The Best OPEN SOURCE Software Ever!

In an attempt to trigger controversy, Michael Reed and Neil Mohr unequivocally state these are the greatest free software apps ever. Probably. We’re just trying to be helpful.

- 

For 300 issues, Linux Format has celebrated and promoted free and open source software. So, what better way to celebrate that software in our 300th issue than trying to distil the most useful of it all into a tawdry listicle? In the words of a CBeebies polar bear, let’s do this!

Recently, open source has become the form of development du jour. It wasn’t always like that, with many arguing that a proprietary approach was superior. But as software project complexity spiralled, maintaining large enough groups of developers became ever more costly – for example, Cray was spending more on software development than on the supercomputers themselves before switching to SUSE Linux. 

While there are certainly difficulties and challenges with the open source approach – financing, leadership conflict, interface polish, quality documentation – the benefits generally outweigh the negatives. Besides, more modern methods of running projects can help overcome many of the issues, such as crowdsourcing and sponsorship. 

The open source arena is vast and it can be tricky working out which software is worth trying. Hopefully, this list will be useful and insightful. You probably know many of the titles here, but we’re also explaining why we think they are so successful. We start with some notable projects, then break off into categories such as office, system administration and development. So, take a good look and let us know which programs we missed!

Top of the FOSS!
Some of the most notable projects in history.

Linux Kernel