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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.
Slashdot of course :o)
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Linux?
Wonder what the public key field is for?
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.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
dyne:bolic
"Dyne:bolic is a multimedia studio on a CD that you simply pop into any computer and start it up, instantly turning it into a Linux/GNU [sic] system"
Why not Knoppix??? Granted, this is more specialised towards creative people, but it never figures on my top ten, whereas Knoppix would do.
I would have to say that Eclipse is one of the most important open source projects out there. Thousands of developers use the Eclipse IDE for day to day developement of enterprise Java applications.
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?
I think without the GNU foundation framework (compiler, libraries, shell etc.) and the Linux Kernel there would be nothing with FOSS. Without all the foundation under the the GPL there would be nothing to build on for the other prograsms.
BTW: Where the hell is LAMP in the top 10? Apache would be nothing without Perl, PHP, Phyton, MySQL or PostGresSQL.
By many Linux (the kernel) is seen as *the* prototypical OS project, yet it is missing here.
Oth, I didn't even recognize dyne:bolic without reading the description. And including Outfoxed, while they even admit it is not an OS project per se, shows they were just scrambling to find any 10 points to fill the list and space on their site. Clueless.
How about the Bible, Quran and Torah?
Hm yes, let's change some of the texts in those books. I'm sure it'll go down well with the readers.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
GCC should be on this list. After all, without GCC, the vast majority of the others would not be possible.
Of course, number 11 is Google, Google, and Google. But that's neither software nor open-source.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Not necessarily in order, these are some top picks based on how they've changed or are changing our entire technology culture:
Linux. Duh. How much of everything else is built on this fantastic platform for the back end? I'm not personally in support of rolling out desktops to users, but as a server platform its amazing and flexible. More important, it empowers developers to build EVERYTHING.
Asterisk. If you use an IP phone service, you already have a small hint at how this changes things. If you've developed software that uses SIP or IAX2 to connect things and move streaming traffic you're starting to get the hint. IMO, this is a paradigm shifting technology just at the start of a giant curve up in its attention by the industry.
Sourceforce. For obvious reasons, this has empowered so many projects.
Apache, and the things its led to -- like Tomcat, etc.
Eclipse -- Wow, an open sourced (even if originally sponsored, driven, and to some extent built by IBM) rich user context framework and complete IDE for development that's absolutely a rival to Visual Studio.
I know I'm forgetting a ton -- but these in particular are real industry driving tools that changed or are about to change (in the case of Asterisk) large segments of the tech world.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Disclaimer--I am not a theologian nor "Bible Expert". That said I do have some knowledge--My dad spoke most of the languages that were used in writing various parts of the Bible, being an expert himself.
The Bible was not written in any one language originally, nor was it written by a single person. Anyone who makes that type of claim is severely deluded.
The Old Testament (Genesis through Malachi) was written in Hebrew, but not modern Hebrew. Some parts were written in a form of Hebrew that did not make use of vowels. Talk to an expert about this--my Hebrew is limited to recognizing the script and few historical notes.
The New Testament, before the Catholics compiled it, was written in a variety of languages, including both Greek and Aramaic (which is probably what Christ spoke). At some point the Catholic Church (Roman), decided that everything should be in Latin, and only distributed the scripture in that language. Various editions have been translated from both the Latin or from more ancient documents. Many of the documents that are out there are so far from the "original" that there is little, if any, hope of knowing exactly how they read.
Additionally, remember that even the oldest versions in existence today are both ancient and very likely copies (especially with the Old Testament), which means that they have been both translated and transscribed numerous times. So while I believe that the Bible is scripture, and that much of it (not all) was inspired by God, there is a strong need to be very careful in how one interprets the meanings.
Being a member of the LDS church, I have my own beliefs about what should be done to properly understand the Bible, but that opinion is even less popular than even believing in God in the first place (which in these parts can be a dangerous viewpoint).
As for being open source, that is out of the question. Public domain != open source. In the case of the Bible, the license (from the Man Himself) allows anyone to publish or distribute the work, but prohibits one from changing the source to help prevent bugs from creeping in. A lot folks have ignored this restriction, resulting in much chaos, but that's another story.
Hope this helped.
"We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
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....
It looks great, it's ridiculously customizable, and it's relatively easy to get involved in development. I think it really shows off the advantages of OSS.
I am trolling
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.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.