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Ask Slashdot: What's the Biggest Open Source Project of 2015? 113

Posted by Soulskill from the that-time-of-year dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Several major tech and open source sites—including Opensource.com and Infoworld—have published lists of the top open source projects of the year. What's your pick for the biggest, best, or most important open source project of 2015? Are there any projects that made big leaps this year that aren't getting the recognition they deserve?
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Ask Slashdot: What's the Biggest Open Source Project of 2015? More

Ask Slashdot: What's the Biggest Open Source Project of 2015?

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  • .net (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @12:55PM (#51130473)

    Surely

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      .Not surely.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Seconded. The sheer scope of causing hell to freeze that hard that many times in a single year is nothing short of amazing. First it was .Net Framework, then the CLR, then the compilers, then a small portion of Visual Studio (!), then the entirety of ASP.Net and .Net Core... The devil himself slipped on the ice* and broke his hip a few months back.

      *Not really ice, but frozen essence of tortured souls that solidified due to the lowered temperature.

  • It is just getting started. But if it lives up to its hype it could be interesting.

    • It is just getting started. But if it lives up to its hype it could be interesting.

      There's been better than that. Whether or not one likes deep learning, unlike most advances in such things before, people have been freely releasing both the code and trained models. This has really spurred development as it's take it down from being only available to the largest labs to within reach of anyone with a $700 video card.

      But it's not a single project.

    • Sure, it is just a framework without any meat, but if AI people adopt it then it might be something commonly used.

      The actual algorithms used with it would still be the important part in any use case, though.

  • Framework (Score:5, Funny)

    by ickleberry ( 864871 ) <web@pineapple.vg> on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @12:59PM (#51130513) Homepage
    Probably some JS-based web framework thing that runs on Docker in your Cloud based heap of VMs that does a mashup of any number of 3rd-party Cloud-based RESTful API's that are filled to the brim with cloud and startup goodness and covered in sticky goodness that attracts vulture capitalists like flies on fresh sh1t
    • I would have won faster if you had "Webscaled", "sharded", and "runs in the Internet of Things!" but hey..

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I'm laughing/crying-out-loud because you just perfectly described my fledging startup...

  • KDE (Score:4, Informative)

    by lord_rob the only on ( 859100 ) <shiva3003@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @01:04PM (#51130553)

    KDE

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You misread the title. It was biggest not buggiest. And I say this as someone who has used KDE since its inception. It's a disgrace how unfinished the "stable" releases are.

  • Yes (Score:5, Funny)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @01:14PM (#51130655) Journal
    Systemd is a project that needs more attention. We never get to hear about it.

  • No brainer (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @01:14PM (#51130657)

    Bitcoin.

  • If the question really is "biggest" not "favorite" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GoRK ( 10018 ) on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @01:20PM (#51130715) Homepage Journal

    The Linux Kernel, Android, and Webkit are my top picks.

    LLVM is also hugely important.

  • They are so big they can afford a gigantic full page nag on every single page.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jon3k ( 691256 )
      Even after I've donated. Which is really making me consider not donating next year.
  • Apple Swift 2.0 is my best guess.

    • Re:Apple Swift 2.0 (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @02:25PM (#51131391)

      This a million times. Swift is set to become the standard language for pretty much all future software development moving forward. It already dwarfs the lower quality niche alternatives like Go and Rust in terms of users and deployed applications. It already has millions of active developers, and has a proper permissive license so the freetards don't get to tell us what we can and cannot do with our own computers. Plus it is backed by the only company in technology that is doing anything interesting any more. It's basically the premier open source project right now, easily dwarfing stagnant stuff like the linux kernel and apache spark in terms of developer interest and innovation, and the fact that these idiots didn't pick it just goes to show how utterly inept the mainstream tech media really is.

  • Late to the game: Swift (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Henriok ( 6762 ) on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @01:26PM (#51130775)
    Swift! Apple just released their new programming language as OpenSource and it is the future for all development for Apple's platforms. The scope for Swift is enormous: use it for everything from operating systems to scripting. Swift builds upon their already open development technologies: llvm, clang and lldb and Swift will fit in nicely here.

    • The scope for Swift is enormous: use it for everything from operating systems to scripting

      As opposed to other programming languages. There is no other language that can do that.

      Stop drinking the Kool-Aid, man. Swift is going to be slightly better than Objective C. That's it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mpol ( 719243 )

      [...] it is the future for all development for Apple's platforms.

      How is that relevant for Open Source? You can only use it on a closed platform.

      Can you use it on GNUstep yet?

  • openssl? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I mean, we all use it in one way or the other. It's everywhere and it's gotten a lot of attention the last year or two due to security concerns.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by spauldo ( 118058 )

      Dunno if 2015 is a good year for the OpenSSL project.

      LibreSSL is being ported to other operating systems, and they're working on a new API that is supposedly much easier to work with than OpenSSL's.

      We'll see how it goes adoption wise, but I would not be surprised if 2015 is the beginning of the end for OpenSSL.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by arth1 ( 260657 )

        We'll see how it goes adoption wise, but I would not be surprised if 2015 is the beginning of the end for OpenSSL.

        Let's wait until Netcraft confirms it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rbrander ( 73222 )

        Well, let's move to the obvious conclusion then: the project that isn't getting enough attention is LibreSSL.

        Those guys have been running on a shoestring and disgust with OpenSSL from day 1 and not getting much support. They could both turn in a new, improved solution pretty soon with just a little more.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by spauldo ( 118058 )

          I'll admit that I don't hang out on the OpenBSD mailing lists, but I'm surprised to hear the LibreSSL team doesn't get much support. Theo himself was working on it, at least in the early days, and I had the impression the other devs on the project were pretty high profile. If they're not being funded out of OpenBSD's development fund or equivalent (again, I'm speaking out of ignorance about how the OpenBSD organization works), I'd be very surprised.

          Things have shifted quite a bit - it works more or less a

  • In terms of benefit to the community, Shorewall ranks pretty high.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arth1 ( 260657 )

      For small values of "the community".

      Shorewall is but one of many add-ons to make Linux netfilter firewall easier to use, and while it may be great for those who use it, it's far from the only game in town, or even the biggest. Most people have probably not even heard about it.

      The maintainers of the underlying kernel firewall deserve more of the kudos, in my opinion. (Sometimes they're the same people.)

  • Should be easy enough... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @01:41PM (#51130911)

    git pull and then du -sh.

    The biggest project should be pretty objectively obvious.

  • Yo yo hipsters!

      Node.js and Ruby on rails are sooo old right up there with gradients, colors, and other dated non flat modern things from ancient 2010. Time to be hip and write impress your cat with the new hotest opensouce language ever! [youtu.be]

  • Virtualbox (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Virtualbox is maybe not the most original, or groundbreaking project, but it is pretty damn great, and it is a HUGE enabler.
    I literally couldn't do my job without it.

  • Yep (Score:2)

    by fredan ( 54788 )

    Are there any projects that made big leaps this year that aren't getting the recognition they deserve?

    My authority DNS server which I will release next week.

  • HHVM (Score:3)

    by darkain ( 749283 ) on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @03:10PM (#51131801) Homepage

    I'd put my vote up for HHVM. Yeah, I know, the majority of the /. community absolutely hates Facebook and PHP. But for some odd reason, when you put engineers inside of Facebook on the task of attempting to fix the longstanding issues with PHP, such as performance and having a sane language spec, they actually seem to do a pretty damn good job of improving things.

  • This year I've become a huge fan and user of Rehash [github.com].

  • Is this a pissing contest or something ? (Score:3)

    by Tetch ( 534754 ) on Wednesday December 16, 2015 @03:34PM (#51131979) Journal

    Why does anyone care what is the "biggest" or "most important" open-source project ? That's like treating software in the same way as all that "Strictly Pop Idol Celebrity Chef Globes" TV garbage.

    It's either *good* software, or it isn't, and that's the only criterion worth talking about.

    Some of the best and most useful open-source software is also the [pwsafe.org] smallest [liquidninja.com]. Some of the most important and critical open-source software is also among the smallest and least 'recognised' [gnupg.org]. And some of the biggest open-source projects are also the biggest causes for concern [php.net].

    Are we all hoping for prizes or something ?
    Oh dear ... how childish.

  • Qubes is picking up momentum plus Edward Snowden, The Intercept and the European Parlaiment have given it kudos recently as an enhanced security environment. It now has special integration with Whonix, which keeps Tor sessions isolated within your system, and an implementation of splitGPG to keep private keys secure. They are due to release version 3.1 soon (the 3.0 release brought some big changes and laid the groundwork for a new, distributed development process).

    • UX nightmare combined with false sense of security, I wouldn't say it wins for 2015. I think the real winner is the Tor project itself, which has made great gains in the "get everyone interested in cryptography" sector.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Burz ( 138833 )

        Cryptography is useless without strong endpoint security, and Qubes offers the latter. As for UX, the launcher menus look awful (app links duplicated for each VM you create) but it gets better from there. The thing to remember is that Qubes UI is still under development, and its getting better.

        I'm not sure why you think Qubes offers only a false sense of security. It does exactly the opposite of promising that any exposed apps or domains will remain secure; What's important is their strict isolation from ea

        • You don't think that attitude leads to even worse user behavior? Don't get me wrong. Qubes would be on my list if I made it time to write it, but if it were strictly a security list and there were prizes to be had, I'd vote something more likely to wind up Joe America's hands, like the Tor Browser or Tox.im.
  • java_grinder allows compiled java bytecode to be run on microcontrollers and older processors: https://www.mikekohn.net/micro... [mikekohn.net] Java may be used for higher-level stuff, and custom APIs/inline assembly for the rest. This is a unique and important project to watch in 2016.
  • ....that has to be the most important by far :) http://openwarp.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]

  • In my opinion Firefox OS [mozilla.org] is the only thing that stands between us and the enternal rule of giant Megacorps in the mobile space. It get's way to little attention and not enough support. Jolla is struggling to survive and last their OS wasn't fully FOSS and the Ubuntu Phones are not approachable as a plattform. A FOSS web-centric mobile OS is a truely feasible thing. If I had the time and resources, I'd build a kickstarter prototype for a high-end Firefox OS phone.

    systemd get's the credit for raising hell amo

  • I would say the GPL itself. It is the only thing that has allowed the software part of the computer industry to at least partially transcend the iron fist of capitalism, (or whatever the iconic hand thing is supposed to be for capitalism.) Without the GPL, we probably wouldn't have internet access at home. We wouldn't have smartphones. Google wouldn't exist. GPS would probably still be military only. It will probably always be at or near the top of any sane, "biggest tech/freedom promoting work," list
  • ReactOS and GNUstep are my pics, because they will change the world when they get big enough. ReactOS could disrupt the entire windows ecosystem, and GNUstep could do the same to Apple. ReactOS has just added audio and networking support (including wireless) it's not far now from being usable for day to day single user work.

  • Electron [electron.atom.io] has made great strides in 2015 and is seeing some very active development lately. From the success of the Atom editor and Microsofts Visual Studio Code, there are many very professional tools built on this framework. In my view, it should be voted up as one of the most important projects of the last year for cross platform desktop application development.

    My hope for the next couple of years is to see a fork of electron for mobile so we can start building cross platform mobile apps based on node.js

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