Object databases. Strictly speaking, Versant object database by Actian (iirc) is the only long standing player and the only actually working implementation.
Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
91–100 of 283 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#92Ableton Live and/or Bitwig Studio I don't think anything comes even remotely close to the level of productivity and rapid experimentation / prototyping these DAWs can bring to the table.
It's not quite the same thing, but VCV Rack is making incredible and rapid progress into becoming a fully fledged DAW. I find myself using Ableton less and less and Rack more and more. Check it out!
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#93I think the definition of "good" matters a lot here. Consider Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom. Many people (including me) would love to see those supported on Linux, or even better, be out-classed by open-source software, e.g. Gimp and Darktable. Gimp and Darktable truly are wonderful pieces of software. But they aren't yet compelling enough to cause a mass-migration by professional photographs. Another example would…
> So you may need to refine your goals a little: Do you want to (a) fill a gap where no viable OSS exists, or (b) help OSS dethrone proprietary software in some category, e.g. Photoshop?
Filling a gap where not OSS exists. I was trying to understand the gap. Like, many people are saying there are huge gap in CAD technologies, but this can be only solved by the persons who have domain knowledge, like Civil Engineers. Unless the people having the domain knowledge does not agree to volunteer or take the inatiative, no one will see any progress in that field.
> I think there's some wisdom in the notion that the best OSS project idea is one that solves a problem you have
Yeah, it is true. Like I am facing about a problem with APM that there are no or open core alternative of proprietary. Untill this post, I did not know other people are also thinking about its need.
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#94Jenkins (https://jenkins.io/), but specially most of its plugins.
I know it's already open source, but it lacks good FOSS alternatives.
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#95Two that I have encountered: Aspera: a high-performance data transfer suit, used in genetics and the film industry. I wrote a blog post about it a year ago and still get near-daily emails asking me if there is an open source alternative yet. QUIC may provide a basis for a solution, but it needs to be explored. PDMS: software for planning, modeling and simulating oil and gas plants. Main two commercial suites are AVEV…
Your article is really interesting! I did not know about Aspera before reading it. I did not have any idea that changing protocol will have this amount of benefit in data transmission. Also amused that no one have not solved it in Open Source world.
The worst part is that Aspera is actually a proprietary fork of a Free Software project that IBM purchased and then strong-armed institutions into using until it became an industry standard.
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Open source projects tend to emerge when there is general access to the purpose of that project. You can't expect an open source project for Ocean-based Wind Turbine simulation or molecular synthesis of Organochloride compounds. They're niche industries that require tremendous amount of upfront investment, in both physical assets to realize the utility of the open-source project, and knowledge-base required to operat…
I actually respectfully disagree with this. In my travels, I have encountered many situations where very niche, industry-specific software is completely Free and Open Source, and I have encountered situations where commonly-used, widely useful software is proprietary with no Free solution. On the Free side, I think one reason is the copyleft nature of the GPL. Another pattern indicator is how modular the software is…
The reason of not having a open source alternative of CAD is not having proper domain knowledge. The people who have the domain knowledge are not taking that intiative that the early stage software engineers took.
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#97Don't try to copy a closed-source project. Instead, invent something completely new (something that's 10x better than what it might "replace"), and make it open-source.
... and half your potential user base will say "what the hell is this crap, it is totally unintuitive and doesn't do the things i need it to" ... sigh.
Focus on the other half.
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#98High level multiphysics, RF, and CAD tools and simulators. Autodesk, Ansys etc. still dominate the field. The state of tools like OpenFoam is like the early days of Gimp and KiCad; theoretically possible to use but only if your background is in software engineering and/or if you are really, really poor and desperate e.g. a grad student on a tight budget. If you look at software like open source FTDT sims, almost all…
One of the goals of the FreeCAD project [1] is to be a high-level interface for tools like OpenFOAM (via the CfdOF workbench [2]), and other solvers/meshers like CalculiX, Elmer, Gmsh, and Netgen.
Its modular, workbench-based, Python-around-C++ core approach provides an environment for people to make their own specialized tools, like the Arch Rebar tool [3] that was created as part of a Google Summer of Code project. [4] like airfoil design as you mentioned. There was a recent forum thread started by people interested in doing exactly that. [5]
[2] https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewforum.php?f=37
[3] https://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/Arch_Rebar
[4] https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=22760
[5] https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41159&start...
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#99Excel alternatives might be uncountable. Implementing spreadsheet basics is an advanced beginner exercise. But even Google’s billions only get it a distant second best because Microsoft is still working hard despite the lead. Sure Google and Apple can meet most needs most of the time. They’re good enough mainly because they are free beer. Not because they are open source. Obviously. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a GNU fanb…
I'm not an Excel user. Genuinely curious: Is it really that the alternatives are worse, lacking features, unstable, or does it come down to "they're not Excel", in that they're not a drop in replacement that can perfectly load and run every Excel sheet ever created. Because that would be my gut feeling: Not interoperable enough, since some things just work differently, but not necessarily much worse. If you can't sen…
My impression is that Microsoft has sweated the details of Excel, the way that Apple sweated the details of the iPhone, so that it is extremely smooth and quick. This in turn makes it literally less physically laborious to use. Things like casually swiping the mouse across a range of cells to select them.
I suspect making it work this way requires an army of developers and some corporate will power. Having an inside track on exactly how the OS works may be an advantage.
Re: Ask HN: Which project does not have any good open-source alternatives?
#100This article about how Microsoft Access won't die got me thinking about creating an open source alternative. I just retired and am looking for a project. I also have a history with msft that might be helpful. https://medium.com/young-coder/microsoft-access-the-zombie-d...
This is my pet peeve. I'm already working in a relational language ( http://tablam.org ) to use as the core. My dream is to have not only an Access/Excel(in the role of pseudo-table programming) alternative, but one that could work great in a iPad/mobile device. Also, in this space, most "options" are fully on the cloud. Thats cool, but will never be a real challenger to Access or Excel if depend on cloud 100%. I nee…
I interviewed with a quant hedge fund in 2004 whose systems where all in FoxPro. They loved it. The general partner of the fund believed that Microsoft had figured out that they could unbundle FoxPro into 3+ components (DB, IDE, Reports...) and sell each separately. It's been a mystery to me why no one, using sqlite as the DB foundation, has attempted a modern-day FoxPro\MsAccess-like tool.