What do you look for when selecting an open source solution for the task at hand? -

this quite confusing if there wider range of tools fit need - logging in java. in general, you, fellow developers consider so-called litmus test before making selection between available open-source tools/libraries?

i can think developer velocity, code documentation, release frequency, committers' reputation name few. wanted reach out community , more data points.

i apologize if question belongs programmers.stackexchange.com, found there more questions tagged open-source here there.

an active user base sign. if there forum or mailing list, have look, how many people use it, if there recent posts , kind of problems people have. when developing web sites ruby on rails had choose lot of oss tools , active community , answers problems developers sign. people still using , problems solved.