back to article Microsoft taking CodePlex behind the shed and shooting it by Christmas

Redmond's open source code repository CodePlex is to close on December 15, 2017 and Microsoft is advising users to move their stuff over to GitHub. The writing has been on the wall for CodePlex since early 2015, when Microsoft started its own projects on rival GitHub's servers. Since then, Redmond reports that interest in its …

  1. Zmodem

    good job all the good programs are still on sourceforge

    1. stephanh

      ...together with some unsolicited adware.

      https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/28/sourceforge_accused_of_shackling_gimp_in_kinky_adware/

  2. Doug 3

    only one comment after being posted for hours

    Microsoft and open source mix together like oil and water. They bash open source at every chance and they try to show they are open source friendly. So their users and developers either hate and despise open source or they under stand what open source really is and use what the rest of the world does.

    I guess leaving the CodePlex wasteland showing for all the world to see was finally decided to be not a good idea. Echo!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: only one comment after being posted for hours

      I dont think they're against open source per se. Id say they're against free licensing models. I.e. GPL.

      The idea that someone could take their code and do what they like with it probably shakes them to the core.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: only one comment after being posted for hours

      Doug, before commenting, check your facts, otherwise you just look plain stupid.

      http://www.networkworld.com/article/3120774/open-source-tools/microsoft-s-the-top-open-source-contributor-on-github.html

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    Same old MS 3es

    Embrace, extend, extinguish.

    1. a_yank_lurker

      Re: Same old MS 3es

      Except the 3es are beginning to hit da Slurp more often than not. It seems like a lot of their efforts are being extinguished.

  4. Mage Silver badge
    Coat

    Microsoft has decided that there's no point with the hassle of running a competitor that's not popular

    When it generates no money. Win10 isn't popular in terms of "liked", but unlike codeplex it's unavoidable.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      @Mage

      "Win10 isn't popular in terms of "liked", but unlike codeplex it's unavoidable."

      I'm still running Windows 7, so how did that happen?

      And when support for Windows 7 eventually drops I can move to Linux, BSD, or even get myself an Apple. So, uhm, unavoidable how?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @Mage

        Agreed.

        You can live a very productive and fruitful life without needing to use

        Microsoft and any MS owned product such as Skype

        Google/Alphabet

        Any social Media Site

        Like when you are offered an illegal drug, just say NO to the above companies and products.

        I am now in my 6th month of being free from Windows.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: @Mage

          Some of them won't take no for an answer, and many business-critical applications ONLY run on Windows. Especially expensive, irreplaceable custom jobs.

          1. Roo
            Windows

            Re: @Mage

            "and many business-critical applications ONLY run on Windows."

            In my experience the vast majority of businesses don't need Windows only "business-critical" apps.

            Case in point I know of one site that invested *lots* of money into writing and maintaining what was essentially a revision control system using Oracle to store the content and Windows front end to go with it. RCS, CVS, SVN, Mercurial and GIT (to name a few) would all have done the same job a lot better for $0 and would have run on a Windows box just the same, but they weren't even considered because the folks in question never looked beyond Oracle & Microsoft...

            At another site they had a huge cross-platform library - that they traditionally built under Windows and Linux (to support both platforms), but having had Visual Studio fall over repeatedly trying to build an urgent bug-fix release on a Windows box they ended up moving the Windows build to run under WINE on Linux which has now become the default mode of building simply because it's quicker and more reliable. Not saying that WINE is good for everyone - but it works well for those guys...

            Windows isn't special anymore, it's just another piece of legacy software.

            1. Charles 9

              Re: @Mage

              "Windows isn't special anymore, it's just another piece of legacy software."

              Which is EXACTLY the problem. Think of the lathe that is controlled by an ISA card which means the computer that controls it MUST run Windows XP (because Vista dropped support for the ISA bus). It had been bought just a few years back and is designed to run for decades (thus it's being amortized for that long).

              Meanwhile, I've seen plenty of custom-built apps from companies that no longer exist, yet they can't afford to have a new version made, so they're forced to keep spare parts and backups handy because if that software goes, so do they. Yes, it's living on the razor's edge, but that's just how some people are forced to live.

              1. Roo
                Windows

                Re: @Mage

                "Which is EXACTLY the problem."

                Nah, it's a normal part of evolution...

                "Think of the lathe that is controlled by an ISA card which means the computer that controls it MUST run Windows XP (because Vista dropped support for the ISA bus). It had been bought just a few years back and is designed to run for decades (thus it's being amortized for that long)."

                Yeah I get that plant lives for a long time...

                However, I think it's fair to say there is very little evidence to support the idea that piece of PC hardware & software will survive *and* be vendor supported for more than a decade... So why would you install some plant with a multi-decade lifespan with Wintel control system that you can't reasonably expect to be supported (or replaced) for several decades ?

                At the end of the day ISA cards are not rocket science, neither are the drivers that run them. A moderately clued up EE grad could port the control HW & SW across to something more contemporary, or you could track down middle aged PC geeks fed up of playing guess the required heap size today with JVMs...

                "Yes, it's living on the razor's edge, but that's just how some people are forced to live."

                Open Source has been catering for those folks for a very long time in lieu of helpful/existing vendors.

                1. Charles 9

                  Re: @Mage

                  "At the end of the day ISA cards are not rocket science, neither are the drivers that run them. A moderately clued up EE grad could port the control HW & SW across to something more contemporary, or you could track down middle aged PC geeks fed up of playing guess the required heap size today with JVMs..."

                  Not necessarily without ticking off the vendor and/or breaking contracts...

                  1. Roo
                    Windows

                    Re: @Mage

                    "Not necessarily without ticking off the vendor and/or breaking contracts..."

                    That probably wouldn't matter to a company living on the "razors edge" as it was put. Besides if there were decent sums involved the chances are a savvy outfit could negotiate a licensing deal with the vendor (or current rights holder). Some income is better than none from the vendor's PoV.

                    It still doesn't change the fact that they were mugs to buy a bit of plant that would outlast it's irreplaceable control system by several decades...

                    I note that the usual trio of are downvoting a suggestion to do a bit of reverse-engineering or leverage Open Source when the vendor solution amounts to FOAD. I would hate to be one of their customers. :)

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @Mage

          "I am now in my 6th month of being free from Windows"

          Well done. Ive been MS free for 15 years.

          I live a normal life still...the only thing outside the ordinary is the huge bags of cash I make support non-microsoft stuff.

          When I finally walked into the light I stopped having to compete with the MCSE conveyor belt. I began learning things that were previously expensive to learn due the requirement of proprietary hardware or licenses.

          I am FREE!

          Id hug Stallman for his contribution to free software but he looks like he needs a bath first.

          He was also great innthe Harry Potter movies as Hagred.

      2. Hans 1
        Holmes

        Re: @Mage

        >So, uhm, unavoidable how?

        Go tell Joe Punter, he dunno how to create a usb stick with Linux/FreeBSD and install it onto his computer ... Joe Punter has the choice between Windows, ChromeOS, and macOS ... chromeOS needs internet access, Apple's are premium and come with soldered RAM and SSD and Windows sucks, so PC sales plummet, simples.

      3. Updraft102

        Re: @Mage

        Don't forget Windows 8.1... it's good for another 3 years after Windows 7 rides into the sunset, and with aftermarket tools like Classic Shell, Old New Explorer, etc., you might be surprised at how decent the UI can be. Yes, Metro/Modern is horrible, but it's easily banished. Thanks to Microsoft's bizarre Jekyll and Hyde UI, it's relatively simple to wall off the "app" half and live in the Win32 half. Most of the tools you need for that are part of Classic Shell, while Old New Explorer will get rid of the ribbon in File Explorer and replace it with the Win 7 style UI. If you want the Aero themes with transparency, themes that bring that back are available too.

        Once you've done all this, you get an OS that looks and acts a lot more like Windows 7 than 10 does, without the forced updates, telemetry you can't turn off, constant rapid-fire "feature" updates that contribute to significant code churn (and that "always in beta" feel that Windows 10 users have come to despise), ads, unwanted app installations, unwanted program uninstallations, Cortana, unwanted changes of your settings back to the ones that Microsoft wants rather than what you want... everything people hate about 10, essentially.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another repository goes...

    And in 10y, the flavour of the week will no longer be github and we move again.

    1. Dwarf

      Re: Another repository goes...

      Yea, its called technology evolution.

  6. PeteA
    Pint

    Makes sense

    Makes plenty of sense to me. As a developer, I like git and appreciate the "added value" from github et.al. In practice, CodePlex has long been abandoned for active development, so I would only look there for something old and obscure. As Microsoft, what do they gain from maintaining a product that's been effectively abandoned by end-users? Given that they've (1) given plenty of notice, (2) are providing migration assistance [how effective remains to be seen...] and (3) will be providing a "sensible" archive of the site available I'm not personally unhappy with something that feels like a pretty sensible decision.

  7. Howard Hanek
    Linux

    The Microsoft Politburo Says.........

    .....your new living accommodations include a herd of reindeer, a goose down parka and three pairs of felt boots to use in Siberia.

  8. doug_bostrom

    A more positive way of expressing it: "We've also seen a substantial increase in decreased usage as of this writing."

    Where's the good old MS?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anything new coming out of Microsoft's 'innovation' cauldron usually fails...

    Silverlight, So.cl, the 'Metro' interface', CodePlex.

    Which is why Microsoft inevitably chooses to acquire other businesses and absorb their true innovation. It's easier that way.

  10. phands

    M$ fails again....excellent

    Yet another attempt to copy and displace a perfectly good Open Source mechanism fails.

    When will the m$ dinosaur finally admit that windoze, and any ecosystem built on it, is the past? Tghis is now totally obvious in mobile, but even the desktop is done, as w10 is an appalling mess.

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