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How To Tell Open-Source Winners From Losers

Posted by Hemos on from the sifting-chaff-&-wheat dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There are 139,834 open-source projects under way on SourceForge. IWeek wonders which projects will make lasting contributions, and which will fizzle. Sure, Linux, Apache, and MySQL are winners, but what about OpenVista, FLOSSmole, and Hyperic HQ? What's your list of open-source winners and losers?"

48 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is backwards, I hear about a program, then I go look for it on Sourceforge. Who has time to sift through 100,000 hobby projects? Let others discover and bring the good ones to light. That is what true open source is all about.

  2. Fairly easy by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 5, Funny

    IBM: Open Source Winners
    SCO: Open Source Losers

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  3. roll the games together by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've always thought there should be a borg-like game project to roll all the unfinished games into one big ball and work out the common elements into a single game engine, then just farm out the artwork,etc. back to the individual project holders. It could be way easier to generate a lot of interesting games that way.

    --
    stuff |
    1. Re:roll the games together by Chyeld · · Score: 3, Funny

      and so the world of TRON was born...

    2. Re:roll the games together by poopie · · Score: 3, Funny

      ... well at least until your katamari gets too big for the tubes. Then you need to go outside the tubes and roll up cars and buildings.

  4. Re:I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a progr by Schraegstrichpunkt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not sure if you are joking or not, so...

    Here is a partial list of successful free software projects not on Sourceforge:

    • Linux
    • Apache
    • Python
    • Ruby (off and on Rails)
    • PostgreSQL
    • Most of GNU
    • *BSD

    A better place to look for successful free software projects is http://packages.debian.org/.

    --
    http://outcampaign.org/
  5. Re:The Losers: by halivar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, seeing as how you're posting on the INTERNET, I'd say this places you solidly in the "loser" category, by your definition.

    Enjoy your open-source.

  6. Anything I can benefit from is a "winner"... by Richard+Steiner · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't care so much if a program is popular. I'm more interested in whether or not a program is actually USEFUL to me. :-) Some of the open source stuff I love is quite unpopular, but I don't care because it does what I want in the way I want it done.

    That's one of the beauties of open source -- "winning" doesn't always matter.

    --
    Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
    The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
    1. Re:Anything I can benefit from is a "winner"... by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You are thinking in terms of getting a program and using it yourself, for your own setup. If you are working in a larger business environment this may not hold useful.

      Leaving out any of the stupid Political how Bosses are stupid and stuff here are some facts why you should be more interested in more Successful projects.

      Training Costs: Training costs are more then paying an expert to tell the people how to use the product during a meeting. It is the downtime people suffer from the learning curve on the product. Say it is an easy to use App and it takes a company of 100 employees only 15 Minutes to learn and get useful. Assuming an average wage of $15.00 an hour That is about $300 (The actual multiplication is more but we can assume that they can make up some of the loss time that day) So for a Very Simple application that is very easy to use we have spent enough money to Pay a $15.00 hour employee for 1/2 a week. As a program grows in complexity the numbers a higher, and if the CEO needs to use this app it can get expensive quickly. If you use a more popular application there are chances that there will be more people who already know the product and less training expenses.

      Dynamic Needs: Companies needs are rarely static, and they are often the same changes that happen with other companies. Using a more Active and Popular tool increases the chances that the product will keep up with the needs.

      Security: One lonely programmer checking for security or a large team checking and fixing security. Which do you prefer.

      Finding the Product: If you are trying to find a product that meets your needs you will normally find the more popular product first then then other guys later. So it comes up with how much time/money are you willing to spend to find that needle in the haystack that will work perfectly with you. Or the more popular app is good enough and will get the job done.

      Support: If there is a problem what is the base you can turn to. If the project is too unpopular then the only guy you can contact is the developer, and if he is tired explaining the products he just may not talk to you. For more popular products there is a community you can turn to get support on your problems.

      Now for some of the PHB problems.

      Unknown Name: MySQL, Linux, Apache They get some coverage in the non-tech rags. If it is to remote then the Boss will not want to try it because they haven't heard from anyone else professionally on how well it works or not. As well articles stating its success if the project fails.

      What if the project stops: What if the project just stops. Who will keep the product alive. Trusting a Company Critical Application so a program that may day doesn't sound good to me.

      If this doesn't work who to blame: if the S**T hits the fan fingers will be pointed and if the project isn't popular enough it will go under the radar and toward the person who implemented it or approved the implementation. Saying it is Linux or Microsoft fault will ease the blame towards the individuals because the product has been used sucessfuly elsewhere. But if was GNUseless then You will get the blame.

      Sure for personal use you can use whatever application you like. I myself for text editing I prefer JED not as much Vi or Emacs. As well as some other less used tools. But if I need to implement on a company bases even for a very small company going with larger names actually does make it easier to get it approved and implemented.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Anything I can benefit from is a "winner"... by digitalunity · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Several comments.

      OOSS applications are not always more secure than closed source programs. I think a lot of this depends on the type of application as well as the popularity of the application. An OSS program that isn't very popular will have few developers working on it. The greater security availabel in Linux is only present because of the number of people reviewing the source; with a small program maybe there's only a few people developing it. One thing is nice however.. a lot of the less popular applications have less features than their closed source counterparts and thus have less attack vectors.

      What if the project stops: What if the project just stops. Who will keep the product alive. Trusting a Company Critical Application so a program that may day doesn't sound good to me.

      This is a toss up. With closed source, the reverse is true also. What if the company stops producing, developing or supporting your Company Critical Application(R)? You have no options except to migrate to another solution. You could ask the copyright holder if you can have the source, but most companies will decline citing (insert one: IP concern, security, diluted financial value of the product, etc). If a company has the technical resources and had been relying on an OSS solution, at least they have the source code as a clutch to get them through until a migration is convenient. If it turns out that the program is easily extensible, they may even keep an internal fork that they can continue to develop without the hassle of keeping their changes open sourced.

      For a small business, this is an absolute non-option. They don't have the resources and losing a primary application on which your business is founded can be a business killer. OSS has it's advantages for small business however, including reduced cost over time. Like anything, OSS isn't right for everyone. Any successful business owner would complete a risk-tolerance assesment to determine what solution has acceptable features, security risk, cost(initial and over time).

      Sadly, many times the instability and uncertainty of OSS applications' future makes small businesses choose closed source. It's funny though that for the very reason they choose closed source applications, they should choose open source: You never know when Company X will discontinue Product Y and leave you stranded. I would bet often times this is based on inaccurate and incomplete information. How do you tell the small businesses though that they don't need to pay the Redmond rent to be successful?

      --
      You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
    3. Re:Anything I can benefit from is a "winner"... by Eskarel · · Score: 2, Insightful
      True, closed source applications can die(or more likely move onto a new non compatible version), but close source applications die in different ways than open source ones.

      Closed source applications die because they are unprofitable, or because the company that makes them tanked for some other reason. This is a problem, particularly with smaller applications, but a good product worth paying for is usually profitable, and most large companies don't tank, and if they do their profitable assets are bought by someone else. Companies rarely decide to stop making a profitable product simply because they don't want to make it anymore, and if a product goes from profitable to unprofitable it's probably becauses there's something else most of the market has switched to and you probably want to as well.

      Open source developers on the other hand, can stop working on a project for a whole host of reasons. The lead developers could become bored with the project(this happens a lot with software for which all the "cool" parts are already done. They could have a change in lifestyle which decreases the time they have available to the project(ie getting married, having a kid, etc). They could be in an accident.

      Companies are relatively stable, and they're motivated by money, so long as the money flows the product flows, whether it's boring or not. Open Source, particularly much smaller products, is much more fickle. The fact that you have the source available afterwards is really rather immaterial, since if the company had sufficient development staff to maintain the software they would have written it, or forked it themselves.

  7. Jakarta by bckrispi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In the Java world, anything released by the Apache Jakarta project is usally a winner.

    --
    Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
  8. How to tell? by bendodge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. Does it have a good plan and some goals
    2. Is it something someone needs? (Edison and the electric voting machine...)
    3. Can it be to kept current and out of obsoletion with reasonable effort?

    Other than that, only time will tell.

    --
    The government can't save you.
  9. Re:OpenVista? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

    VistA is a medical tracking system. OpenVistA is an OSS implementation.

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  10. Re:OpenVista? by sconeu · · Score: 2, Informative

    And it's actually OpenVistA. Note the trailing upper case.

    1. It's from the US.gov
    2. It's been around since 2003.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  11. Easy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Winners:

    root@localhost>./configure %% make && make install
    root@localhost>
    (program/library/whatever works)

    Losers:

    root@localhost>./configure %% make && make install
    error: unable to find . You need to install library.
    root@localhost>rm -rf ./*
    root@localhost>

    1. Re:Easy! by lahvak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Losers: whoever runs "configure" as root.

      --
      AccountKiller
    2. Re:Easy! by Lost+Race · · Score: 3, Funny

      Create a new user with UID=0 and GID=0. Now you can install software without being root. Problem solved!

    3. Re:Easy! by edunbar93 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Next you're going to tell me that I should never run any compiled program as root (and most servers need to start as root even if they run as another user) unless you've checked over every line of that software for backdoors and security vulnerabilities yourself. Because you know, it's just as easy for the developer of said software (or a third party attacker!) to insert a backdoor or exploit into fastlib.c as it is to insert one into Makefile. And while we're at it, you should never run ls, mv, cp, df, du, dd, who, ps, cc, rm, chmod, mkdir, chown, or passwd as root, because the system might have been compromised and they might be trojans. Or better yet, since systems administrators cause 95% of all systems failures, just change the root password to THs7h^%$1LKqD&!, and burn the post-it it was written on before reading it. And then shoot the systems administrator and his entire family, just in case he remembered it and accidentally blurted it out in his sleep.

      Or, you can accept a little risk somewhere along the way and actually get some fucking work done.

      --
      "No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
  12. Clarification by Bogtha · · Score: 3, Informative

    One of the PostgreSQL developers quoted in the article feels this article is inaccurate in some ways.

    --
    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  13. Re:I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a progr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Here is a partial list of successful free software projects not on Sourceforge:

    No, that's basically it. When it comes to server software, interpreted languages, a couple of RDMSs, browsers, and toolkits, Sourceforge is GREAT!

    I was looking for some accounting/bookkeeping software and CRM software on Sourceforge for running my non-IT business and I found it to be incredibly lacking. Most of the projects were in the Alpha stages, if that, and many were just starting up. I need software now. I don't have time to contribute my very rusty programming skills either. So, I had to get a commercial package...that's me.

    A friend of mine who runs a blog and a comment site much like this one (political) was using some F/OSS blogging comment posting software. He isn't technical and needed support which was lacking in the F/OSS version of the software he was using. He can't afford to hire a F/OSS developer. So he purchased a commercial application for around $300.00 that meets all of his needs.

    Now, as someone who reads Slashdot everyday, I can assure all of you that I mentioned EVERYTHING that you folks are about to mention to me. He wasn't interested. He NEEDED a piece of software that worked and worked now - no Beta, no Alpha - A RELEASED VERSION of software and someone who will fix his problems.

    I just committed heresy here on Slashdot and I'm waiting for the wips and chains.

  14. Same rules as real life.. by digitalderbs · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The same rules apply to open source as they do in real life.. it's not about quality necessarily. To quote Sean Connery in The Rock,

    Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.
    The prom queen, in this case, is your PC.
  15. Re:I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a progr by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I prefer freshmeat.net. They do have non-OSS stuff but you can search by license type. It keeps you updated, it has download and homepage links for most projects, and people can rate things, the latter of which is the interesting part.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  16. benevolent dictators by BertieBaggio · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTFA:

    MySQL, Linux, and other successful open source projects all have this in common: a Linus Torvalds sort of figure, a benevolent dictator with the humility to see the value in other people's work. [...] At Samba, founded in 1992 to provide file and print capabilities across Windows, Unix, and Linux, it's the diplomatic yet decisive Jeremy Allison.

    I'd add that a good characteristic is that these 'benevolent dictators' have a good habit of speaking out on matters of importance. For LT, it is about GPL v3 - and although I may disagree with his conclusions, the debate is valuable. With JRA it was taking a principled stand against a deal that he saw as damaging the community, resiging in protest from Novell (and was/is now being snapped up by Google?).

    A project is more likely to succeed if they have an open-minded, forward thinking leader who doesn't shirk the big issues. Of course, picking battles is important - you probably won't hear ESR talking about maintaining biodiversity in freshwater lakes, or RMS warn people about the rapid spread of Lyme Disease any time soon. Still, being able to spot potential external troubles can be just as important as spotting potential internal ones.

    --
    If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
  17. Seconded. Numbers != success by benhocking · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We have an open source project that models brain regions, that is extremely unlikely to ever be widely used by a general audience. However, if it were used by 25% of neuroscientists who run brain simulations, I'm sure we'd consider it successful.

    --
    Ben Hocking
    Need a professional organizer?
    1. Re:Seconded. Numbers != success by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      That is just the thing. A 25% market share of your target audience is good. The thing is most OSS apps don't have even a 10% market share.

      Another thing that I see is FLOSS apps that are in perpetual beta, that never make it to 1.0. If something has been around for 3 or 5 years, one would think it would be v1.0. Instead, what we see is v0.93.4223587234856852837501613. At some point, it has to be finished.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  18. Ending a project is (was) not that easy. by Stefan+Fredriksson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ok, I confess. I'm one of the guys thats trashing sf.net.

    However, when I realized I would not have time to "finish" my small project (I had a working version up there though) I decided to remove the homepage, *and* the

    Now, callar me stupid but I did not manage. I looked over and over for a way to delete *my own* project but didn't manage. I looked a couple of days later and I then send an email to sf.net and explained the situation to them. What did I get in response? Nada, zip.

    This was maybe 18 months or so ago and maybe it's better now but my long-ago-abandoned program still sits at sf.net taking up space.

    1. Re:Ending a project is (was) not that easy. by spectrokid · · Score: 3, Informative

      That is by design. Open source means you give away your sourcecode, now matter how insignificant. There is always a (very) small chance somebody takes over where you left. So the work you did should not be deleted. It is part of the SF experience...

      --

      10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

    2. Re:Ending a project is (was) not that easy. by DJK · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?doci d=14041&group_id=1#project

  19. Winners by Dynedain · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Aside from the obvious big winners (ie. Firefox/Apache/MySQL/PHP/FreeBSD/Linux) here are some of the lesser-known winners that I like:

    Cyberduck - Very clean OSX FTP client
    Joomla! - Content Management System
    SmoothWall - Router/Firewall Linux distro
    VNC - remote desktop
    PDFCreator - Great PDF printer for Windows, but really hard to find
    VLC - all in one media player for OSX
    XMMS - WinAMP-like media player for X11 systems
    MythTV - even though it doesn't work for me (yet!)

    Some that I think are losers:

    Mambo - The project Joomla! forked from when the devs split with the corporation owning the copyright.

    OpenDarwin - since Apple seems to be intent on not giving back whatever it doesn't have to.

    Blender - just not enough market for another 3D app, which is why the commercial company sold it off to begin with. The nonstandard interface and workflow gets in the way and only enthusiasts really use it (like gimp, but with a much much smaller install base)

    Sunbird - the calendar component of Mozilla's offerings... Firefox development has been blasting along, even Thunderbird is doing great, but Sunbird (both the standalone and plugin version) seem to have stagnated... very very unfortunate since the iCal standard is going to explode with the iCal server in OSX Server 10.5 and there are very few Windows clients that utilize it. Mozilla could capture a huge market share here.

    PalmOS - once a closed-source winner... soon to be an open-source loser as the Linux-based OS supposedly in development is not adopted. Palm could dominate the market again if they pulled their heads out of their asses (not very likely).

    Some of my winners may ultimately be losers. For example, SmoothWall hasn't had a major update in several years, PDFCreator is difficult to find, and would disappear if Adobe included a PDF printer with Acrobat Reader or Microsoft included one in Windows. Likewise, some of my losers could easily become winners if they could pull their acts together.

    You can see my bias (as a web developer) but "loser" open source projects seem to just fade away. So I don't think there are many memorable examples as there are of winners. And of course every winner can easily be eclipsed and made a loser if they don't stay on the ball just like closed-source projects.

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
    1. Re:Winners by c41rn · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is a free Acrobat Reader alternative called "Foxit", but alas, it is not open source. I gave it a try a few months ago and it was snappier than Acrobat Reader but it didn't play nice with Firefox. It looks like it's been updated since then, so YMMV.

  20. Quick tip... by jimhill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If a guy is worried about his project being perceived as a "looser", it's a loser.

    --
    Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
  21. Open Source Development HOW-TO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    1. Introduction

      As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.

      Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.

      So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!

    2. First Steps

      The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge.Net; the support you receive here will be invaluable.

      OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge.Net project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?

    3. Don't Waste Time!

      Now you need to set up your SourceForge.net homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!

    4. Ask For Help

      Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:

      "Hi there! Welcom to my SorceForge page! I am planing to create a Fisrt Person Shooter game for Linux that is going to kick Doom 3's ass! I have loads of awesome ideas, like giant robotic spiders! I need some help thouh as I cant program or draw. If you can program or draw the tekstures please get in touch! K thx bye!"
      Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge.net ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!
    5. The A-Team

      So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.

      Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!

    6. Getting Down To It

      Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.

      Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!

    7. The Outcome

      So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...

      Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge.net! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?

  22. Define "Winner" by Hymer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...in our reality we can't measure success in kG of gold left by users... installed base may be a way of measuring but how do you get that info (and no, that is not the same as "how many downloads") ?
    A winner is simply a project with a satisfied userbase of significant size.
    ...and no, that doesn't make Windows a success... just ask any Windows user if they would accept a car, TV set or washing machine wich behaved like their Windows and you'll get the answer "You are not serious, are you ?".
    --
    I left Windows 3 years ago with the intention of returning after one year...

  23. Re:Look at the Hype by shmlco · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And if the project "team" is one individual who hasn't posted anything new in six months...

    Proably could eliminate 70-80% of the projects on SF with this one criteria.

    --
    Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
  24. Winners vs. Losers? ... its not a game by CountJoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't appreciate the idea of Winners vs. Losers in the open source world. It's not a game. There are a lot of open source projects that never get released or never get a following, but that doesn't make them Losers. Sometimes you start a project and find out that someone else has already done, or is doing, something better. Sometimes you just lose interest. Things happen. At least some people are trying. And they're not losers.

    I say this because I have started/joined several now-dead projects.

  25. Barely anyone is a loser by rg3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have developped several open source programs. Most of them very small tools, none of them over 3000 lines as much. From those, only one has a number of users in the thousands and can be considered a "winner". However, I use two more of them _daily_. One of those two doesn't even have 50 users if any. There's another one which I don't know how many people use but probably almost none, but I did it for my father, and he uses it from time to time with great results. And, finally, I did another one for an online friend that, as far as I know, has used it successfully many many times.

    So, are they losers really? If I use them, I don't care how many more people use them. They fill my needs. If I create a program for another person or group of people and they use it frequently because it fullfills their needs, how can it be a loser?

    The only losers are the programs that aren't used by anyone, the people that asked for it or their creators. And how much of those are there? I don't think many.

  26. Those that provide an alternative to closed source by cjmt · · Score: 3, Informative
    The big winners (to me) are those projects who provide a viable or better alternative to available closed source software and those that you'd put into a business and trust to "just work". To find them you need to test, test and test some more. My winners, those that spring to mind immediately as being trusted not to embarrass me, are The other winners are those that are used everyday as part of the tools to do the job and never really thought about. Nmap, vim, perl, portupgrade, cvsup and many more.
  27. all by treak007 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Even if only one person downloads the software and finds it useful, then the software is still a success. Perhaps not a success from a business model sense, but a success in an open source sense.

    --
    Klingon Software is not released, it escapes, inflicting terrible damage onto the enemy as it does
  28. Re:Lose the cutesy-pie names by Dynedain · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That's a very good point and spot-on. A classic example is "gimp"... how seriously are companies going to take a product that shares its name with the very politically incorrect slang word for a cripple?

    Although it holds true for closed-source projects as well... Shake and Combustion (owned by Apple and Autodesk respectively) are names you wouldn't associate with compositing package unless you already know about them. Basic names such as "AntiVirus" usually only work as branded with their corporate entity and then only for well-known types of tools (office products, utilities, email clients, etc.)

    That and open source projects usually don't have the budget, time, or knowledge to research branding and identity.

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
  29. Size of user base means little by ChrisA90278 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Many of those 100,000+ projects were never ment to be "big" for example I have one project there. It is a Linux kernel drivel and some user land stuff that goes with it. The driver controls an astronomical camera of which less than one dozen wer made. Onless you run a TASS Mk III camera you don't need this.

    Much of this stuff is intended for a very small user group, so if only 50 people use it, it is not a failure. One example is software to help with EME radio (EME is "Earth, Moon, Earth" where you bounce radio signals off the moon.) this is very popular but only within a small community. Actually MOST software is like this. Here at work I'm working on software to process telemetry data from space lift boosters. Not many people need this. I'd guess n the closed source worlld 99% of everything is written for just a few users and therefor never published.

    Don't count quality or usefullness by the number o users

  30. Nice list. With one bummer. by Qbertino · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Blender - just not enough market for another 3D app, which is why the commercial company sold it off to begin with. The nonstandard interface and workflow gets in the way and only enthusiasts really use it (like gimp, but with a much much smaller install base)

    My gosh. Your list is more or less compliant to mine, but this is a complete bummer. Blender is one of the gallionfigures of the OSS movement and it's installed base is easyly 10 to 100 times larger that that of Gimp. If only Gimp were as easy to install as Blender. It competes with packages that are 50 times larges and cost upwards of 2000$. It's got a fully OpenGL accelerated GUI - which afaik no other programm has had that long - and has gotten recent feature additions that put it way ahead of competition in a lot of fields. Blender is the OSS application that is currently scaring the living piss out of the entire 3D industry and for good reasons too. You're entirely wrong on this one.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  31. Re:I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a progr by itwerx · · Score: 3, Informative

    SQL-ledger is a good bookkeeping package (and a whole lot more) and SugarCRM can handle the CRM side of things. There's even some glue scripts out there to keep the client info sync'd between them.

    I'd also add Zimbra to the list of very good non-SourceForge projects. However, to be fair, the original poster was referring mostly to word of mouth being the primary source of info, nothing in the post said, "anything not on SourceForge is te suxors!"

  32. lingering without improving by bcrowell · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There is a tendency for a lot of OSS projects to linger on without ever improving. They're sort of like the neurotic family dog that is reasonably well behaved in some ways, but never quite got to be 100% reliable about not pooping on the carpet.

    In hopes of alienating as many people as possible, I'll list a bunch of projects that I see as being in this category:

    • OOo. Still lacks a lot of functionality that people are used to having in Office, which makes it hard to build enthusiasm for switching from Office to OOo. I noticed that TFA counts it as one of the losers, and I have to agree. The big problem here, AFAICT, is a huge codebase of fairly poor quality code, which doesn't make anybody want to work on it.
    • xpdf. On the one hand, I use it every day of my life, and I love how it starts up so fast. On the other hand, it has obvious rendering bugs that have existed for a very long time, and are apparently never going to get fixed. (The UI is also very 1982.)
    • Perl 6. I was really enthusiastic about this in 2000. Now there's pugs, but I don't see any sign that the project will ever progress to a real-world implementation.
    • Perl/Tk. There's just scads of software out there that uses Perl/Tk, including some that I wrote. OK, I'm grateful to Nick Ing-Simmons for writing it, but he's no longer maintaining it actively, and nobody else has stepped up to the plate to take over maintenance. There are starting to be some really serious problems with Perl/Tk on recent Linux distros, and patches for them are not getting applied. I believe Perl/Tk is heavily used in the financial industry by stock traders; I wonder how many of those firms are regretting tying themselves to it.
    --
    Find free books.
  33. Re:I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a progr by Vengeance_au · · Score: 3, Informative

    In regards to CRM - I've been using sugarCRM for about 6 months and its been rock solid, with pretty much everything I need to run a quickly growing business. Nice and robust, good forums of users willing to help, and a number of hosters offer it as a one-click include. I found it via the magic google query of ["open source" crm] - just like I found the reporting tool (jasperReports) via ["open source" reporting].

    I only ever search through sourceforge, freshmeat etc when I have a name of software that I am specifically searching for - otherwise I find you end up wading through 100's of apps that are abandoned, alpha, etc. I do believe those sites serve a useful purpose, just not as the first point to search.

  34. Re:I go to Sourceforge after I learn about a progr by anomalous+cohort · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm a big fan of http://plone.org/ which is a CMS that sits on top of the http://www.zope.org/ application server. All of which is OSS. I can't speak to OSS CRM but others here have. There are plenty of fantastic server side developer productivity boosting OSS software out there.

    When it comes to client side software there is a huge amount of great OSS apps.

    I have used all of these projects for years and would most definitely label them as quality, winner OSS.

  35. I'm still waiting for a competitor... by patio11 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Three times my little slice of commercial software development has made it onto Slashdot. (http://www.bingocardcreator.com -- It makes bingo cards for elementary schoolteachers.)
    Three times folks have said its trivial (true as it goes -- it took me a man-week to write.)
    Three times folks have said its disgusting to charge $24.95 for it (good thing I don't sell to Slashdot readers.)
    Three times folks have said OSS is going to put me out of business.
    Three times folks have actually offered to donate labor to put me out of business. ...

    Three years my OSS competitor has gone without a patch. (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bingo-cards) It lacks a few key features, like actually printing the cards it makes. This makes it more active than 80% of the projects on Sourceforge.

    Is bingo-cards a success? Well, it probably accomplished what the author wanted it to, and good for him. Is it going to put me out of business? No. Is OSS ever going to supplant commercial software in bingo card creation or a whole lot of other human endeavors? No.

    --
    Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
  36. Multitail! by anonieuweling · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Multitail!
    MultiTail lets you view one or multiple files like the original tail program. The difference is that it creates multiple windows on your console (with ncurses). It can also monitor wildcards: if another file matching the wildcard has a more recent modification date, it will automatically switch to that file. That way you can, for example, monitor a complete directory of files. Merging of 2 or even more logfiles is possible. It can also use colors while displaying the logfiles (through regular expressions), for faster recognition of what is important and what not. Multitail can also filter lines (again with regular expressions) and has interactive menus for editing given regular expressions and deleting and adding windows. One can also have windows with the output of shell scripts and other software. When viewing the output of external software, MultiTail can mimic the functionality of tools like 'watch' and such. http://vanheusden.com/multitail/