Best Open Source LLM by Task: The Test Protocol for Coding, Research, Writing, and Reasoning
This is an unscored test protocol, not a verdict: no round has been run, so no model is named the best open source LLM here. What the article does give you is a method you can run this week — why aggregate leaderboards mislead, how open weights differ from open source under the OSI's definition, and the full mechanics for coding, research, writing, and reasoning: prompt counts, repetitions, rubric scales, reviewer counts, tie rules, and the run conditions every result must carry.