Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Would You Pay To See Open Sourced?
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?
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?
... no, Gimp is not an adequate replacement.
BeOS
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
M$ lock-in is the worst thing about Windows 7. It's a great desktop OS in most ways. I paid $300(AUD) for it anyway - it would have been nice to pay $300 for it to be free instead.
Nothing else currently available on Windows comes close.
Nvidia sucks.
Oh wait. Too close to home?
macOS
#DeleteFacebook
Top to bottom, we should have a DRM-free open-source cell phone, including hardware and software.
There are no open source CAD softwares capable of producing the drawings used in architecture, engineering, design, and manufacturing. Yet, that same, expensive proprietary package continues on with the same performance hogging, unstable, fluff enhanced software that hasn't really changed in 15 years.
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
Should be easy as they ported to Linux several years ago.
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..
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.
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. :(
Clippy! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I have no interest in building or running the software... but I imagine reading the code comments would be hilarious and enlightening.
#DeleteChrome
After reading the other article, why not open source winamp? Surely it would be more useful than it is rotting away... Same for Picasa.
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.
I think Google Pagerank is what defines what most of us see whenever we search for something on the web. Being such an important gateway between someone and the information. Does it have biases? How much censorship does it do ? How many false positive happen for the spam filtering? and so many other questions.