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.

Comments

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

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

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:"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.

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.