arclightfire writes "We recently wrote an article for The Independent listing the top ten open source projects. It was hard getting the list down to ten, but we did; here's the top ten - Wikipedia, Firefox, Open Office, Bittorrent, MediaWiki, Xvid, phpbb, Outfoxed, dyne:bolic, GIMP, Apache and SourceForge." What would you call your favorite projects? Obviously, this list isn't strictly software projects, so be creative.

Top Ten Open Source Projects

Nice. Most of those I know are good, and I see Linux isn't on there.

PHPBB is on there...

dyne:bolic is a Linux LiveCD.

But not Linux. All that distro stuff doesn't count. I am speaking of the original Linux operating system.

The "original" linux is not linux at all. The "original" linux is called the Linux KERNEL.

Linux refers to the Linux Kernel packaged with applications that make it work, such as Bash (the command line), and other applications. If you want a GUI, you have to use KDE, which is a GUI.

Linux refers to the Linux Kernel packaged with everything else. dyne:bolic is a package of Linux that is suitable to run from a CD, and it doesn't need to use your hard drive.

Linux is any operating system that uses the Linux Kernel.

When I say original, I mean the operating system that Torvalds made with the kernel.

Torvalds only made the Linux Kernel. He combined it with Bash, and some other applications to make the first version of Linux.

Still, he made Linux the operating system.

No, he made the Linux Kernel.

Then who made the Linux operating system? Wikipedia says that Torvalds made Linux.

Torvalds wrote the first version of the Linux Kernel.

He made the idea of Linux.

Who made the operating system?
Anyone who decides to put together the kernel with some other software.

Examples:
Red Hat
SuSE
Mandriva
Debian
CentOS
dyne:bolic
Ubuntu
etc.

So there is no Linux operating system?

All of those quoted above are Linux. There is no "de facto" linux.

All of them are similar though, they just choose to install different things (like for example, Bash instead of another command line, Firefox instead of Mozilla, KDE instead of Gnome, etc.

So there is no original Linux operating system?!

Nope.

There's the Linux Kernel, but the kernel is only one part of a Operating system. When People refer to Linux, the OS, they refer to any one of those distributions.

More about Kernels:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_%28computer_science%29

Then I think this comparison of Linux and Windows has been pure crap, cuz people can just conjure up great features from different distros to beat Windows, when in reality, no single Linux distro is better than Windows, which is "one" operating system.

Firefox is on there woot

Ok, then let's speak in terms of the kernals. The Windows kernal is crap. The Linux kernal isn't. There. Problem solved.

@Mync Yes, i agree that the windows kernal is very buggy, but the linux kernal is not without it's faults.

Let's just put it this way...

I can count the amount of virii capable of penetrating the Linux kernel on two hands... To count the amount of virii capable of penetrating the Windows kernel would require all of my fingers and toes, plus those of the entire Microsoft staff...

I think the OpenSource has had to many succeses in niche markets to make a top 10 list.

lets remember that some of the programs created for unix-like oses are much better than their windows equilvilant such as Apache and IIS as shown on netcraft.
this also goes the other way around.
Scribus vs pagemaker
pagemaker is much better
or
GIMP vs Photoshop

photoshop in my opinion is better
or nvu and dreamweaver
the list goes on and on and on