Yahoo, another list of open source projects
Summary: Mashable, which blogs about social networking, has launched what it calls Open Source God, a directory of over 480 downloadable open source projects, divided into categories.
Mashable, which blogs about social networking, has launched what it calls Open Source God, a directory of over 480 downloadable open source projects, divided into categories.
It's far from exhaustive. The same blog previously produced similar lists for WordPress and Firefox add-ons. The headline above is a reference to the origins of Yahoo, which was originally a list of Web sites whose name was short for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.
Each entry includes a link to the code and a brief description. Each section is headed by a large graphic, generally a screen capture from one of the vendors.
In giving you some idea of the breadth and depth of consumable open source production the list is a good one. As a shopping center it needs work. There are no references to the operating systems these programs run on, nor the system requirements, nor much of anything else.
While the list tries to be exhaustive, it would be hard to call it authoritative. There are 11 RSS feeders listed, and 9 browsers, but it's hard to understand what's meant by "system utilities" -- seems like a bit box to me.
Sourceforge does a great job serving developers, and Slashdot does fine with kibbutzers, as we do with news, but it would be shocking to me if no one turned this basic idea into a full-fledged, full-time site with its own URL.
If this sounds like a business plan to you, please let me know.
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Talkback
We need consolidation of these lists
This resource should be presented with a functional website that allows them to search for applications by keyword or by the commercial equivalent. It should not list EVERY open source application, but only the top leaders in each category. The site will include information about the applications such as screenshots, reviews, supported operating systems, features, project website, etc.
The best sites I have found that do this are:
Linux App Finder
http://linuxappfinder.com/
Open Source Alternatives
http://www.osalt.com/
Click-N-Run
http://cnr.com/
Please recommend these sites to your users, or let me know if there is something better.
Someone didn't click the last link
They have lots of this stuff, and more, available for download right now.
RE: Yahoo, another list of open source projects
NVU is another project, that IMHO, shouldn't have been listed. The NVU project is pretty much dead and never lived up to it's potential. It has a successor project that making incremental improvements, but even that project, KompoZer, isn't ready for prime time yet.
I've seen some attemps to do what you're suggesting, but either the info gets old very quickly, or the site allows self-service listing that too quickly get too self-serving for IMHO commercial and quasi-commercial projects.
Just listing Open Source projects isn't a business model, someone's got to figure out a way to make some money off the effort it takes to keep the site current.
Jerry Leeper
Ads is a business model
With the amount of traffic the site is getting and the little boost from this post, no doubt they are make money ... from those ads.
What better way to generate content then using available information and create additional page of ad space.
Good links