If you could give 10 years of development time to up to 10 software projects, which would you choose?

I would give it all to BOINC !boinc@sopuli.xyz. I donate time and money to this project on a regular basis, but I wish more people knew about BOINC because projects like this give me faith in humanity. BOINC is a open source tool scientists can use to distribute massive computational workloads to the computers of volunteers. Any scientist can use it without institutional backing or approval, it's an open network operating on the petaflop scale. Users can choose which projects they compute for.
BOINC has been used for medical research, finding new asteroids, and identifying new particles at the Large Hadron Collider. Anybody remember seti@home? Ran on BOINC. BOINC was also used to make the first accurate 3D model of the sars-cov-2 spike protein and even helped lead to the design of a shelf-stable vaccine which was distributed to millions. Plus, the project Minecraft@home used it to find the tallest cactus. BOINC has resulted in hundreds of scientific papers that without BOINC would never have gotten funded due to the cost and complexity of the computation involved.
But there is some serious technical debt and usability issues and BOINC has a long-term trend of declining userbase.

Proton/WINE. I never want to have issues playing games without windows ever again.

Signal: Because I want better messaging, and somehow they already achieved some adoption.
Firefox: If Firefox can somehow make their browser miles ahead of chrome, I think that'd be just plain good for the world.
Gitea/Forgejo: I think Github is another one of these centralized platforms that's pretty ripe for disruption (and gitlab is just not gonna do it).
Lemmy: It'd be amazing to have all the kinks ironed out of lemmy.
Mastodon: Same thing as lemmy. Get social media out of the hands of big companies.
Mail-in-a-box: I want to be able to host my own email if I want to. Proton is great, but isn't email supposed to be an open standard?
Framework: Not exactly a software project, but man I'd love to see them get the time to push out a ton of great different products and really spark the right to repair movement. It's the first device I was actually excited to buy.
Linux Mint: I don't use mint, but it seems like one of the most user friendly distros. I would love for them to make everything perfect and create a seamless experience (and really make a year of the linux desktop). I also think it would be great to just have one clear frontrunner for new users.
Coreboot: Make firmware open source? Yes please.
Truly Open Source LLM: I really don't want this tech to be in just the hands of just a big company. I'd love for there to be an LLM that has not only it's weights open, but the full dataset, training methods and everything open.
I think when you just get 10 years of dev time, you get an opportunity to push a project ahead of all it's competitors. It is kind of interesting to get to pick and choose a project to be the frontrunner (even if they aren't currently).
- I think signal is really only missing usernames (which should come soon) as far as features are concerned. And sadly, I don't think it will change much. I think signals problem is not really feature wise but adoption wise.
  Signal needs more marketing. It needs a bigger user base. And I honestly don't know how to change that. Maybe some really top notch marketing strategy, with beautiful diagrams and text of some made up scenarios explaining the perils of using Instagram and whatsapp..
  
  I think you're right?
  I also think they're on the right track (and a better track than apps like telegram - lots of negative social baggage). They really have gotten much farther than any other privacy focused apps.
  I don't know, maybe I have a more optimistic view of the situation. It feel like they're knocking on the door of going fully mainstream.

For me it would be:
Helix: Great editor but needs a lot of development
Lemmy: 3rd party frontends would have a hard time to catch up with changes, but it's worth it anyway
GNU: they could update some stuff and also hurd kernel looks really interesting
Arch Linux: maybe they would improve wiki or write some software to make life easier on arch
.NET: I know that microsoft bad but I really like .NET, and it's devs are doing really nice stuff. And it's FOSS
LibreOffice: they could integrate LLMs into their apps maybe
Wayland: why not?
Firefox: maybe they will improve performance and catch up with some css features
Hyprland: it's working fine at it's current state, but it always can be better
Nouveau: it would be a nice alternative to proprietary nvidia drivers
- What about Mono? Looks like most of the people working on .NET are working out of Redmond at Microsoft.
- I know microsoft bad
  I second that, big corp bad

Kubernetes so that it can peak already and then die off.
Disclaimer - I make a living on k8s based solutions and I’m over the stupid complexity for little benefit. It’s like expecting everyone to be a “10x” engineer or some shit when reality is that most of us are just over here sniffing glue.

If I’m thinking about projects that could benefit the most from an exponential increase in active developers:
Wine/Proton (could have a fantastic windows runtime on every *nix platform)
ReactOS (lot of potential for a windows 7/10 upgrade path)
Mozilla Firefox (would help with API parity with chromium)
GIMP (but only if they agree to change the stupid name)
The rest goes to package managers and other lower-level projects that don’t get enough of a spotlight, maybe Brew or Curl or something.
- API parity for Firefox meaning, implement Chrome's proprietary crap, or are they actually lagging on web standards? Last time I checked was admittedly a while ago but I thought ff was the leader for standards compliance.
  
  There are some useful APIs that Firefox is missing compared to Chromium, like Web Share or Web Bluetooth: https://caniuse.com/?compare=chrome+117,firefox+117&compareCats=CSS,HTML5,JS,JS%20API
- ReactOS is one I haven't heard about in quite a few years. That one would be really cool to see get a lot more dev time.

Some sort of new standarized runtime that would replace the clasterfuck of HTML, http, js and CSS. All privacy oriented, secure and open source.
- That would be nice. Maybe it could integrate with WASM
- Adoption is a feature you can't design.

An actually really good Linux CAD program.
- Yes please! While we're at it, non subscription beginner friendly cad program

Coreboot, NixOS, Firefox, Lemmy, Briar, Gemini, Calibre, Godot, MIRI (though admittedly that one is maybe less of a 'software project per se, so if that doesn't count i'll say 100 Rabbits just cause i think their stuff is neat) and i think i'll take the last decade for my own personal project(s).

(I explain and link to the ones that I don't think everyone here would know about)
Lemmy
ActivityPub
Firefox (Chromium should go the way of IE)
Godot
WINE
Cinnamon (the desktop environment developed for Linux Mint, so we can get Wayland support)
Box86/Box64
Darling (macOS compatibility layer for Linux, plans to support running iOS apps when running on on ARM machines in the future, I want this primarily for iOS preservation purposes)
Xemu (Original Xbox emulator, OG Xboxes are some of the most failure prone consoles and a game I want to play still has serious issues)
Haiku (mostly for really nerdy shits and giggles honestly, but there's a part of me that thinks it could be a better consumer grade FOSS OS than GNU/Linux if it were more developed and had any actual software support. As it stands, like it's proprietary predecessor BeOS, it's just a toy. It's no less stupid than investing your theoretical time in Hurd IMO)
- Re: haiku what do you find so promising about it? I've played around with it. I imagine it isn't just the desktop experience?
  
  To be clear, "part of me" is really doing a lot of work here.
  Haiku feels more "rigid." GNU/Linux is ultimately, a pile of parts instead of a cohesive whole, and it shows in the user experience even in distros made with user friendliness in mind. GNU/Linux's modularity is a good thing for many uses, but it also makes GNU/Linux feel incoherent to use at times and just means the Linux ecosystem will always be fragmented. FreeBSD has the rigidity, but isn't developed with average end users in mind and is particularly unusable as a gaming OS. Currently Haiku isn't really usable for much of anything, but Haiku's vision of a cohesive open source OS that is designed with a laser focus on personal computing users makes sense and I could see being recommended over Linux if it were achieved (though, I don't believe Haiku in the real world where we can't just fast forward development ten years can achieve this.)
- Thanks for introducing me to Darling.
- Is chromium bad by itself or is it bad because Google controls it? Because then maybe we should get chromium out of Google's control instead?

AOSP(Android open source project)
Linux
designing one low level emulator
making my own game engine
reverse engineering and source code recovery of my childhood games.
writing firmware for my personal laptop and phone so, it runs on fully on open source code.
writing my own compiler and JIT runtime.
making my own Standard C Lib.
write my own minimal Desktop environment based on wayland without using graphics library like QT and GTK.
i also want to write my own hypervisor.

Linux
Risc-V (I know it's not software project, but i have big hopes for it)
OpenStreetMap
Wayland
Matrix
Fediverse
i2p for censorship-resistant and privacy-respecting network
KDE so we can have plasma on our risc-v FOSS phones
Coreboot
NixOS it's also on mobile

Whatever underfunded, underappreciated project this xkcd is referring to: https://xkcd.com/2347
Imagemagick? GNU privacy guard? OpenSSL?
- The alt text mentions ImageMagick

Matrix, its clients, and Revolt. I'm sick of there not being a featureful Discord alternative the most.
- They already collected tens of millions of venture capital funding for an inefficient reinvention of XMPP. Can we boost XMPP development instead? We don't need another corporate replacement for an existing internet standard.
  
  I still can't wrap my head around how smoothly Matrix took over the FOSS IM space while offering nothing new

I'd use it to kill platforms.
HTML5 is a fine executable format. Electron sucks because it bundles a browser with each webpage. The technical hurdles are smaller than the mountain of usability issues we'll have to sand down, to make "web apps" Just Work. Native apps will always be better, but we've accidentally done a Java with write-once-run-everywhere, and it's ridiculous how poorly we've used that.
On the back end, we have nearly-invisible translation layers like WINE and fairly efficient emulators like BOCHS, so there's no reason Windows apps shouldn't run on everything. x86, ARM, RISC-V, whatever.
SPIR-V should already let you treat the GPU like a zillion-core CPU. Nvidia's CUDA bullshit has gone on too long.
And then drop in some not-quite-emulators for consoles, since they're just PCs anyway. End the charade.

I've got a few that are similar to other posts in here, but what I'd really like is an open source game similar to The Sims. Specifically, one that tries to achieve the goals of Sims 3.
Sims 3 could have been an amazing game, but EA half-assed it making mediocre content and not fixing bugs.
If the game was open source, all those bugs would be fixed, the game would be optimized, and it would still be relevant today. But while open source is great for maintaining and improving big software projects, it's not good for creating them in the first place. So that's where I'd put ten years of development - creating an open source life simulation game.
- Has anyone tried to build an open source sims?
  We're working on open source 2009 runescape revisions. https://2009scape.org and !2009scape@kbin.social
  Other eras discussed in !runescape@lemmy.ml
  
  Not to my knowledge, but I've been away from gaming for a while.

Linux kernel
OpenBSD
Gnu Hurd
Debian
Tor
Fdroid
SteamOS
Vulkan / DXVK
Wayland
Firefox

The next four Zeldas, the next Metroid, the next Mario, the next Smash Bros, the next three Elder Scrolls
- How about giving all 100 years to GameFreak so they can try to make a good Pokémon game?
  
  I wouldn't roll the dice on those 100 years like that
- You better bring wavedashing back and buff Jigglypuff
  
  I'm not working on it

MorphOS (as someone who is a fan of Amiga)
SuperTux Advance (much better than plain old SuperTux in my opinion)
Even though I'll probably never end up even starting it, I'd love to see my idea for an open source clone of Vib Ribbon for PC to happen (game name under debate)
Krosmaga (I love this card game and would love to see new cards or even new deity classes to play as like Pandawa or Osamados)
Steam Proton (just to see a much higher percentage of Steam games work on Linux/SteamOS if possible)

KDE Project
Wayland
Open source drivers (especially Nvidia)
Lemmy
Mastadon
Scribus
Nextcloud
Firefox
Tutanota suite
Wine

All of it to the next generation of Pokemon games
I just want to see how GameFreak manages to fuck it up even with all the development time they could possibly ever need
- I cant believe i am saying this, but i will give GF the smallest amount of a pass possible in that if they could develop a game on their schedule (while it probably would still have issues) it would probably be a much more complete and game than we have seen in a while.
  And the reason for that is because of the demands and standards on GF from Nintendo/The Pokemon Company would be alleviated by significantly more development time.
  Pokemon the brand is so fucking massive it is almost hard to comprehend. And that is because in part of how well synergized the different products are marketed and released. And right there is why it is impossible for GF to ask for a game to be delayed if they wanted to in order to create more assets (like 3D sprites) or do QA.
  A delay in the game releasing means they have to slow the production of cards, tv shows, movies, toys, promotions, all of the rest of the products that are based on the new game’s pokemon or other features.
  The entire brand pretty much has to halt. Why do that when they know people will still by a poorly optimized and game with less features than the previous entry (plus DLC) and then still get hyped to also buy cards and toys and everything else?

I'm going to start with a couple projects that don't already exist.
Something like the AUR but for non executable content like movies or books. I'm imagining something like;
(program name) -m (medium, eg. Book, magazine, article (or "print" for any text document) Show, Movie (or video for any video document) and so on) (search term)
A project that allows a full installed-in-place Linux installation with grub and all, no USB drive required. If that's a two stage thing where it partitions a section of the drive then installs an installer there, then reboots to that installer, or some other thing doesn't matter. No, not whatever Ubuntu used to do, I mean a proper installation.
A program that tricks lan games into playing in side by side couch coop. I've figured out a method for doing this using multiseat on swayWM but it's pretty complicated and touchy.
An open source car computer software. Not for the infotainment.
An open source printer that works.
A liquid democracy voting system
Things that actually exist:
Minetest, specifically creating tools to help existing Minecraft mods be ported over.
GIMP
IPFS, try to get it in use in more places by default (AUR seems promising?)
Wine
- A project that allows a full installed-in-place Linux installation with grub and all, no USB drive required.
  This could be possible today. A combination of PXE booting and FAI would be enough. I think you'd just need to work out a way for PXE to work over the public Internet. Otherwise you'd need to have the image downloaded already and have it available via web server to be accessible from the booting machine. Years ago I used iPXE and it was really nice. Haven't used it in a loooong time.
  Also, Talos is doing some really interesting install processes as well. Basically you boot a small (~80mb) image, it exposes a network port, and you send it a machine configuration manifest. It all runs in memory until the configuration instructions are sent, then it installs. There isn't even an option to install it locally because local auth is not allowed and ssh is not included. You must do it over the network. Talos is all kubernetes so might not be what you're looking for but it's an interesting approach.

llama.cpp
Matrix chat
the Fediverse
and some self-hosting framework
(and maybe just for shits and giggles to buttplug.io just to see what amazing thing this will become)

Dwarf Fortress, and then the other nine I'd have to think about.
- I'd add Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead to go along with DF. Also DFHack.
  
  Never really used DFHack, honestly, but I've heard only good things about CDDA

Honestly, there's a lot of great answers in this thread. Personally, I'd love to see a FOSS ttrpg manager. Talking a complete library of monsters, races, classes, etc., along with an optimized pipeline for homebrewed stuff. Tools for encounter, battlemap, NPC and campaign flow creation.
Closest thing is 5e Companion App but it doesn't have a PC client, isn't FOSS, has a lot of weird limitations and UX/UI issues (like multiclassing could be simpler, and its really frustrating that you can't level down a character after all the work you did, forcing you to do it all over again just to change classes and spells). Also DnD next but getting source books for a whole player session is expensive.
- Foundry is probably the closest I've seen, considering the non-premium modules are FOSS. Granted, I play Pathfinder (OGL/ORC license), not DnD, so I dunno if Wizards locks their stuff down more to promote using their own services.
  
  Hm, interesting, I'll take a proper look tomorrow. I'm expecting that foundry only has srd available. That's another annoying thing.

Baldur's Gate 4 through 13.

Lemmy, Firefox, Proton/wine, KDE, GNOME, Wayland

Nextcloud and nc integration apps. The integration to android ls so much further behind the windows desktop / web experience, using nc in a browser on android is often better than the app (due to lack of features, not because of bugs those are fine in my experiance)

figure out a way to slam all 100 years into cybersyn related projects. kill pinochet with a mech made out of bakelite and woodgrain paneling

Mesa
Noveau
Wine
Proton
RedoxOS
GNU Hurd
KDE Plasma
Kdenlive
LibreOffice
Nushell
Edit: There are even more projects that need some development like Linux, Wayland and some BSDs

Linux
Obviously
Wayland
So we can finally say goodnight to X
XFCE
For low-end devices and people who don't like bloat, we can still have a modern desktop.
Nouveau / NVK
Nvidia are currently dominant, so new users probably have Nvidia GPUs.
Open-source AMDGPU stack.
Why not? I'm only five items in.
Blender
I want fast fluid simulations and RTGI in eevee.

- Linux mint is pretty basic to use if I'm being honest

Godot Engine
OnlyOffice
Appflowy
Affine.pro
Debian
Forgejo/Gittea
Blender
Linux Mint
Postgresql

Blender, FreeCAD and Godot! Amazing pieces of software, that I can't wait to see what develop into.

Linux kernel, Gnome, KDE, Wayland, box64/86, wine.
- I'm similar except cinnamon

Whatever enables me to boot different OSs from my phone or arm devices including dual booting and booting from external storage without missing drivers

I'd throw all the development time into EMACS. It's a great operating system, but lacks a good text editor.

Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch, Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu Touch.
- Because it's a joke, i love Ubuntu Touch but i still prefer AOSP.

Can I give two projects 50 years each?
- If one of those is Star Citizen, it may actually release in our lifetime
- That would be very unpredictable but also fun
  
  Or go with a self driving car project as that's consistently '10 years away'.
  
  Then I'll go Google bard and chat gpt3. Having both of those being massively advanced could have some really interesting consequences.

Linux, Wayland, Firefox, kde, proton, Pipewire.
Nobara, kden live, free cad, only office.

DarkTable
GIMP
KDE
Kdenlive

Proton wrapper Gadot or similar Cura slicer Linux mint Kenshi 2 New stalker AMD Drivers

Firefly iii
Nextcloud
And 8 others

10 years of development is insane, and I feel like some projects will be limited by the hardware and other software that isn't being updated. You'd have to spread out the 10 amongst projects that can help each other.
Would this also depend on who is currently working on it, or would the project also get a stable number of developers working full time?

GNOME Calendar, Lemmy, Thunderbird, Firefox

A game engine designed around efficiency so that developers can focus on mechanics, graphics, etc
Edit: alternatively a reverse engineering AI which can reverse engineer anything from isa to video games and more

A CUDA-accelerated JPEG-XL library
An AMF-accelerated JPEG-XL library
A QSV-accelerated JPEG-XL library (can you tell I hate AVIF and HEIC?)
Godot
Godette
5 projects developing quantum-proof cryptography
- Doesn't quantum proof cryptography already exist?
  
  Well yeah but cryptography needs 2 things more than anything: variety and research. Variety so you can quickly switch ciphers if some vulnerability comes up, and research to publish those vulnerabilities so that bad actors aren't the only people who know about them.

Jellyfin
Proton (mail/etc.)
Cinnamon DE
Actual Budget
A project that lets you access your financial data from all your US banks programmatically
Tandoor
Immich
A crypto that combines XNO and XMR
Rhasspy
Home Assistant

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, x10

TLS Notary
- TLSNotary.org its a way of proving the result of a tls session to someone else. So for example you could prove your bank balance to someone else without giving them your login credentials or you could prove you received a DM from someone.

Sounds too impractical 😂