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Ask Slashdot: What Would You Pay To See Open Sourced?

Posted by EditorDavid on from the crowdfunding-code dept.

jbrase writes: It's in the interest of the open-source community to make open-source development as profitable as possible. One potential means of making money from open source is crowdfunding, [but] proprietary vendors aren't likely to be enthusastic about using their flagship product to try out a relatively untested business model. Crowdfunding the open source release of legacy technologies of historical significance could provide a low-risk way for vendors to experiment with making money by crowdfunding: The product has already turned them a profit.

With that, I'd like to ask Slashdot readers, what would you pay to see open sourced?
Slashdot reader jonwil left a comment suggesting old games ("where the game is no longer being developed/worked on and where the engine/tech is no longer being used for anything"). But the sky's the limit here, so leave your own best answers in the comments. What would you pay to see open sourced?

13 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. Photoshop by pestilence669 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... no, Gimp is not an adequate replacement.

    1. Re:Photoshop by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it would be much better if any camera company funds gimp development

      A decent Photoshop replacement should not use Gimp as a starting point. It has the worst UI I have ever seen. It is legendary for being unusable. Someone once joked that they took a book full of bad UI design patterns and used it as a "how to" guide. But there is no way that is true since Gimp has many bad UI "features" that appear no where else.

      Gimp is a classic example of what goes wrong with OSS projects when the developers have no financial incentive to care about their users.

    2. Re:Photoshop by tsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can't expect a 3D modeling program to be as 'simple' as Photoshop and Gimp and the like. Introducing that extra dimension while still using a 2D screen just opens a big can of worms concerning the interface.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    3. Re:Photoshop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      3D modelling goes way beyond simply adding another dimension. You've got textures, materials, shaders, lighting, environment maps, bump/normal/parallax maps, UV mapping, specularity and diffuse maps, boning/rigging, etc. etc. It's FAR more complex than working with just simple 2D media.

    4. Re: Photoshop by mooterSkooter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed. I've only ever used GIMP for simple graphical stuff (used to be backend web dev and sometimes tinkered with images instead of asking the 'pros' to do it in PS). Everything I needed to do (resize, cut bits n bobs, move stuff around) all was easy to do. I tried the same in PS and was like "dunno how to do anything". I think PS'ers complain about GIMP because they're not used to it. Same as Windblows users who 'can't use' linux because it's 'too hard'. It's just different.

  2. BeOS by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 4, Insightful

    BeOS

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  3. Nvidia Drivers by ARos · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nvidia sucks.

    1. Re:Nvidia Drivers by skids · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, drivers, drivers, drivers, firmware, firmware, firmware. And full chipset documentation for no-longer-commercially developed hardware.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
  4. CorelDraw! by pcjunky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Should be easy as they ported to Linux several years ago.

  5. Games that need a central server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any game that customers paid for that requires a central server that the parent company shuts down after a couple years, bricking the game. Seriously, this shit should be illegal, but it's growing..

  6. Demcratic elections voting infrastructure by evanh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This seems to me to be an obvious first port of call. The weak points become well documented so also become well protected. Couldn't get a better demo of the security obtained.

  7. BrlCAD. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If it was good enough for the army...

    The only bad part about it is that it is a total pain to build on linux. Older versions UI was literally from either the 70s or early 90s, and it has a high learning curve.

    Latest versions even include gcode solvers for end to end design, modelling, and gcode output.

    That said, AutoCAD or 3D Studio Max would be awesome just for exporting the Star Trek ship models available into another format. It really sucks how all the coolest ships are only in max format so anyone unwilling to pirate needs to spend thousands of dollars just to open/render/reexport them. :(

  8. Old/dead things I would pay to see as open source by jonwil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1.ZTree. Its a clone of the old XTree file manager for dos except ZTree is a 32-bit Windows app with support for a bunch of windows things (copying to the clipboard, long file names and more). I use it all the time because it has ways to do things that would require a lot more effort to do using other methods and it would be good to see it updated to modern standards (e.g. make it 64 bit, add more features, stuff like that)

    2.C&C Renegade from Westwood Studios. I have been reverse engineering C&C Renegade for more than 15 years and I probably know more about the internals of the game than anyone else on the planet at this point but there are still many holes in my knowledge. Having the original source code to Renegade (and the level editor, 3ds max export plugin and other tools) would allow all the mysteries of the engine to be sorted out once and for all.

    3.Other C&C games from Westwood Studios and EA. Having the source code to the older games (C&C1, Red Alert 1, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2 and maybe Generals) would allow the people who have been reverse engineering (or trying to reverse engineer) those games to stop doing that and work with the original code instead. Source code to console ports of the games (e.g. the Nintendo 64 port of the first C&C) would also be great to see.

    4.LEGO Mindstorms RCX. I own the original yellow LEGO Mindstorms RCX brick. I would love to see the complete source code for everything that runs on the device as well as the complete source code to the drivers and software so it can be made to work on modern operating systems (Windows 7 in my case).

    5.WinAmp. I still use it as my audio player of choice and if whoever owns it doesn't plan to continue development, opening it up and letting someone else take over would be nice.