After releasing a new free open source application, I would like to present it to as many people as possible.
What are web sites (directories) which one should use to present free open source applications?
Looking for a list of sites like Freshmeat, Sourceforge, ...
Generally speaking you actually want to reach out to your target audience as opposed to listing on a directory that users may, or may not stumble upon.
I'd recommend seeking out the user groups, mailing lists, social media pages (Crackbook et al) to publicise your project.
Otherwise Freshmeat is kind of the defacto news stream for open source releases. That said there are plenty of projects which don't get mentioned in freshmeat at all.
If you just had to pick one in the spring of 2011, your best bet would be github as it seems to have the most mindshare. Moreover, in the days of this whole internet thing, you can easily host it one place and promote things across the board.
I'd generally argue for:
a) Pick the best source control/issue tracking/wiki option you can find for your tools and your workflow. Software is hard enough, real jobs suck enough, no reason to use bad, old tools to make stuff.
b) Second, pick where it makes sense. For example, if it was a .NET project you almost certainly at least want a codeplex presence as that is where people look first for .NET OSS. If you are writing a ruby mixin, maybe rubyforge is your huckaberry.
c) Market the project wherever it makes sense. Absolutely no reason not to spread across social media these days -- it is pretty easy and it makes sense to have the flag everywhere.
But, end of the day, if you are making good, useful software that people need, they will find you in most cases.
if you're going to release a web based application like an e-commerce, CMS or blog of sorts, you could try to get it on opensource cms, http://www.opensourcecms.com/ i love to use this site to quickly showcase forum and ecommerce alternatives :)
take care with the ratings though , they are not really impartial.
