This is a list of Unicorn Open Source projects (according to my definition, super-awesome open source projects that have had a huge impact in their respective industries and are still actively maintained).
Note: This list is based on the opinions & perspectives of a wide audience-base of one: me. I am still yet to get familiar with many open source projects and I might have missed a few. I am sorry if your favorite project isn't included. Send me a pull request anyway.
You have most probably benefited from these projects, directly or indirectly. If you have some time to spare, consider giving back to these folks.
Name with link - Description
- Audacity - Digital audio editor and recording application
- Blender - 3D graphics software used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games
- GCC - The standard compiler used by many modern Unix-like computer operating systems
- Git - The most widely adopted version control system for software development
- GIMP - Raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, cropping, photo-montages, converting between different image formats, and more specialized tasks
- Linux Kernel - The most widely used operating system kernel
- LibreOffice - The default office suite of most popular Linux distributions
- OpenStreetMap - A collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world
- PostgreSQL - An object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) with an emphasis on extensibility and standards-compliance
- Apache Software Foundation - Oversees nearly 150 leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server
- Eclipse Foundation - Working to build a development platform consisting of the frameworks, tools and run-times needed for "building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle."
- GNOME Project - GNOME desktop environment + the software platform upon what it is based
- GNU Project - Operating system composed wholly of free software
- KDE - An umbrella project for many standalone applications and smaller projects that are based on KDE technology
- LLVM Compiler Infrastructure Project - An umbrella project that includes a variety of other compiler and low-level tool technologies
- Mozilla Project - In addition to the Firefox browser, Mozilla also produces Thunderbird, Firefox Mobile, the Firefox OS mobile operating system, the bug tracking system Bugzilla and a number of other projects
- Wikimedia Foundation - Growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual, educational content
- Clojure - General-purpose programming language with an emphasis on functional programming
- Haskell - Standardized, general-purpose purely functional programming language, with non-strict semantics and strong static typing
- Python - A widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language
- R - A programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics
- Ruby - A dynamic, reflective, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language
- Scala - A programming language for general software applications with full support for functional programming and a very strong static type system
- Django - Written in Python and follows the model–view–controller (MVC) architectural pattern
- Ruby on Rails - A model–view–controller (MVC) framework, providing default structures for a database, a web service, web pages and written in Ruby
- CentOS - A Linux distribution that attempts to provide a free, enterprise-class, community-supported computing platform which aims to be functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
- Debian - One of the most popular distributions for personal computers and network servers, and has been used as a base for several other Linux distributions
- Fedora - An operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat
- FreeBSD - FreeBSD maintains a complete operating system, i.e. the project delivers kernel, device drivers, userland utilities and documentation
- OpenBSD - As well as the operating system, the OpenBSD Project has produced portable versions of numerous subsystems, most notably PF, OpenSSH and OpenNTPD
- Ubuntu - A Debian-based Linux operating system, with Unity as its default desktop environment