10 Up-and-Coming Open Source Projects I'm Very Excited About
I regularly hunt for new and better open source software to meet my various computer needs. Often I come across a really exciting project that is in the works, but that's still in the early stages of development. Sometimes a project looks so promising that I find myself continuously checking back with it to see if there is any recent news or updates. Below I'll listed the top 10 open source projects I'm most excited about (listed alphabetically). Let me know if there are any other open source projects still in the early stages of development that look very promising!
Beryl - This might mainly be a bunch of eye candy, but its great eye candy. If you haven't seen some of the great video clips on YouTube, you're in for a treat. [*nix]
Chandler - I've been looking for a decent open source cross-platform Personal Information Manager for a while, but I've yet to find one I'm pleased with. This one looks like its got some great potential for all your organizational needs. [cross-platform]
Filezilla 3 - No longer limited to Windows, we now will be able to experience the best FTP client in Linux as well. [cross-platform]
KDE 4 - Although I'm generally a Gnome user, I've got nothing against KDE (except their naming conventions) and often it seems that KDE apps have a richer feature set than their gnome counterparts. Well, with KDE 4 I might make the switch entirely. With this release, it will also be possible to port KDE to Windows (which will only make migration to Linux all the more easy). [cross-platform]
Perl 6 - OK, admittedly its been a loooong time in coming, but I doubt I'll be displeased when it gets here (which may even be this year, who knows?). Its about time for my favorite programming language to generate some buzz again. [cross-platform]
Rapid Serial Visual Projection - This isn't an application, per se, but I've found it to be a much better way to read things off of the computer screen. In fact I got so excited about this sort of software that I wrote my own RSVP application - WordFlashReader. That said, probably the best open source implementation of this type of application presently is Dictator. One of these days I'm going to re-write my app in wxWidgets. Anyway, check out one or both of these programs and see if they don't change your computer reading habits. [cross-platform]
Songbird - Its motto is: "Play music. Play the Web." It does both quite effectively. Look out iTunes, here is your next great up-and-coming competitor. [cross-platform]
UltraVNC - Wanna' access your home/office computer remotely? Or did you forget an important at home or the office? Try this program and you will no longer have to be located where your computer is to access its programs or content. [Windows]
VirtualBox - Why be limited by the OS you are presently using? Wouldn't it be nice to start up an OS like you would any other desktop application? Well, you can! I'm definitely going to keep my eyes on this one. [cross-platform]
XULRunner - Create and deploy powerful XUL-based apps. There are already a number of promising applications in the works based on this technology (Democracy Player, Joost, Songbird, etc.). Rumors are that this should be production ready with the release of Firefox 3. Who knows, this might be the future for cross-platform application development! [cross-platform]
Beryl - This might mainly be a bunch of eye candy, but its great eye candy. If you haven't seen some of the great video clips on YouTube, you're in for a treat. [*nix]
Chandler - I've been looking for a decent open source cross-platform Personal Information Manager for a while, but I've yet to find one I'm pleased with. This one looks like its got some great potential for all your organizational needs. [cross-platform]
Filezilla 3 - No longer limited to Windows, we now will be able to experience the best FTP client in Linux as well. [cross-platform]
KDE 4 - Although I'm generally a Gnome user, I've got nothing against KDE (except their naming conventions) and often it seems that KDE apps have a richer feature set than their gnome counterparts. Well, with KDE 4 I might make the switch entirely. With this release, it will also be possible to port KDE to Windows (which will only make migration to Linux all the more easy). [cross-platform]
Perl 6 - OK, admittedly its been a loooong time in coming, but I doubt I'll be displeased when it gets here (which may even be this year, who knows?). Its about time for my favorite programming language to generate some buzz again. [cross-platform]
Rapid Serial Visual Projection - This isn't an application, per se, but I've found it to be a much better way to read things off of the computer screen. In fact I got so excited about this sort of software that I wrote my own RSVP application - WordFlashReader. That said, probably the best open source implementation of this type of application presently is Dictator. One of these days I'm going to re-write my app in wxWidgets. Anyway, check out one or both of these programs and see if they don't change your computer reading habits. [cross-platform]
Songbird - Its motto is: "Play music. Play the Web." It does both quite effectively. Look out iTunes, here is your next great up-and-coming competitor. [cross-platform]
UltraVNC - Wanna' access your home/office computer remotely? Or did you forget an important at home or the office? Try this program and you will no longer have to be located where your computer is to access its programs or content. [Windows]
VirtualBox - Why be limited by the OS you are presently using? Wouldn't it be nice to start up an OS like you would any other desktop application? Well, you can! I'm definitely going to keep my eyes on this one. [cross-platform]
XULRunner - Create and deploy powerful XUL-based apps. There are already a number of promising applications in the works based on this technology (Democracy Player, Joost, Songbird, etc.). Rumors are that this should be production ready with the release of Firefox 3. Who knows, this might be the future for cross-platform application development! [cross-platform]
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