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Top 23 Unix Open-Source Projects
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1️⃣7️⃣ The Art of Command Line 🖥️ 📌 https://github.com/jlevy/the-art-of-command-line Master the Linux command line with this detailed guide.
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InfluxDB
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fzf fuzzy finder cli
- Project mention: Ventoy: Create Bootable USB Drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI Files | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-10-30
The lot of (partially scary) binary blobs is still an unsolved issue: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/3224
- Project mention: SkiftOS: A hobby OS built from scratch using C/C++ for ARM, x86, and RISC-V | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-09-12
You might enjoy reading the SerentiyOS progress reports
https://serenityos.org/
- Project mention: A collection of modern/faster/saner alternatives to common Unix commands | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-10-22
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The code is very readable and well organized. My only major critique is that there's very little error checking, e.g. there are many calls to snprintf and malloc without checking the result. There is also an unused loop here [1].
As an aside, I don't see any support for parallelization. That's fine for an initial implementation, but web servers do benefit from threading off requests. If you go that route (pun intended) you might consider using something like libuv [2].
[1] https://github.com/ashtonjamesd/lavandula/blob/51d86a284dc7d...
[2] https://github.com/libuv/libuv
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Stream
Stream - Scalable APIs for Chat, Feeds, Moderation, & Video. Stream helps developers build engaging apps that scale to millions with performant and flexible Chat, Feeds, Moderation, and Video APIs and SDKs powered by a global edge network and enterprise-grade infrastructure.
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lynis
Lynis - Security auditing tool for Linux, macOS, and UNIX-based systems. Assists with compliance testing (HIPAA/ISO27001/PCI DSS) and system hardening. Agentless, and installation optional.
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Learn-Vim
Learning Vim and Vimscript doesn't have to be hard. This is the guide that you're looking for 📖
If you want to learn Vim, I highly recommend checking out Learn Vim (the Smart Way). It's a free, beginner-friendly guide that covers everything from the basics to advanced topics and is a great resource for both new and experienced users.
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Checkout the code of this project at roman01la/cljs-static-hermes, which is based off the work done by a member of Hermes team, at tmikov/imgui-react-runtime. If you are interested in driving native window from runtimes like Node or Bun, checkout this project showcasing use of Bun's FFI to interface with GLFW and OpenGL: roman01la/hra.
- Project mention: Compilation of Libraries Supporting CLI Application Development for Node.js | dev.to | 2025-01-20
shelljs is used to run any other command-line programs through the shell.
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test-your-sysadmin-skills
A collection of Linux Sysadmin Test Questions and Answers. Test your knowledge and skills in different fields with these Q/A.
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Sloth
Mac app that shows all open files, directories, sockets, pipes and devices in use by all running processes. Nice GUI for lsof.
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Indeed! The repo includes some v4 elements: https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-repo/tree/Researc...
The provided kernel predates the actual edition by a few months. It is based on https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/Dennis_v..., which matches V4 more than V3.
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ravynos
An open-source OS project that aims to provide source and binary compatibility with macOS® and a similar user experience.
Project mention: New OS aims to provide (some) compatibility with macOS | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-11-20 - Project mention: Elvish – Powerful scripting language and versatile interactive shell | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-04-30
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FluentFTP
An FTP and FTPS client for .NET & .NET Standard, optimized for speed. Provides extensive FTP commands, File uploads/downloads, SSL/TLS connections, Automatic directory listing parsing, File hashing/checksums, File permissions/CHMOD, FTP proxies, FXP support, UTF-8 support, Async/await support, Powershell support and more. Written entirely in C#.
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- Project mention: Crontab-UI: Easy and safe way to manage your crontab file | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-07-12
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SaaSHub
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NOTE: The open source projects on this list are ordered by number of github stars. The number of mentions indicates repo mentiontions in the last 12 Months or since we started tracking (Dec 2020).
Unix discussion
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A Repository with 44 Years of Unix Evolution
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Lightweight Linux-compatible kernel written in Rust
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Run ancient Unix on modern hardware
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runit Linux: Guide to Unix Init Scheme with Service Supervision
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BuildXL Sandboxing
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A collection of modern/faster/saner alternatives to common Unix commands
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Microsoft Releases Historic 6502 Basic
- A note from our sponsor - SaaSHub www.saashub.com | 24 Dec 2025
Index
What are some of the best open-source Unix projects? This list will help you:
| # | Project | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | the-art-of-command-line | 159,212 |
| 2 | fzf | 76,029 |
| 3 | Ventoy | 73,270 |
| 4 | serenity | 32,705 |
| 5 | modern-unix | 32,617 |
| 6 | libuv | 26,354 |
| 7 | PEASS-ng | 18,955 |
| 8 | lynis | 14,964 |
| 9 | Learn-Vim | 14,832 |
| 10 | GLFW | 14,494 |
| 11 | shelljs | 14,378 |
| 12 | test-your-sysadmin-skills | 11,312 |
| 13 | Sloth | 8,768 |
| 14 | dumb-init | 7,221 |
| 15 | unix-history-repo | 7,012 |
| 16 | ravynos | 6,544 |
| 17 | elvish | 6,190 |
| 18 | Linux-Bash-Commands | 3,914 |
| 19 | command-injection-payload-list | 3,564 |
| 20 | FluentFTP | 3,340 |
| 21 | rcm | 3,216 |
| 22 | crontab-ui | 3,179 |
| 23 | fzy | 3,170 |
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