Gallery

The top ten open-source apps you've never heard of

Posted on 5 Sep 2008 at 15:18

Simon Brock runs through ten well-kept open-source secrets, and examines why some others didn't quite make the grade.

If you need to serve authoritative domains yourself - in other words, if you own some domain names and manage their name servers - then the main PowerDNS is the one you want. One of the big advantages of PowerDNS is that it has a number of back ends that can be used to store domain data. In particular there are a number of SQL database back ends that can be accessed by various web-based front ends, which lets you manage domain names from a web browser rather than editing files by hand.

9. Scriptaculous JavaScript library

Having complained about JavaScript when mentioning Firebug, it's now necessary to praise it for what it can do these days. Only a few years ago its main use was for producing a few cute special effects that no-one really liked or wanted, and for implementing elementary form-checking functions. Now websites use JavaScript to implement animation and useful interface features like light boxes for viewing multiple images.

To implement such features on your website you really don't want to have to reinvent the wheel each time, and that's where the Scriptaculous JavaScript library (http://script.aculo.us) comes in. This great collection of libraries, which builds on another open-source library called Prototype (www.prototypejs.org), implements an enormous collection of effects. Visit the homepage and you'll get a flavour of what can be done: notice how the bubbles on the front page appear, and try mousing over the advert in the top right-hand corner. Virtually every site that deploys animations, completions, incremental searching and all those Web 2.0/Ajax features people talk about uses Scriptaculous and Prototype to implement them.

10. OpenVPN

OpenVPN (www.openvpn.net) is another app we've mentioned here before, but as it's just had a version bump to 2.1, it's worth another look. OpenVPN is a very flexible VPN client and server that builds on simple internet communication infrastructure. For example, rather than the complex IPSEC system, which may not pass through all routers, it employs the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocols used by secure web servers and so can easily pass through routers. The server can run on virtually any machine - Windows, Linux, Mac OS X - and there are clients for all these systems that come with an easy-to-use GUI that can be used to set up both clients and servers.