Year in review: New players enliven open source
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Yahoo, Google, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, and even Microsoft freshen up the open-source marketplace.
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Company's third open-source contribution is the first time it has shared code for actual application.
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0. Intro 1. New SF.net Mirror 2. August Project of the month: Bochs 3. September Project of the month: Azureus 4. Improved Site Documentation 5. SourceForge.net Subscriptions - Free T-shirt 6. Stats and Top Projects   Dear SourceForge.net User,  Welcome to the September sitewide email. September is typically our busiest month for new traffic on SF.net.  Students are arriving at college and getting on high speed connections.  Open Source developers and consumers of Open Source software are returning from their summer vacations.  If you are back from vacation, it's good to have you back.  If you are new to the site, welcome!  In this sitewide email, I want to update you on three notable things that have occurred regarding our site and our organization since July.  First, our parent company has changed its name.   OSDN (Open Source Development Network) is now OSTG (The Open Source Technology Group). Why the name change?   We realized that our network of sites (which include SourceForge.net, Slashdot.org, Linux.com, Freshmeat, NewsForge.net etc)  caters not only to developers but also to IT professionals.   Our old name didn't reflect this diverse audience. We have changed our name to better reflect who we are.  OSTG currently boasts over 16 million unique individuals (both developers and IT professionals) and over 238 million pageviews per month.  http://www.ostg.com/  Second, we recently received our single largest donation to SourceForge.net.  The Omidyar Network, founded by Pierre Omidyar (founder of EBay) and his wife Pam, gave $400,000 to SourceForge.net. The money is being used to update the User Interface on SF.net and the tools on the site (such as the File Release System, forums and Tracker), as well as improved functionality and statistics on the site.  The SF.net team would like to greatly thank the Omidyar Network for their very generous support.   You can read the press release here: http://www.vasoftware.com/news/press.php/2004/1431.html Omdiyar Network's website can be viewed here: http://www.omidyar.net/  Finally, I want to tell you about a very easy way to get an Apple iPod mini.  IBM is giving away 170 iPods to SF.net project admins.  This is not a drawing.  If your project meets a certain criteria, and you are willing to be a judge of your own project (which I know sounds a bit odd), you receive an iPod.   Normally I don't pitch offers in sitewide emails, but this one is unique enough that I wanted to bring it to your attention.   The only catch is the qualifications.  Your project has to be a 'server-based', not written in a scripting language (or Java) and not already ported to LinuxPPC.   If your project passes the criteria, I highly encourage you to visit the signup page.  If more than 170 projects signup who qualify, IBM will take the top 170 projects based on activity ranking. Deadline is Friday Sept 24th, 2004. http://sourceforge.net/ppc_contest.php  Thank you for using and supporting SourceForge.net.  If you have any questions or issues with SourceForge.net, please feel free to email me directly at pat@sf.net.  Thank you.  Happy coding.  Pat-  Patrick McGovern Director, SourceForge.net email: pat@sf.net   New Mirror --------------------------------------------------------- SF.net serves approximately one million Open Source downloads a day to a worldwide audience.   The combined bandwidth of these downloads is a sustained rate of over one gigibit per second (Gbps). SF.net couldn't provide this throughput without the support of our download partners, who provide hardware and bandwidth to support the site and the Open Source community.  Today, the SF.net team would like to a announce a new partner in Germany: MESH-Solutions.  MESH-Solutions provides IP bandwidth and colocation services at premiere Level3 gateways all over the world. Unlike traditional carriers, MESH-Solutions offers a wide range of additional services, including reboot services, hardware maintenance, remote hands and various consulting services. MESH-Solutions believes in Open Source for multiple reasons: its fast, its reliable and its just "very seckzy".  http://www.mesh-solutions.com/sf/  The SF.net team would like to thank MESH-Solutions for their support and bandwidth.  (A special thank you to Peter Lieven for his help.)   August Project of the Month (POTM): Bochs --------------------------------------------------------- Emulating a CPU in software is quite a trick. A programmer has to fool the operating system, and the software running on top of the operating system, into believing that it is on genuine hardware. This requires meticulously emulating every single instruction and mode that the CPU has to offer, which is immensely complex. SourceForge.net's August 2004 project of the month is Bochs, a x86 emulator (386, 486, Pentium and Pentium Pro). Its emulation is robust enough to allow Linux, Windows 95, and Windows NT to run on top of it. The emulator runs under many hardware platforms and operating systems, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, so if you want to run Windows under OS X, you can do it! Bochs, pronounced 'box', is one of the top 100 projects on SourceForge.net boasting over a million downloads since its inception on SF.net. The SF.net team is proud to make Bochs, August 2004, project of the month.  Project of the month: http://sourceforge.net/potm/potm-2004-08.php Home Page: http://bochs.sourceforge.net/ Project Page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/bochs/   September Project of the Month (POTM): Azureus --------------------------------------------------------- SourceForge.net's September 2004 project of the month is Azureus, a powerful Java-based BitTorrent client.  Downloading a file, whether it's a large ISO (CD images), promotional MP3 from your favorite local band, Open Source application, or music video, is one of the most common uses of the Internet. Until recently, download servers that served these files were centralized. If the server was overloaded, offline, or 'Slashdotted', you were out of luck. BitTorrent, another SourceForge.net-hosted project, changed this by providing a way to download files in a decentralized way by leveraging, in a transparent fashion, hundreds of end-user computers. Using this method, the files are almost always available and the transfer speed is generally faster than a centralized solution, particularly with larger files. This project is immensely popular on SF.net. Besides being in our top 5 most active projects (out of 80,000+) it enjoys on average 75,000 downloads a day (Wow!).  Azureus runs under Windows, Linux, OS X, among others and is licensed under the GPL. The SourceForge.net team is proud to make Azureus Project of the Month for Sepember.  Project of the month: http://sourceforge.net/potm/potm-2004-09.php Home Page: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/ Project Page: https://sourceforge.net/projects/azureus/   SF.net Documentation Improvements --------------------------------------------------------- SourceForge.net staff have started work to significantly improve the Site Documentation of SourceForge.net.  This effort includes new content, rewrites of existing content, and layout improvements.  Our new Site Docs may be seen at: https://sourceforge.net/docs/  Included within our initial roll-out of new documentation is a guide to using the Tracker system, used by most SourceForge.net projects for tracking support issues, bug reports and feature requests.  This guide provides both step-by-step instructions for using the Tracker system, as well as extensive detail on best practices that will be useful for new projects and long-term Tracker users alike.  This guide may be seen at: https://sourceforge.net/docs/E03/  The SourceForge.net team welcomes your feedback regarding our new documentation.  Details on how to provide feedback may be found at: https://sourceforge.net/docs/A00/  As part of our ongoing effort to improve the usability of the site, new documentation will be released each month.  Details of new document releases may be found on our Enhancements page, as seen at: https://sourceforge.net/docs/A03/  We hope that our new documentation offering will help everyone to make better use of the resources we provide and significantly improve site usability.  Thank you,  Jacob Moorman Quality of Service Manager, SourceForge.net   SourceForge.net Subscriptions - Free T-shirt -------------------------------------------- SF.net subscribers receive a full array of exciting features, including priority technical support. We have extended our offer for a free T-shirt (from ThinkGeek.com) when you sign up for an annual SourceForge.net subscription.   Sign up today for a subscription and help support SourceForge.net: http://sourceforge.net/subscription.php   Stats and Top Projects. --------------------------------------------- Number of Projects: 87,673 Number of Registered Users: 920,068  Daily Stats for Sept 17th, 2004  SF.net : 2,233,365 pages served SF.net project web space : 7,193,198 pages served Total Pages: 9,426,563  Open Source Files downloaded in 24 period: 1,014,152 Outgoing Mailing list emails: 1,233,125  ------------------------------------------------ Top 25 Projects:  1. Gaim https://sourceforge.net/projects/gaim Gaim is a GTK2-based instant messenger application. It supports multiple protocols via modules, including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN, Jabber, IRC, Napster, Gadu-Gadu and Zephyr. It has many common features found in other clients, as well as many unique features.  2. Azureus - BitTorrent Client https://sourceforge.net/projects/azureus Azureus is a powerful, full-featured, cross-platform Java-based BitTorrent client.  3. eGroupWare: Enterprise Collaboration https://sourceforge.net/projects/egroupware eGroupWare is a multi-user, web-based groupware suite developed on a custom set of PHP-based APIs.Currently available modules include: email, address book, calendar, infolog (notes, to-do's, phone calls), content management, forum, bookmarks, wiki.....  4. phpMyAdmin https://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields.  5. FCKeditor https://sourceforge.net/projects/fckeditor This HTML editor (DHTML editor), for ASP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, PHP and JavaScript brings to the web many of the powerful functionalities of known desktop editors like Word. It works with Mozilla, Netscape and IE.  6. OpenWFE https://sourceforge.net/projects/openwfe OpenWFE is an open source java workflow engine.It is a complete Business Process Management suite, with 4 components : an engine, a work list, a web client and a reactor (host for automatic agents).It can also be used behind the scene.  7. WinMerge https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmerge A visual text file differencing and merging tool for Win32 platforms. Useful for determining what has changed between project versions, and then merging changes between versions.  8. SugarCRM https://sourceforge.net/projects/sugarcrm Sugar.Sales 1.5 available now!A CRM suite including sales, marketing and customer service. Sugar.Marketing and Sugar.Service coming soon. Easy to use, easy to install.Built on PHP and MySQL.See home page for a demo and more.  9. Compiere ERP + CRM Business Solution https://sourceforge.net/projects/compiere Smart ERP+CRM solution for Small-Medium Enterprises in the global marketplace covering all areas from customer management, supply chain and accounting. For $2-200M revenue companies looking for "brick and click" first tier functionality.  10. AMSN https://sourceforge.net/projects/amsn AMSN (Alvaro\\\\'s Messenger) is a MSN messenger clone for linux/unix/windows/mac. It features multi-language support, file transfers, new graphical interface, emoticons, multiple profiles support, dock icon, sound events, email notification, URL processing.  11. PDFCreator https://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program.Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.  12. MegaMek https://sourceforge.net/projects/megamek MegaMek is a networked Java clone of BattleTech, a turn-based sci-fi boardgame for 2+ players.Fight using giant robots, tanks, and/or infantry on a hex-based map.  13. FileZilla https://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with a lot of features.FileZilla Server is a reliable FTP server.  14. Dev-C++ https://sourceforge.net/projects/dev-cpp Dev-C++ is an full-featured Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Win32. It uses GCC, Mingw or Cygwin as compiler and libraries set.  15. WebCalendar https://sourceforge.net/projects/webcalendar WebCalendar is a PHP application used to maintain a calendar for a single user or an intranet group of users.It can also be configured as an event calendar.  16. AWStats https://sourceforge.net/projects/awstats AWStats is a free powerful and featureful server logfile analyzer that shows you all your Web/Mail/FTP statistics including visits, unique visitors, pages, hits, rush hours, os, browsers, search engines, keywords, robots visits, broken links and more...  17. Biet-O-Matic (Bid-O-Matic) https://sourceforge.net/projects/bom Yet another sniper tool :-)BOM ist a tool to watch and bid on auctions.Many features like mail control, autoconnect/disconnect, integrated ODBC- client, Multi-language-support etcfrebayhoodkeywords  18. Firewall Builder https://sourceforge.net/projects/fwbuilder Object-oriented GUI and set of compilers for various firewall platforms. Currently implemented compilers for iptables, ipfilter, OpenBSD pf, ipfw and Cisco PIX  19. HSQL Database Engine https://sourceforge.net/projects/hsqldb HSQLDB is a relational database engine written in Java, with a JDBC driver, supporting a subset of ANSI-92 SQL.It offers a small (about 100k), fast database engine which offers both in memory and disk based tables.This product includes Hypersonic SQL  20. KeePass Password Safe https://sourceforge.net/projects/keepass KeePass is a free, open-source, light-weight and easy-to-use password safe for Windows. You can store your passwords in a highly-encrypted database locked with one master key or key-disk.  21. POPFile - Automatic Email Classification https://sourceforge.net/projects/popfile POPFile is an email classification tool with a Naive Bayes classifier, POP3, SMTP, NNTP proxies and IMAP filter and a web interface.It runs on most platforms and with most email clients.  22. JasperReports https://sourceforge.net/projects/jasperreports Free Java reporting library. XML report templates are used to generate ready to print documents using data from customizable data sources, including JDBC. The output can be delivered to the screen, printer, or stored in PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV and XML format  23. JBoss.org https://sourceforge.net/projects/jboss The JBoss/Server is the leading Open Source, standards-compliant, J2EE based application server implemented in 100% Pure Java  24. ABC [Yet Another Bittorrent Client] https://sourceforge.net/projects/pingpong-abc ABC is an improved client for the Bittorrent which supports queueing system with priority, global and local preference setting for downloading torrent, 3 upload options to do with completed file, with ABC_TWEAK you can adjust status display by yourself.  25. ScummVM https://sourceforge.net/projects/scummvm ScummVM is a cross-platform interpreter for several point-and-click adventure engines. This includes all SCUMM-based adventures by LucasArts, Simon the Sorcerer by AdventureSoft, and Beneath a Steel Sky and Broken Sword 2 by Revolution  ---------------------------------------------------------
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One of the most important recent events in the world of free software has been the release of version 3 of the GNU GPL.  There were fierce arguments about its utility while it was being drawn up, and although the rhetoric has abated somewhat, there is still a big question mark over its eventual success.  Some evidence suggests that GPLv3 uptake is coming along nicely, while other reports indicate a reluctance to adopt it (but note also Matt Asay's neat reconciliation of these contradictory messages).  To see what's likely to happen in the long term, it's useful to look back at the past history of licence adoption.
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When Linus Torvalds first posted a fledgling version of Linux to an obscure software bulletin board in 1991, no one would have predicted that open-source software would be much more than a short-lived hacker experiment.
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The case for open development There was some interesting buzz about the state of open source going around ApacheCon in Dublin.â¦
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Ziff Davis - With a relatively hostile environment that has pitted proprietary software against open source as a backdrop, the Free Software Foundation, the steward of the GNU General Public License, is working on the first revamp to the license in 13 years.
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SGI begins work on an open-source version of a development tool for high-performance computing programmers.
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After years of effort, programmers work to bring Active Directory support to the open-source file-sharing software.
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Linux advocates have long insisted that open-source development results in better and more secure software. Now they have statistics to back up their claims.
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Open source software proponents received a potential boost from the UK government Thursday with a release of a report citing the well-documented advantages on the server side, but also growing maturity on the desktop front.
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Our Open Sources blog is living up to its name, opening up and adding a few new "sources." For nearly two years, readers have come to rely on the informed, entertaining, and highly opinionated musings of prolific blogoholics Dave Rosenberg and Matt Asay. Matt has decided to move on, but Dave will be sticking around and welcoming three "new members of the Open Sources team of masked banditos": Zack Urlocker from MySQL, Savio Rodrigues from IBM, and Dave Dargo, described simply as a "man of mystery and intrigue."
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No one would have believed me if I had said five years ago that Microsoft would have a page on its Web site called âOpen Source at Microsoftâ with the following remarkably sane and reasonable statement on the subject: Microsoft is focused on helping customers and partners succeed in a heterogeneous technology world. This starts with participating and contributing to a broad range of choices for developing and deploying software, including open source approaches and applications. From thousands of lines of code and scripts on MSDN and TechNet, to open source applications like IronPython, ASP.NET AJAX, SharePoint Learning Kit, and WiX on CodePlex and SourceForge, Microsoft is continually growing the number of products released with open source access.  That's right: Microsoft has released not one but several pieces of code as open source.  Moreover, it's submitting some of its home-grown licences to the Open Source Initiative  for approval.  So what is going on here?
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By its very nature, open-source software would appear to run counter to the goals of venture capitalists. Not only is it distributed and developed for free by a loose-knit group of techies from around the
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Adoption of standalone open source software is accelerating, say researchers.
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There's a lot of money to be made in open source, both as a shareholder and for the company.
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Now for some real Apache code Column As I write this, I'm on the Eurostar train, just returning from O'Reilly's OSCon (Open Source Conference) in Brussels. Some fascinating insights there; and even my own talk generated some interesting discussion. Some of the delegates, including O'Reilly himself, are promoting opensource ideas going beyond software and into society more generally. I've touched on that in this very column before now, but a related argument that's new to me is that the open/closed debate in software could become largely sidelined, as the industry focuses on software as a service (such as Google's offerings) more than as a product.â¦