Peter's Open Source Picks
There are literally thousands and thousands of Open Source projects
out there: some are mature, stable systems, some are just getting
started, some are orphans, and some are just plain bad.
Even if the program is free, you still have to invest your time
in learning how to use it, so you want to know ahead of time
if there's a chance the program is "worth your while."
Here are the questions I ask about an open source project.
- What platforms does it run on?
It might look great, but if you're running WinXP and it
only works on Linux ...
- How mature/stable is the program?
I often play with beta software, but I would think twice before having my
business depend on it.
On the other hand, developers really appreciate good
feedback and bug reports, and,
by being an early part of a project, you may be able to influence
the direction it goes.
Many projects have their stable release for normal people
and their development release for the more adventuresome.
- Is there enough documentation for my purposes?
Many good projects die for lack of coherent information about
how to use them.
How much is "enough" documentation?
This is highly subjective. If you are familiar with similar
programs you may be able to get away without hardly any docs all.
- Does it have an active user community?
Forums with lots of give-and-take will be your primary source
of support, so they need to already exist.
It's not a good sign if it's May 2007 and the last post on the forum was
back in 2005.
The Standards
These are the 500 lb. gorillas of the open source world.
They have been around for years, have huge installed bases,
active communities, and responsive developers.
In most cases, these are best-of-breed applications.
- Firefox web browser.
- Thunderbird email client.
- Linux distributions for all purposes.
Although all of my servers run Linux, I don't use it too much as my desktop.
Strong Contenders
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