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What is the most popular open source software today?

Submitted by Peter on Fri, 2010-10-15 10:14

Sourceforge is a big library of open source software you can download free at any time. Sourceforge publish a monthly list of their most popular downloads. Here is a quick look at the 25 most popular for the first week in October 2010.

  1. PostBooks ERP, accounting, CRM by xTuple sourceforge.net/projects/postbooks
  2. (↑10) Notepad++ notepad-plus-plus.org
  3. (new) 7-zip
  4. (↑5) ADempiere ERP Business Suite sourceforge.net/projects/adempiere
  5. (↓3) Openbravo ERP sourceforge.net/projects/openbravo
  6. (↑7) Zenoss Core - Enterprise IT Monitoring sourceforge.net/projects/zenoss
  7. (↑9) KeePass Password Safe keepass.info
  8. (↓2) phpMyAdmin sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin
  9. (↓8) ScummVM sourceforge.net/projects/scummvm
  10. (↓4) OrangeHRM - Human Resource Management sourceforge.net/projects/orangehrm
  11. MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows www.mingw.org
  12. (↑15) FreeCol sourceforge.net/projects/freecol
  13. (new) Hyperic Application & System Monitoring sourceforge.net/projects/hyperic-hq
  14. (↓6) DavMail POP/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav to Exchange sourceforge.net/projects/davmail
  15. (↓13) TCPDF - PHP class for PDF sourceforge.net/projects/tcpdf
  16. (↑25) DVDStyler sourceforge.net/projects/dvdstyler
  17. (↓12) Clonezilla sourceforge.net/projects/clonezilla
  18. (new) webERP web-based ERP Accounting webERP
  19. (↓16) Pandora FMS sourceforge.net/projects/pandora
  20. (↓14) MediaInfo sourceforge.net/projects/mediainfo
  21. (new) Task Coach sourceforge.net/projects/taskcoach
  22. (↓17) Arianne RPG sourceforge.net/projects/arianne
  23. (new) Hugin sourceforge.net/projects/hugin
  24. (new) net-snmp sourceforge.net/projects/net-snmp
  25. (new) Small Device C Compiler sourceforge.net/projects/sdcc

 
*(position August 2010) The following projects dropped out of the list.

 

PostBooks

PostBooks has a free open version and two commercial versions with extra features. For my use, I would have to use one of the commercial versions to get all the features I need and I do not want to be locked into a commercial version just for one or two extra features.

The product includes a client application based on Qt and a matching server application based on PostgreSQL. There is no Web version, another reason I cannot use it, and a reason why most of my customers cannot use it. Some of my customers do not need a Web based system today but will require a Web based system in the future and PostBooks would lock them out of that option.

phpMyAdmin

phpMyAdmin is an excellent tool for managing a MySQL database. phpMyAdmin is Web based and can be added to any Web site. Web site management tools, including cPanel, include phpMyAdmin. There is an equivalent tool for PostgreSQL.

Openbravo ERP

Openbravo is based on Java instead of normal software, making it unsuitable for a lot of users. Openbravo is supposed to have a free open community edition but finding it is harder every time I look. The open version is probably a dead end.

OrangeHRM

OrangeHRM is an excellent Web based Human Resources Management application based on the normal software everyone uses for Web sites, which means you could develop or sponsor the development of enhancements for your requirements.

The one thing you might look at before committing to the full OrangeHRM system is time recording. OrangeHRM records attendance but not time for billing. When staff have to log attendance in one system and time billing in another, one of the tho is usually forgotten. Look at integrating OrangeHRM into the other time recording system. OrangeHRM is written in PHP and your Web based project management systems are written in PHP, making integration easy.

ADempiere

ADempiere is popular because it was one of the first big applications in the area of ERP. Compiere was first and went all commercial. Adempiere split from Compiere and is open.

Adempiere is based on Java, restricting the range of people who can contribute to it. Connecting Adempiere to something like OrangeHRM would be more difficult than connecting a PHP based ERP application.

Until recently, Adempiere had no Web interface. Evaluate the Adempiere Web interface carefully to make sure it does everything you want before committing to Adempiere.

KeePass

KeePass is a great idea that goes all over the place. There is a version 1 that works on Windows but no where else, making it a bad choice for people supporting a mixed range of computer systems. I use Windows and Linux. Most of the people I meet in the Information Technology field have mixtures of Windows and Linux and the occasional Mac with Apple's version of Unix. We hate having to use different programs for the same task on each operating system. KeePass version 1 is not a good choice for us.

There is a KeePass version 2 that with some nice extra features and the ability to work on Linux and Macs. Version 2 requires .NET on Windows and Mono on Linux. .NET creates so many problems that I avoid anything requiring .NET. .NET is Microsoft's clone of Java and Mono is a clone of Microsoft's clone of Java. Why did KeePass choose such a messy path?

Notepad++

Notepad++ was a good idea until Bluefish released an official Windows version. I have used Notepad++ as a Microsoft Notepad replacement and Notepad++ created problems. Bluefish creates fewer problems.

I have used Notepad++ for code editing and it did not solve any problems for me. jEdit was a better choice for code editing for a long time then Bluefish released a Windows version and I switched most code editing to Bluefish. I still occasionally use jEdit for side by side comparisons.

MinGW

I do not know why MinGW would be popular. MinGW is used to compile programs on Windows. Once a program is compiled, the program is distributed as a binary file for direct use or within an installer program. You should never have to download MinGW yourself. There are some Linux programs that offer an uncompiled version for use on Windows and those primitive versions might force a lot of people to suffer through the use of MinGW.

Webmin

Webmin is a great idea and has some siblings including Usermin. Collectively they are free open alternatives to cPanel and WHM. For Web hosting, I recommend using whatever your hosting company uses. If they personally use Webmin, they can support it and you should use the same on your local test machines.

Webmin is slowly replacing cPanel the way Linux slowly replaced Windows a few years ago before Ubuntu made the replacement easy. In a few years Webmin will be as common as cPanel.

DVDStyler

DVDStyler is a brilliant way to make quick DVDs for showing movies. Consider DVDStyler the quick tool for video demonstrations and for family DVDs when everything is on video, not still images.

DVDStyler works on every useful operating system and with many file types without decoding but be aware that some DVD players will not decode all those file types. Convert your unusual videos to common formats before adding to a DVD using DVDStyler.

You might not find every feature needed for professional DVDs. It does not produce a HTML DVD for mixed still images and video images. It does not have all the video features you might need to match the styling of a customer's existing videos. In some cases you will be able to edit videos in other applications then use DVDStyler to assemble the final result.

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