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What's The Greatest Web Software Ever?
An anonymous reader writes "What's The Greatest Web Software Ever Written?, Charlie Babcock of InformationWeek asks, in his follow up to last year's widely read list of greatest software period. The winner then was BSD 4.3. The new Top 12 list is a little funky in that it doesn't distinguish between apps, sites, and controls — XMLHttpRequest object set — is one of the winners. It includes many of the usual suspects, like Digg and AIM, along with some unexpected winners. (like World of Warcraft) The number one choice however, Apache server, is arguably correct."
Well, if you take "ever" literally... the greatest software ever hasn't been written yet.. :)
Or just another blogger? Besides the fact that it's nearly impossible to read his article, and the fact that it lumps dissimilar items together on a top-# list, his omissions make this a waste of time. Top "web software" and no NCSA Mosaic or Netscape Navigator (1.0)? Also, I thought the WELL was a BBS/Shell account provider?
WoW is far better than Apache.
And then there are the pages people make using it.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Vista mentioned eighteen times on the informationweek main page ..
davecb5620@gmail.com
www.p2plawsuit.com
When is Slashdot going to add a -1 moderation option for people who actually RTFA?
When speaking strictly about web software I'd say Apache, MySQL and PHP are the big competition when it comes to "best web app". If you extend that to platforms, I'd say FreeBSD wins the prize for stability and security, one of the most important aspects of a web server.
1 - Apache - still one of the most popular web servers out there. One of the most flexible and adaptable. It just rocks.
2 - Routed - the router daemon that, in some shape, form or fashion, runs probably 90% of the internet. Without routers to move the traffic, the rest of it just a moot point
3 - Netscape 1.0 - The idea of a GUI browser is fundamental to how we experience the web today. Without that, who needs dynamic objects like Flash since you wouldn't be able to see them.
4 - Flash - The idea that you could put moving pictures, sound, and video on a web page is a pretty fundamental one that gets largely over looked.
5 - Shockwave - The idea that could put games and other interactive media on a web page is another pretty fundamental idea that gets largely overlooked.
6 - CSS - Stylesheets - what a blessing to every web master everywhere. Praise the Lord and pass the wine.
I'm kinda surprised that more of my list didn't make it. Oh well......
2 cents,
Queen B.
HDGary secures my bank
not just the language is what is attractive to the millions of developers. While the language is nice, the fantastic libraries that are included with the VM are what makes the big difference. Is it perfect? Far from it. No platform even comes close to the library support provided by the Java platform. With the new open source license, things will only get better. Thank you Sun.
Oh, wait. Wrong place for THAT.
The article's writer appears to have gotten this confused. As I'm sure everyone on this site knows, WoW isn't a Web application - it doesn't listen on port 80 and doesn't communicate with web browsers (barring a few status pages - you certainly can't play the game that way.) AOL Instant Messenger wasn't originally either. There are now web-based interfaces available, but he's not talking about those, he's talking about the original service which - again - didn't listen on port 80 and couldn't communicate with web browsers.
Amusingly, his screenshot of "Hotmail" runs into the exact same problem. He's apparently decided to take a screenshot of someone using Microsoft Outlook to log into Hotmail - not a web browser. While you can obviously use Hotmail with a web browser, and I suspect the majority of people do, that screenshot is particularly badly chosen.
Bad, bad writer.
Breaking Into the Industry - A development log about starting a game studio.
I would be so totally lost without Google. It makes it possible to find information that would have taken weeks to find previously. Want to know what the competition is doing ... want to know about that prospective employee ...
It's the most useful page I ever use. I can use it to plan bike trips, drives to friends houses or bars, bike races, etc. I also use it for looking up businesses in the area, and for phone number lookups. An example of 'web 2.0' being used as the best method to create the service.
otherwise how could we read such diggworthy "TOP n List" stories on advert laden shitfests such as informationweak and the rest of their IDG sites, ive seen more insight and less adverts on a sedo parked domain
I mean, it's going to be! Right?
Well, it has to be to me anyhow... ever since my copy of BLAZEMONGER actually self destructed (taking my Amiga with it) because I *thought* about making a backup copy of it in case it got worn out.
That's copy protection! At least I didn't have to call their customer support.
TTFN
They got the ball rolling. Without them, who knows what direction things would have taken. Maybe we'd all be digging Gopher holes instead of wandering the Web.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I (and slashdot :-P) prefer using Perl as the 'P' in LAMP, thanks. I don't think PHP had much to do with Apache's popularity. Apache's ability to be modular with any backend of choice, embedding via things like mod_perl, mod_php, mod_security, etc are what make it popular.
Personally I always found Digg to be *very* OK, nothing special, mainly shovelware stories. Perhaps it's because I discovered it around September 2006.
Unfortunately, after the whole HD-DVD key revolt, I decided Digg was just far too childish to bother with anymore. Sure, at one point Digg was probably very good, but after 1st May 2007, it died (for me anyway).
As with every piece of software, it'd be perfect if it wasn't for the users.
Summation 2
Must be one of the earliest (if 1990 can be called early) Internet phenomena, like "All your base" today.
I didn't see the first article when it came out, but just read it. It had far too many factual errors to be taken seriously. Examples: OS/360 was not the first general-purpose OS; UNIX was not underfunded by Bell Labs (Thompson was a full-time employee whose job was to do self-guided computing research).
The principal error in the new article is mixing up great software with a great product/service. Craig's List is a good example: The concept and execution were so great that all it needed was workable software, and that's probably all it actually had. It wasn't great software. Google, on the other hand, was and is great software.
But, the articles are certainly enjoyable. Too bad they aren't better researched.
--Marc Rochkind
ImageIngester.com
How else do you think Al Gore was able to design all the tubes that several of the internets run on!
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I personally think that the web browser is the best web application. What exactly would we be doing without it? Telnet? Not sure if it falls into their criteria, but it's a damn good invention.
Full Tilt
routed is a implementation of RIP and no it does not run the Internet, peering between AS uses BGP (and while BGP and RIP are somewhat similar in its design routed does not speak BGP).
I would say that most major backbones are using either IS-IS or maybe OSPF. I know of at least one backbone
that runs IS-IS as its IGP.
routed (and RIP) might still live in smaller LIRs and in corporate networks, but it doesn't run 90% of the internet.
Well you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
Actually no, Apache isn't popular because of PHP. Apache was quite popular well before PHP was even *invented*. Apache + Perl as a development stack was quite popular prior to PHP and still is to this day.
The LAMP stack was simply the *only* way to develop web apps and definitely didn't become popular as an alternative to ASP. Rather, ASP was developed as an alternative to the Apache stack.
WorldWideWeb
1.wikipedia
2.bittorrent
3.sshd
4.apache
5.firefox
6.del.icio.us
7.html
8.subspace/continuum
9.nat
10.netcat
(worst: dhcp)
Apache is arguably correct? Way to go out on a limb.
Everything is arguably correctly just as it is an arguably incorrect.
Hell, I could say that the Goatse man is the best web software, and I would be arguably correct.
Take a stand for your beliefs, you pussy!
And then there are the pages people make using it.
Clearly spoken by someone with an unbiased opinion that has been carefully thought out with a level-head..I have pretty extensive experience with PHP5/Zend Engine 2 (work and my current pet project), and if it is a "disgusting assortment of rubbish" it sure as hell doesn't show it.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
I love this software more every day. http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ Control many comps with a single keyboard/mouse over your local lan. All they need is bidirectional support... Most of the software on that top ten list has annoyed me at one point in time. Synergy is the complete opposite.
Would have to be Solitaire for the Windows platform. Billions of games played by secretaries and bored office workers the world over...and I've NEVER seen it crash. I only wish that the person (people) who wrote that had been assigned to the Windows OS instead.
Google search
Obligatory link to the article all on one page
until that time the web was mostly text based, with th release of win 95 more "every day/mom and pop/joe six-pack" people were able to access the web
then it would have to be AOL... like it or hate it, it was the next big springboard
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Single page version of the story.
I cannot see any useful purpose for such an ambiguous list as this. What could it possibly tell you that would be helpful to you?
Lists of things like this need to be more categorised to be of any real use.
No Napster = No DSL/Cable, No YouTube, No ...
If I had mod points, I'd have tacked +1, Informative onto this post.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
In the simplest sense, this list is a failure. How can "World of Warcraft", an internet MMORPG, which is FAIRLY similiar to every other MMORPG nowadays, be considered a great "internet web software" piece? It can't. IT's a bloody video game. Now, had he said something like Second Life, or perhaps some sort of MMO that introduced and developed a fairly different concept (User created enviroments) instead of just a "kill, level, kill, level" type of game. Hotmail? Try Gmail. It was the first to consider a very large storage limit. I disagree with Amazon.com, also. Simply because it's just antoher internet store. I for one have never even heard of "The Well", therefore I must take the American approach, and dislike it. And finally -- Altavista? Try Google. Enough said. Everything else I agree with totally.
Mosaic is what "triggered" the popularity of the Web. Apache simply built up on an existing concept and would have happened in some form anyhow because it was driven by a known need. Without Mosaic, the web may never have happened, letting commercial networks such as Compuserve and Prodigy come to dominate instead. Same with search engines: they existed in various forms and AltaVista and Google simply improved them. (One could argue that Gopher preceded Mosiac, but Gopher itself wasn't widely accepted.)
Table-ized A.I.
Google Spreadsheets is the most technically impressive web app I've seen.
The server side scripts and all related software running behind the google.com engine is probably the greatest package of web software ever put together, in terms of usefulness. My 2 cents.
that would be the slashdot +5 funny beowulf cluster joke. seriously, how can you *not* imagine a beowulf cluster of these?
-Yourmomisfasterthanabeowulfcluster
The concurrent, distributable, error-tolerant, functional, hot-swappable programming language.
What about SourceForge? I mean the concept is neat right? Write your own code, share it around get people involved. Most of the popular applications are available off sourceforge and are active till date!
Social Networking sites may be the talk of the town, but from a developers perspective (behind the scene) I would have to say SourceForge is one of the best things that happened!
Of course, he means 4.3BSD.
[Now get offa my lawn youngster!]
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Come on, 100 comments in and nobody has made a pr0n joke? What is slashdot coming to these days?
Say what you want about Theo and the obscure license policies of OpenBSD, but OpenSSH is in my opinion one piece of software which is simply better than sliced bread ( server as well as client). Since I was introduced to it I use it on a daily basis and it has been rock solid since the first login. It's the kind of software that inspires you to write software yourself. Two thumbs up.
If you will read the article a little slower, you will find the following paragraph at the end of Page 1.
'If we're looking for great Web software, why not start with Mosaic? It qualifies as a brilliant synthesis of what went before, bringing new utility to the millions of users coming onto the Web in 1993. But, alas, Mosaic was No. 6 on my list of greatest software ever written; no sense repeating myself. '
You may not agree with his reasoning, but he clearly is aware of Mosaic and agrees with you on its importance.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
LYNX. then you might have wget for some ultra security web servers to excange data betwen app servers, java servlets or .net but it still is not usable for busy programmers
then you might have the SSI support and some other great software for the web
?
Apache - still one of the most popular web servers out there. One of the most flexible and adaptable. It just rocks.
"Flexible" and "adaptable" are far too polite ways of saying what it really is: complex. Apache, despite being very elderly, isn't mature at all. Its configuration file is haphazard, full of nuances and inconsistencies; for years, most apache installations had "apache.conf" and "httpd.conf", and damned if I ever knew what directives belong where. It's the only software I know of where you have to instruct the software to load shared library modules AND "activate" them. It is a nightmare to troubleshoot. Want a laundry list of examples of how bad it is? See Why I hate the Apache Webserver for the full monty.
I find Apache to be the biggest pain in the ass of any software I've had to configure/use in almost ten years of using Unix/Linux. It's also the slowest and most bloated- servers like lighttpd contain the things that 95% of the market needs, and is hands-down faster in every benchmark I've ever seen. It's my opinion that every distribution that is desktop oriented should install lighttpd (if any webserver at all) to increase competition and encourage the apache people to get on the ball with making their software easier to use and less bloated.
Please help metamoderate.
I am biased.
TeX
Metafont
ghostscript
You know, we people DO print out texts.
I skimmed through the hundred plus comments looking for the list, yet nobody posted it? Where are all the Karma Whores? What do you people expect us to do, read the fancy article?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
People, look at Sitecore. If not Sitecore, look at IIS7. Apache can't compete.
Please learn to use an em dash. Hint: it does not go between the subject and the verb of a clause.
I'm not trying to be a grammar nazi, but you, the Slashdot editors, aren't trying either. You're not trying in the sense that you aren't making an effort. You are editors of a publication, and you don't do any editing. You ought to learn the English language if only to maintain your own dignity, since it is your job.
MySpace!
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Actually, Apache only became popular because it ended up being the only well-maintained descendant of the most popular HTTP daemon before it, NCSA httpd. While you're correct to say that PHP had little to no impact on Apache's popularity, Apache did become popular thanks to it being compatible with CGI applications developed for NCSA httpd.
No one is using Perl for the web anymore. It was a brief fad, and everyone has gotten over it. Well, apart from sites like Slashdot who are stuck with it now, of course. No one is doing new, large site deployments using Perl any more though.
Reasons for why the web is terrible (and thus no web apps can be contenders for "the best apps ever"):
There are many more reasons for why the web sucks. But the main idea is that instead of extending local GUIs to reasonably and securely run over a network, they took static data formatters that can read data from a network and extended them to support rich GUIs and scripting. This is simply wrong, and I really hope that more people see how wrong this is as soon as possible.
But Napster wasn't technically a web application...
My vote for truly the best web software ever was the Zippy Filter. It's the only thing that made most of the web bearable and it is sorely missed. As one of the comments suggested, "This is almost certainly the finest thing I have seen on the Web. When you figure out how to apply this filter to the rest of the universe, don't tell me about it. Just do it."
Apache is popular because it was being developed rapidly at a time when development on the two major servers, NCSA httpd (from which it forked) and CERN, had stalled due to people moving on from the Universities where they were developed (many to Netscape).
In the same order as the author used in the 7th ad-filled page*:
12. AOL Instant Messenger
11. Digg
10. Hotmail
9. World Of Warcraft
8. Wikipedia
7. XMLHttpRequest object set
6. Amazon.com
5. eBay
4. The Well
3. Craigslist
2. AltaVista
1. Apache
*If you want to say thank you, mod up -- and thank YOU.
The design of the human eye with aggressive edge and motions detectors in the periphery makes it difficult to concentrate on the fovial cone required to read, comprehend, and assimilate textual content while any Flash ad is "flashing" on the margins of the screen cleavage and lucre. I've had Flash disabled on my system since the mid-nineties. Easiest recapture of ten IQ points ever. Unfortunately, even with Flash disabled I still can't function at my peak in the early evening after drinking half a bottle of wine with dinner, and it would take far more than half a bottle of wine to enjoy most Flash content, so I can't win either way.
Um, sorry but that is just plain wrong. The irony of your assertion is that Cisco uses a QNX dervied OS in its high end routers. QNX is very much a Unix, in fact probably the most standards adherent "free" Unix available. So yes, Unix systems are routers, in fact the best ones.
Moderators, get a clue. (OK, maybe not routed, but certainly Unix)
http://www.qnx.com/markets/networking_telecom/
http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_1074_4.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS-XR
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/prod_051898.html
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/19
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5763/produc
aw hell, take a look at the search results yourself:
http://www.google.com/search?q=QNX+site%3Acisco.c
http://www.google.com/search?q=cisco+qnx
It's pronounced QUE-NIX - get it?
For me it's VI.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Do you mean most influential to the evolution of the web? Then Prodigy, AOL, the first Graphics enabled browser (Mozilla?), Amazon, and Yahoo! have to be on your list (leaving off all the underlying technologies)
Do you mean what right now what sites are using the most? Then Flash, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP, and Java belong on the list.
Do you mean best written? Then the list should include Google Search, heck, I'm getting tired. The point is there are still a lot more categories.
So I hereby request that users say what category of Greatness their choice meets, and remember that many these categories have the subcategories of for users and developers. A few exampes follow:
Your ad here. Ask me how!
is Kali, by Jay Cotton. Was and is a great piece of software to allow gamers to chat with others via public or private rooms, and start/find/join games. Was a great tool in DOS, and still is in windows. Though others, like X-Fire have spawned also.
I give websites my eyeballs for one page, I think that is a fair deal and I only block flash ads, if the article is over multiple pages, I view print.
...but IW flagrantly (flagrantly!) ignored all the other bits and pieces that went into JavaScript.
Of course, JavaScript is extremely unfashionable and unprofitable, so here I bring you the next crappy Top 10 Slashdot will summarize:
Top 10 ECMAScript built-ins, in JSON
(Bill Gates reporting, MSN)
{
"builtIns": [
"Object": "Everyone knows Crockford loves objects, and everyone wants to pretend they're JS-smart like Crockford. Of course, they aren't. Crockford is God. Anyway, that's why Object is number 0. If Object wants to crank up the ranks any further, its going to work out its crazy pass-a-reference-by-value effects. What the hell is up with that? Am I right, Crockford, ol' buddy ol' pal?",
"Array": "Made in Object's image, millions of fans adore arrays. Why do we always have to rush about using the square brackets these days? Why not use that wonderful word and declare our arrays with capital 'A's? If only all the world were quantifiable, Array would be #0 instead of second-place #1.",
"Yahoo!": "Ha! Seriously, though, think about it. PS: Hi, Crockford!",
"Prototype": "The greatest thing the Europeans ever did was make Prototype.js part of ECMAScript. Now we have all these extra built-ins, and that's a good thing.",
"Number": "We love using this primitive type for math. We can't imagine using anything else.",
"String": "I guess. I don't really like String, but Ballmer told me to write it.",
"Function": "We don't really get the point of Function. What was wrong with GOTO? I guess it sort of makes onclick easier to do.",
"Boolean": "There's no such thing as two.",
"Null": "Oh, god, now we're down to the dregs.",
"Undefined": "This is the stupidest builtin ever.",
"Profit": "Hahahahahahaahaaaa! Hahahahaa! Ha! Get it? PS: Crockford, we like your moves."
]
}
Those who throw stones at PHP must realize a fact there are plenty of advantages owns to PHP. .Easy To Learn. Any intellectualized human being can learn the language within few days and become very productive. .Open source. If you feel PHP isn't fast enough, go write your own extension in all-mighty C language with php source code. .Muilti-platform. Write Once , Run Everywhere, so is PHP. .Well-supported. Zendand the rest of the whole world of hosting companies. .Huge Resources. There are tens of thousand of php applications available in the form of source code, which means countless ways of good practice you can easily learn from or make use of, without taking univerity/church-level studies. Some times you can just download and run some code package, an awesome website of yours will be instantly ready. .Productivity. One man can work out a whole web OA solution with in a month, or a portal web in one week, or a online forum in a couple of days. In PHP world, it's not a legend, but pretty common. some say those are dirty coders. but what's the matter. they get things done and working, and they get paid. .Mature, Handy . In contrast to python, rudy, or perl, php has a comprehensive/strong/handy APIs for handling of database, arrays,html,strings which are more easily, out-of-box and ready than those of others' . For example, php has solid build-in support for sqlite database and all major database systems, while python's support for sqlite , mysql or any other db is still in question(there is no standard solution).
I say PHP is the best tool for light IT professionals who want to build some online business. eg. web programmer/designers,network administrators, game fans.
For hardcore programmers, everyone knows you would use some more power weapons, such as Assembly, ISO C, java. But in 90% of all scenarios, php can put things out faster and easilier
China, in fact, is very fragile.
I am. Really easy with something like mason, and worth it if you need to integrate with a lot of different things.
Now if you want to talk fad, look at things built around buzzwords like Ruby on Rails. I'm not a big fan of PHP, but at least php got popular without capitalizing on trendiness.