The market is flooded with closed-source development tools, and the majority of them perform admirably. Open source tools offer a lot of advantages for developers, though.

The unique advantages of open source development tools will be briefly discussed in this article, followed by an analysis of 10 of the most widely used tooling solutions available right now.

Advantages and applications of open source

Your open source development stack will contain a variety of tools, most of which will be determined by the particular programming requirements you have. Specific sorts of tools are needed for various jobs and settings, including source code management, integrated development environments (IDEs), text and source editors, continuous integration (CI), and configuration management.

10 best open source development tools

After looking at the advantages of open source, let's analyse some of the best choices.

1. Git

A distributed code management and version-control system called Git is frequently used with web-based code management tools like GitHub and GitLab. Teams can easily contribute to and collaborate on these platforms because of their interoperability, but a third-party platform is necessary to get the most out of Git. However, others contend that Windows's lack of extensive Git support compares to Linux's, which may deter developers who want to work on Windows.

2. Apache Subversion

Subversion, also referred to as SVN, is another open source alternative for managing code. Though their primary distinctions are in the code repositories, it is extremely comparable to Git: Git by default uses local repositories, whereas Subversion keeps its code on a remote server. However, you may combine SVN with Git by using git-svn, which enables you to work with Subversion repositories using your Git tooling.

3. Eclipse IDE

Eclipse is an open source IDE with a large ecosystem of plugins and extensions. Although it is primarily written in Java and is most frequently used for Java development, it can be used to write code in almost every major programming language. To facilitate customization of extensions of Eclipse, there is a constantly expanding marketplace for plugins.

4. Apache NetBeans

Similar to Eclipse, NetBeans is a Java-based integrated development environment (IDE) that also allows programming in a variety of languages. However, while Eclipse mainly relies on its ecosystem of plugins to assist developers in configuring necessary capabilities, NetBeans concentrates on offering functionality out of the box.

5. EMACS

Midway through the 1980s, GNU project members created the open-source text editor Emacs. It can employ macros to automate intricate key entry patterns, and developers can use it as a full-featured IDE. The time it can take to set up and integrate Emacs into your environment, however, is a drawback of the programme. Others contend that it is simpler than other text editors despite the fact that some users claim the application has a steep learning curve.

6. Vim

Vim is another open source text editor that has been around for many years and has a loyal following. Vim is said to start up a little bit quicker than Emacs, and some people claim it has a less steep learning curve. While some developers argue the reverse, others contend that it takes less time to customise to different software environments. However, if you're searching for a tried-and-true open source development tool for editing code, Vim and Emacs are both fantastic options.

7. Atom

According to GitHub, Atom is a text editor that can be 'hacked,' much like Vim and Emacs, to become a full IDE. GitHub connectivity made simple and built-in support for collaborative coding are just a couple of the capabilities that Atom delivers to meet the demands of modern programmers.

8. Jenkins

A CI server called Jenkins boasts a big ecosystem of plugins. These plugins allow Jenkins to be integrated with a variety of deployment environments and source code management systems. They also provide tools that expand its capabilities, such as email notifications and timestamps that monitor how long certain Jenkins tasks take to finish. Jenkins has cross-platform compatibility and may be used with any current operating system as well as in a Docker container.

9. Chef

With the help of the free and open-source configuration management application Chef, administrators may write 'cookbooks' that outline the optimum setup for their system. Based on your parameters, Chef may also configure that environment for you automatically. Fully supporting Windows, Linux, and macOS, it is written in Ruby.

10. Angular

One of Chef's main rivals is reportedly Ansible, another open source configuration management tool. Developers claim that it performs a little bit better than Chef and that it's generally simpler to set up. Ansible provides less customization choices, though, and isn't necessarily a good fit for complicated settings or specialised configuration management. It has a slightly constrained Windows support.