Perhaps what's lacking is a good framework - few have the time and abiblity to implement a whole high-quality game from scratch.

    I'm quite impressed with stratagus, though. It seems like a reasonably hackable RTS game framework.

    -jim

  27. A translator... and a controller by zogger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...no, not urdu to engrish or klingon, I mean GUI to CLI then to AUI. I'd really like to see a program that would let me see what any random button mashing or input in a GUI interface *does* in the form of a normal scripting command and also to see the hierarchial tree of files accessed in real time. It can be "focus" based on the other apps. This is a learning tool. An exploration tool. A linux useability and make-more-practical tool.

    And I'll second the request from down the thread, a speech to text and text to speech, eventually leading to speech to speech,diggit, the dang talking computar. Audio User Interface. You get one of them babies, you'll be set, in like flint, leet, topdog. People freeking talk to each other, they DON'T stand next to each other and type at each other. We are audio visual creatures, tactile is down the list of senses. And don't forget the aging of the population and how arthritis and whatnot screws up your typing ability, let alone how it even affects younger folks who do it a lot.. Big ole useability hint there to anyone looking for an actual folding money market of some kind.

    I used to have a little mac classic proggie, forget the name, but actually worked well, you could request apps on and off, etc, verbally. Something like that, but *more*. First, the speech to text, because THEN not only is it handy for those with disabilities who want to compute, but you could use the text output to run the computer.

  28. It's been mentioned before, by MoOsEb0y · · Score: 2, Interesting

    but I would really like to emphasize this. Linux needs decent quality DVD authoring (read GUI... not dvdauthor) and transcoding software. K3b is probably the easiest place to integrate transcoding (they already have support for DVD -> DivX), but I am talking about MPEG2 -> MPEG2 to make dual layer DVDs fit on 4.7 Gigs. This is the place where I feel that linux is lacking the most. That and ATI's drivers suck, but that's not our fault, right? ;)

  29. Re:Good Office Programs.... by megabyte405 · · Score: 2, Informative

    AbiWord Word Processor and Gnumeric Spreadsheet. Fast, functional, non-bloated. (Disclosure: I help out with these projects but have used the competition.)

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  30. Simple graphics editor by ted_nugent · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Going from TuxPaint to the Gimp is literally like jumping between kindergarten and college. Is there nothing inbetween for simple drawing and photo touch up?

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  31. DVD authoring! by Frodo420024 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Something easy that I can use to whip out my holiday movies in a few hours. Ulead MovieFactory comes to mind, or their DVD Workshop for more complex projects.

    DVD authoring with OSS still takes a computer science degree and LOTS of time to get right.

    --
    I'm in a Unix state of mind.