
Ask HN: What abandoned OSS project would you like to see revived? - swatcoder
I&#x27;ve been writing code forever but took a break to pursue some other interests. Now I&#x27;m ready to come back.<p>I&#x27;m looking for an open-source project to busy myself with while I resume networking and freelancing.<p>Ideally, I&#x27;d like to revive an practical OSS project that&#x27;s been abandoned. Something useful but left untended for whatever reason.<p>What are some candidates? What project is broadly useful but seems to have lost its maintainer or their interest? What do you wish somebody was actively working on so that you didn&#x27;t have to?<p>I&#x27;ve chosen not to offer constraints so that this can be more of a wishlist for the community than an answer just for me. I know there&#x27;s some other people out there that would be eager to do the same thing I am.<p>Thanks, all!
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pmlnr
Pidgin. While it's not dead, v3 is still very far, and an up to date, all-in-
one messaging solution is ackingly missing - especially for mobile.

~~~
ivcha
Exactly. Moreover, Pidgin is not only extremely useful already, but could also
solve some further issues such as usability, customizability, and security in
everyday communication.

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scrollaway
The lightweight and modern Linux desktop. LXQt is what I used to work on (I
still help out once in a while), and it just doesn't have the manpower and
organization required to produce something really good.

Working on the Desktop is a really interesting thing. The goal is to turn
machines into something usable for, nowdays essentially browsing the web or
gaming (with the oddball app that does more than that).

It's a very rewarding thing. Hit me up if you are interested: Swing by the
#lxqt channel on IRC and DM me (jleclanche, or agaida if I'm not here). It's a
place where you can get to either work on stuff that already exists, or make
up your own new ideas, or help bring standards together.

~~~
walrus01
what's wrong with xfce?

~~~
severine
Oh c'mon! OP didn't even mention it!

There's nothing wrong with Xfce (I'm a very happy user myself), but they're
distinct projects and the OP makes a good case and gives useful info about
LXQt, as fits the thread.

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deegles
Amphetype -
[https://code.google.com/archive/p/amphetype/](https://code.google.com/archive/p/amphetype/)

It's an old typing tutor that uses statistics about your typing speed on
different character combinations to generate customized lessons... I haven't
seen those features in any other tutor. I used it years ago to train myself in
a new keyboard layout. I would love to see an updated, maybe web enabled
version that replicates the tracking and custom lesson features.

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nextos
A Linux mobile operating system (i.e. revive Mer & Maemo).

PostmarketOS is trying this, but they would benefit immensely from the above 2
getting tons of help as they are basically dead.

~~~
petecox
You're not alone, someone else has already revived it:

[https://maemo-leste.github.io/](https://maemo-leste.github.io/)

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cr0sh
I'd like to see this project revived and expanded:

[https://github.com/omni360/assemblino.js](https://github.com/omni360/assemblino.js)

There used to be a site to try it out, but now you'll have to clone it and
start it up locally yourself.

It's basically a javascript/node webgl robotics simulation kit; you can even
interface your simulation to an Arduino to have the simulator control a real
robot.

There's various "parts" models (wheels, servos, etc) included, which are just
javascript object definitions; plus a variety of basic components that can be
"glued" into larger assemblies.

I'd like to see it enhanced and expanded; from that perspective, I'd like to
see:

1\. Additional "real world" platforms supported (raspi, beagleboard, etc)

2\. This could arguably be done via integration with something like
[http://johnny-five.io/](http://johnny-five.io/)

3\. Add the ability to use models built via
[https://openjscad.org/](https://openjscad.org/) (?)

4\. Perhaps integrate things with
[https://github.com/octoblu](https://github.com/octoblu) ?

Basically build it out into a really neat toolkit for robotics, iot, and ai/ml
research and fun (to that later end, perhaps add on something like
[http://propelml.org/](http://propelml.org/) and other libraries?)...

------
smnscu
[https://github.com/rethinkdb/rethinkdb](https://github.com/rethinkdb/rethinkdb)

~~~
sensen
It breaks my heart to see that the last blog post is from July 17, 1017 along
with all the stagnant information on the community page. I had some hopes that
momentum would develop after the project transferred to community governance.

~~~
Yetanfou
This can probably be explained by the enormous effort it took to create a
single blog post in 1017, just getting the right stone could take weeks:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great#/media/File:U_1...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great#/media/File:U_194,_V%C3%A4sby.JPG)

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nathan_f77
Deis Workflow [1]

I had really high hopes for this, but the team was acquired by Microsoft and
the project was abandoned. I don't think is a job for a single developer, so
it probably needs a company to sponsor development. EDIT: They updated the
README recently with a link to a fork [2], but there's no new commits for 7
months.

I'm very happy with convox [3] now, and they're mostly open source [4]. Their
management console is a freemium SaaS service, which includes
GitHub/GitLab/Slack integrations. The console can be self-hosted, but that
requires an enterprise license.

[1] [https://github.com/deis/workflow](https://github.com/deis/workflow)

[2]
[https://github.com/teamhephy/workflow](https://github.com/teamhephy/workflow)

[3] [https://convox.com/](https://convox.com/)

[4] [https://github.com/convox/rack](https://github.com/convox/rack)

------
simplify
Mozilla Persona was a promising idea. It was ahead of its time.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Persona](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Persona)

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panda888888
Not quite an abandoned project, but if you want to be helpful, see if your
local government publishes any data and do something helpful with it.

Here in Seattle, the OneBusAway bus tracker app was originally built as a side
project, but is has substantially evolved into into its own company.
[https://github.com/OneBusAway](https://github.com/OneBusAway)

This project attempts to put a dollar value on car accidents:
:[http://seattlecollisions.timganter.io/collisions](http://seattlecollisions.timganter.io/collisions)

Or this, which automatically scapes videos of city council meetings and
transcribes the audio:
[https://github.com/OpenDataLiteracy/jksn-2017/tree/master/CD...](https://github.com/OpenDataLiteracy/jksn-2017/tree/master/CDP#understanding)

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Alex3917
FreeMind - [http://freemind.sourceforge.net](http://freemind.sourceforge.net)

Still by far the best knowledge management software out there, but is down to
one developer working on it part time and it hasn't received a proper update
in years.

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sp332
Ubiquity for Firefox. It was an overlay that let you type commands to use and
combine web services using natural language. It understood pronouns, so you
could highlight text and say "map this" and it would look up the selection in
Google maps. You would subscribe to command feeds that could be updated
automatically for bug fixes or to keep up with changing APIs. By the time the
project was abandoned, it had an advanced language engine with noun or verb
autocomplete in multiple languages including different subject-verb-object
orders.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20101030050714/https://wiki.mozi...](https://web.archive.org/web/20101030050714/https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Ubiquity)

------
jf
Seashore - it was a fantastic Mac-specific fork of Gimp with a great native
user experience.

Last updated in September of 2010:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seashore_(software)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seashore_\(software\))

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terminalcommand
I'd like to see Abiword come back to life. Even adding docx saving support
would go a long way.

Abiword looks slick, works blazingly fast. IMHO it provides the best
experience for end users.

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cucumberferity
Haiku is not abandoned, it has relatively up to date ports of all the common
compilers and libraries, but it just needs some polish. You could pick some
rough edge and clean it up.

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slipwalker
Apache Wave ( former Google Wave ). But without the mentality of "replacing
email for good, now!" baby steps, embrace and suffocate this time...

~~~
O_H_E
Seconded, It seemed really cool and had a great mission.

[http://incubator.apache.org/projects/wave.html](http://incubator.apache.org/projects/wave.html)

People seemed to like it:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16442378](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16442378)

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darkorange
The Axiom computer algebra system. Not sure what the status of the project is,
but the last release notes are from 2014. They had big ambitions, including a
completely literate codebase and provably correct implementations of all of
their core algorithms.

[http://www.axiom-developer.org/](http://www.axiom-developer.org/)

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undoware
It's a protocol, not a project, but it's one beloved to FOSS: RSS

~~~
fenwick67
RSS and Atom are still very much alive! Partly because they are so simple.

~~~
ComputerGuru
Moreso because they are decentralized. People just don’t get how important
that is.

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lostgame
It’s kind of null and void because of it’s recent re-OSS’ing but WebOS never
reached half it’s potential. It’s not exactly abandoned but I’d love to see
the ability to sideload it onto Android.

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severine
Dedoimedo featured some great projects recently, some of them abandoned:
[http://www.ocsmag.com/2018/03/21/the-magnificent-seven-
uniqu...](http://www.ocsmag.com/2018/03/21/the-magnificent-seven-unique-linux-
projects/)

The unmaintained ones seem to be Kaptan (desktop configuration wizard) and
TeenPup Magic Scripts (drag and drop scripts), not sure about Unity Dash.

~~~
acehw
About the TeenPup magic scripts, maybe have a look at LegacyOS. The latest
(and last/final version) is LegacyOS 2017

Those scripts are also on there, but those distros are made to be OLD

~~~
severine
Thanks! Interesting project, may come handy in the future...

For reference:
[http://www.puppylinux.org/wikka/legacyos](http://www.puppylinux.org/wikka/legacyos)

------
theli
[https://github.com/tomahawk-player/tomahawk](https://github.com/tomahawk-
player/tomahawk)

~~~
Sytten
I didn't know it was dead. Thats very sad... Do we have alternative or forks?

~~~
theli
None that I know of unfortunately.

~~~
wink
sorry, unrelated, and probably just a nick collision - but theli, you didn't
play Ragnarok Online on euRO by chance?

------
billyjobob
I would like hot corners on Linux, but all the programs that I find seem to be
abandoned. [https://github.com/brianhsu/xfce4-hotcorner-
plugin](https://github.com/brianhsu/xfce4-hotcorner-plugin) looks most
promising, but it needs updating to work with current XFCE.

~~~
Mononokay
KDE supports them by default, if I'm remembering correctly. If not default
it's in settings.

~~~
nieve
Cinnamon supports them out of the box as well, it's System Settings ->
Preferences -> Hot Corners. I had to run the Brightside daemon to get it
working on MATE, but I don't know if that's true anymore.

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zachlatta
I used to make a few small contributions to
[https://github.com/msmhq/msm](https://github.com/msmhq/msm), but no longer
have the time and nobody else has stepped up.

If you'd be interested, I'm happy to give you commit permissions - just shoot
me an email (in HN profile).

~~~
rouxz
Just curiosity, have you made any $ through donations? I consider doing full
time open source development in similar niche (game servers, twitch related
tools). Searching now for success stories. Hope to make a little cash via
donations but not going paid/closed software model.

~~~
zachlatta
Not sure, I'm not the one that created the project and never had access to the
PayPal. We do rely on monthly supporters of our open source work at
[https://hackclub.com](https://hackclub.com) and the #1 learning is to ask for
monthly commitments. $5/month is much more meaningful than a one time gift of
$5.

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O_H_E
I wanna say Compiz, but I feel like I am the only one using it full time. It
would probably be a wast of time.

~~~
declnz
No, I was (until very recently). Sad to see it go...

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jbradley5472
Boodler - a Python based soundscape generation tool.
[http://boodler.org](http://boodler.org)

[https://github.com/erkyrath/boodler](https://github.com/erkyrath/boodler)

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foxfired
Ubuntu one. It was a dropbox alternative but it was abandoned. They made the
code available but I never managed to get it to work on my own server.

[https://launchpad.net/ubuntuone](https://launchpad.net/ubuntuone)

~~~
alphabettsy
Why not use Nextcloud?

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flarg
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/faces-
project/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/faces-project/)

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Y_Y
GNU Hurd

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rch
Disco Distributed Filesystem

Still somewhat active, but I had to tweak a few things to get it running on my
Mac a few months ago.

------
zerostar07
[http://opensimulator.org](http://opensimulator.org)

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lwansbrough
Chartist. Great, tiny footprint, good API. Doesn't use canvas, which is a
rarity.

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ethbro
Yahoo Pipes

------
newsat13
Thunderbird

~~~
steanne
[https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/12/new-
thunderbird...](https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/12/new-thunderbird-
releases-and-new-thunderbird-staff/)

~~~
wink
I think it's officially un-abandoned now, but as it sounded at the FOSDEM
booth, they're absolutely looking for new contributors :)

------
africajam
Not an abandoned project but I really could do with some help on this open
source website builder for the real estate sector:

[https://github.com/etewiah/property_web_builder](https://github.com/etewiah/property_web_builder)

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cimmanom
Camino. A Gecko browser with a native Mac UI.

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dpedu
Upstart

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basher
Dogecoin

~~~
veritas3241
Not sure if you're serious, but they are still working on it some
[https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/7yhdtr/official_1...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogecoin/comments/7yhdtr/official_114_alpha_2/)

~~~
basher
Partly,

“Jackson Palmer, the founder of Dogecoin (who has since left the company),
told CoinDesk that “it says a lot about the state of the cryptocurrency space
in general that a currency with a dog on it which hasn’t released a software
update in over 2 years has a $1B+ market cap.” “

[http://fortune.com/2018/01/08/dogecoin-hits-all-time-
high-2-...](http://fortune.com/2018/01/08/dogecoin-hits-all-time-
high-2-billion-valuation/)

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doughj3
Freemind

~~~
goblins
I use freelance now.

------
jakeogh
BRL-CAD

~~~
rch
Didn't they get a Summer of Code project going this year?

~~~
jakeogh
Looks like!
[https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/5240726938...](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/5240726938451968/)

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purplezooey
gated was nice, I miss it

