Best Open Source Project? Add Answer

From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source
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Open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's sources. Some consider it as a philosophy, and others consider it as a pragmatic methodology. Before open source became widely adopted, developers and producers used a variety of phrases to describe the concept; the term open source gained popularity with the rise of the Internet and its enabling of diverse production models, communication paths, and interactive communities. Subsequently, open source software became the most prominent face of open source.

The open source model can allow for the concurrent use of different agendas and approaches in production, in contrast with more centralized models of development such as those typically used in commercial software companies.
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What is the absolute best that the open source model has to offer? The term is usually applied to software specifically, but I'd like to use it here to refer to any community developed project whose collaborative efforts are freely available to all to use and/or modify in any not-for-profit manner; This could include content, health, politics, religion, media, etc..

All-time Newest A to Z Report Time Travel
Showing answers 1-15 of 199
1.
 
331 votes
2.
 
301 votes

Wikipedia

Top Five Percent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia Wikipedia is an international Web-based cooperative free-content encyclopedia. It exists as a wiki, a website that allows visitors to edit its content; the word Wikipedia itself is a portmanteau of wiki and encyclopedia and is often abbreviated to WP by its users. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing articles to be changed by anyone with access to the website.... [show more]

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3.
 
178 votes

Linux (GNU/Linux)

Top Five Percent
Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a Unix-like computer operating system. It is one of the most prominent examples of open source development and free software; its underlying source code is available for anyone to use, modify, and redistribute freely.

Comments 2 Comments

4.
 
153 votes

Apache Server

Top Five Percent
Even if you think you've never used Apache, you have. Apache serves 70% of all websites on the internet. http://www.apache.org/

Comments 1 Comment

5.
 
133 votes

Ubuntu Linux

Top Five Percent
http://www.ubuntu.com/ Linux for human beings! The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. These freedoms make Ubuntu fundamentally ... [show more]

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6.
 
115 votes

OpenOffice

Top Five Percent
A free, open source replacement for MS office, and it mostly works well with MS documents. Download at http://www.openoffice.org/

Comments 1 Comment

7.
 
109 votes

PHP

Top Five Percent
http://www.php.net PHP: Widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Comments 1 Comment

8.
 
108 votes
9.
 
97 votes

MySQL

Top Five Percent
MySQL is the fast, simple-to-use database engine driving the vast majority of open source-powered websites, for which its excellent read performance is ideal. It is easily "the world's most popular open source database," as its commercial proponent MySQL AB asserts.

Comments 1 Comment

10.
 
94 votes

BitTorrent

Top Five Percent
http://www.bittorrent.com/ BitTorrent is a peer-assisted, digital content delivery platform that provides the fastest, most efficient means of distributing, discovering, and consuming large, high-quality files on the Web.

Comments 7 Comments

11.
 
76 votes

Python

http://www.python.org/ Python is a dynamic object-oriented programming language that can be used for many kinds of software development. It offers strong support for integration with other languages and tools, comes with extensive standard libraries, and can be learned in a few days. Many Python programmers report substantial productivity gains and feel the language encourages the development of higher quality, more maintaina... [show more]

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12.
 
82 votes
13.
 
74 votes

Eclipse

http://www.eclipse.org/

Eclipse is an open source IDE project that can be used for all sorts of development. I have been using the elcipse IDE for 2+ years now and love it. Very well done.

Comments 2 Comments

14.
 
64 votes

Blender 3D

Blender is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

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15.
 
58 votes

Drupal

More than just a CMS, perhaps the finest constructed middleware application server platform in all of Open Source-dom.

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Showing answers 1 - 15 of 199

Topic Stats

790 grupies have voted on one or more of the 199 answers. This topic was started by holotone holotone: 46,082 points on June 6th, 2006. Tags: foss, open source, oss, tech

Topic rating:
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SweetlilCherry SweetlilCherry: 7,539 points   3 years ago

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holotone holotone: 46,082 points   3 years ago

Digg 'em if ya got 'em!
http://digg.com/gene...f_Open_Source

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ThinkerMaddy ThinkerMaddy: 18 points   3 years ago

Wikipedia, Firefox and Ubuntu are extremely close contenders. It's like having to choose best of the best. Wikipedia for me, since it covers an almost universal domain of knowledge, not just computers.

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delpino delpino: 42 points   3 years ago

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ramkumarkb ramkumarkb: 54 points   3 years ago

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holotone holotone: 46,082 points   3 years ago

The list is a work in progress, and is becoming more useful and accurate as people continue to add and vote on their favorites; If something doesn't look right, help us improve the list by contributing new answers, votes, and comments...!

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arrash arrash: 40 points   3 years ago

Ubuntu, Debian, Wikipedia, and Firefox.

Those three are tied in my mind for their outstanding innovation, contribution to the state of the global community as a whole, and the fostering of access, knowledge, and excellence.

I use Ubuntu and Debian exclusively.

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TheAdventMaster TheAdventMaster: 17 points   3 years ago

^_^;; FreeBASIC is very helpful. It's made so much progress and has sped up my programming efforts very much so.

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hajush hajush: 587 points   3 years ago

Great topic, thanks. It's great to revisit this one, and to see so many additional projects listed, some of which look pretty cool.

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k40s k40s: 12 points   3 years ago

Really the first would be LINUX because if we count the votes of linux, ubuntu linux and debian they have more votes than firefox

Realmente debiera ser primero linux porque sumando los votos de linux, ubuntu linux y debian suman mas que firefox

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rootneg2 rootneg2: 4,928 points   3 years ago

I'm surprised that the GPL still hasn't made it to the front page yet; come on people!

@hajush: I wholeheartedly agree; it's fun to come back to and check up on. I've found out about a bunch of cool projects that i wouldn't have otherwise

@k40s
Well.... Technically Linux is solely the kernel itself, a project in it's own right. When people usually talk about GNU/Linux as an OS, however, it's no longer a single project. I consider the answer for Debian as a project which utilizes the Linux kernel (or the HURD, the BSD kernel, etc.), and then Linux as a project in it's own right which is *just* the kernel development team.

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holotone holotone: 46,082 points   3 years ago

G-P-L!

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holotone holotone: 46,082 points   2 years ago

For those who missed the news:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gpl3#Version_3

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Traroth Traroth: 2,909 points   2 years ago

This topic is really a cool digest of interesting projects. A cool place where find projects I didn't know yet. Continue to add more of them!

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Verifex Verifex: 51 points   2 years ago

I love this list, I'm going to add some more to it as I find em. I can't believe Paint.NET wasn't on there, it's a pretty impressive alternative to GIMP. Ever since I went to Paint.NET I never looked back at GIMP again.. hehe

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Traroth Traroth: 2,909 points   2 years ago

Feel free to add it...

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jc jc: 16 points   2 years ago

I can't believe that so many of these answers are not even open source

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davidthedrake Developer: 6,602 points   2 years ago

Yea, but there are a LOT that are.

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jc jc: 16 points   2 years ago

@davidthedrake

right you are, dave, but a giving an answer like "del.icio.us" to the question "Best Open Source Project?" is like answering the question "Best Restaurant in Town?" with "Home Depot"

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davidthedrake Developer: 6,602 points   2 years ago

*shrug* Mark the answer as irrelevant then. With enough votes, it'll get hidden from view.

The tools are there, just gotta use them. ;)

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rootneg2 rootneg2: 4,928 points   1 year ago

Well, the description states that it doesn't have to be specifically GPL'd software, but simply any project that uses the "open source model" i.e. collaborative, open information sharing. I would say that del.icio.us or grupthink fit this description.

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keywordsforall.com keywordsforall.com: 47 points   2 years ago

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aquadonia aquadonia: 248 points   1 year ago

Thanks for starting this topic! I hadn't known about a lot of these. :o)

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chicodj chicodj: 11 points   1 year ago

This topic is great and very helpful.

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