Evaluate Open Source Software 

Open Source software selection starts with the creation of a short-list of open source packages, and the very next step is the evaluation of all candidates.
Read the dogfood label first.Read the dogfood label first.

Open source projects are planned, developed and maintained often using accessible Revision Control systems (e.g. Bazaar, CVS, Git, Mercurial or SVN), Collaboration (blogs, forums, IRC channels, mailing-lists and wikis) and Tracking Systems (e.g. bugzilla, GNATS, OTRS, trac). Despite going through them all can be time-consuming, those are the primary source of information to know more about an open source project.

Read more about evaluate open source software at SOS Open Source.