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Ask Slashdot: What's the Biggest Open Source Project of 2015?

Posted by Soulskill on from the that-time-of-year dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Several major tech and open source sites—including Opensource.com and Infoworld—have published lists of the top open source projects of the year. What's your pick for the biggest, best, or most important open source project of 2015? Are there any projects that made big leaps this year that aren't getting the recognition they deserve?

17 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. .net by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Surely

    1. Re:.net by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seconded. The sheer scope of causing hell to freeze that hard that many times in a single year is nothing short of amazing. First it was .Net Framework, then the CLR, then the compilers, then a small portion of Visual Studio (!), then the entirety of ASP.Net and .Net Core... The devil himself slipped on the ice* and broke his hip a few months back.

      *Not really ice, but frozen essence of tortured souls that solidified due to the lowered temperature.

    2. Re:.net by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      Makes as much sense in text as the freakin' question. "What's the biggest" and then "that aren't getting the recognition they deserve?" Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, if it isn't getting the recognition it deserves, it isn't the "biggest" this year. Maybe next year, when they're better appreciated.

      Personally, I don't think anything significant happened this year in open source. Almost everything of note was an incremental improvement unworthy of an isolated shout-out separated from the context of the use case.

  2. Framework by ickleberry · · Score: 5, Funny

    Probably some JS-based web framework thing that runs on Docker in your Cloud based heap of VMs that does a mashup of any number of 3rd-party Cloud-based RESTful API's that are filled to the brim with cloud and startup goodness and covered in sticky goodness that attracts vulture capitalists like flies on fresh sh1t

  3. KDE by lord_rob+the+only+on · · Score: 3, Informative

    KDE

    1. Re:KDE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You misread the title. It was biggest not buggiest. And I say this as someone who has used KDE since its inception. It's a disgrace how unfinished the "stable" releases are.

  4. BINGO! by s.petry · · Score: 2

    I would have won faster if you had "Webscaled", "sharded", and "runs in the Internet of Things!" but hey..

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  5. Yes by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

    Systemd is a project that needs more attention. We never get to hear about it.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  6. No brainer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bitcoin.

  7. If the question really is "biggest" not "favorite" by GoRK · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Linux Kernel, Android, and Webkit are my top picks.

    LLVM is also hugely important.

  8. Late to the game: Swift by Henriok · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Swift! Apple just released their new programming language as OpenSource and it is the future for all development for Apple's platforms. The scope for Swift is enormous: use it for everything from operating systems to scripting. Swift builds upon their already open development technologies: llvm, clang and lldb and Swift will fit in nicely here.

    --

    - Henrik

    - when the Shadows descend -
  9. Should be easy enough... by Junta · · Score: 4, Funny

    git pull and then du -sh.

    The biggest project should be pretty objectively obvious.

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
  10. Re:Apple Swift 2.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This a million times. Swift is set to become the standard language for pretty much all future software development moving forward. It already dwarfs the lower quality niche alternatives like Go and Rust in terms of users and deployed applications. It already has millions of active developers, and has a proper permissive license so the freetards don't get to tell us what we can and cannot do with our own computers. Plus it is backed by the only company in technology that is doing anything interesting any more. It's basically the premier open source project right now, easily dwarfing stagnant stuff like the linux kernel and apache spark in terms of developer interest and innovation, and the fact that these idiots didn't pick it just goes to show how utterly inept the mainstream tech media really is.

  11. Virtualbox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Virtualbox is maybe not the most original, or groundbreaking project, but it is pretty damn great, and it is a HUGE enabler.
    I literally couldn't do my job without it.

  12. HHVM by darkain · · Score: 2

    I'd put my vote up for HHVM. Yeah, I know, the majority of the /. community absolutely hates Facebook and PHP. But for some odd reason, when you put engineers inside of Facebook on the task of attempting to fix the longstanding issues with PHP, such as performance and having a sane language spec, they actually seem to do a pretty damn good job of improving things.

  13. Is this a pissing contest or something ? by Tetch · · Score: 2

    Why does anyone care what is the "biggest" or "most important" open-source project ? That's like treating software in the same way as all that "Strictly Pop Idol Celebrity Chef Globes" TV garbage.

    It's either *good* software, or it isn't, and that's the only criterion worth talking about.

    Some of the best and most useful open-source software is also the smallest. Some of the most important and critical open-source software is also among the smallest and least 'recognised'. And some of the biggest open-source projects are also the biggest causes for concern.

    Are we all hoping for prizes or something ?
    Oh dear ... how childish.

    --
    If you don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church.
  14. java_grinder by tarlek1234 · · Score: 2

    java_grinder allows compiled java bytecode to be run on microcontrollers and older processors: https://www.mikekohn.net/micro... Java may be used for higher-level stuff, and custom APIs/inline assembly for the rest. This is a unique and important project to watch in 2016.