back to article SourceForge: Let's hold hands in a post-CodePlex world

SourceForge wants tighter ties with other code repositories following Microsoft’s decision to shutter CodePlex. President Logan Abbott has said he’ll seek tighter integration between SourceForge’s tools and those of others – including giant rival GitHub. Abbot was speaking after Microsoft announced the closure of its open- …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    The changes are designed to re-establish devs’ trust in SourceForge.

    Yeah, good luck with that ...

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      It's that trust thing. So easy to lose, so difficult to rebuild.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sourceforge...

    ...is that the site that dishes free malware with every download?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sourceforge...

      Yep, that't the one. Your project may be associated with distributing malware...

      It's the same one that has the horrible confusing web interface. Surely it too needs taking behind the shed and shooting too..

      GitHub/Bitbucket are all you need in reality. (BitBucket allows private closed source for free and has JIRA and Build pipelines, Github doesn't)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sourceforge...

      Was,

      Luckily it didn't work and the new owner killed that. Rebuilding trust is a long, long effort, though.

      Still wonder, anyway, how many people who loather - rightly - MS monopoly, are fully ready to accept other monopolies like Google or GitHub.

      I believe it's a good thing competition is active in this sector too. Especially since SourceForge wasn't built on a single VCS backend. Today Git is still the hot one, but in a few years there could be a new fashionable toy...

      1. AdamWill

        Re: Sourceforge...

        "Still wonder, anyway, how many people who loather - rightly - MS monopoly, are fully ready to accept other monopolies like Google or GitHub."

        GitHub is a particularly delicious irony, given where git came from in the first place.

        I'm always saddened and amazed to find out how many people don't know this, though.

        (If you're one of them: look up "Bitkeeper".)

    3. loganabbott

      Re: Sourceforge...

      SourceForge was bundling installers with certain projects in 2015 (before my company acquired SourceForge). The first thing we did upon acquiring SourceForge in 2016 was eliminated all bundled installers immediately. After that we instituted malware scans on all projects and https downloads to ensure the downloads were secure.

      Some more info here: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under-new-management-sourceforge-moves-to-put-badness-in-past/

      and a Reddit AMA I did here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/

      1. Justin Clift

        Re: Sourceforge...

        > before my company acquired SourceForge

        Shortly after that, your company sent a "Fair processing notice - Data protection Act 1998" to its users (including an old account of mine).

        At the end of that, it included this text:

        You can ask us to remove all your account data, stop processing your personal data and to stop contacting you for marketing purposes at any time.

        * For SourceForge.net, please contact us at sfnet_ops@slashdotmedia.com

        * For Slashdot, please contact us at privacy@slashdot.org

        * For FreeCode, please contact us at freecode-privacy@slashdotmedia.com

        * For SlashdotMedia.com, please contact us at sfnet_ops@slashdotmedia.com

        As directed there, several times I emailed "sfnet_ops@slashdotmedia.com". Not once, ever has anyone responded.

        So, frankly... (at least this far) your company doesn't seem any better than the previous owner.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Business model

    Nothing in life is free - someone has to pay for the repo. There are three business models:

    1. It is free for users, who are not customers, but they are the product being sold. Sourceforge (and Facebook etc.)

    2. A proportion of users pay for it for it, with a limited, free version to hook paying customers into it. GitHub funds itself through its premium repo services?

    3. As an advertising strategy, in the same way that companies sponsor sports teams and charity events. Unfortunately there is no kudos from hosting code repos any more, so these are dying. Google code, Codeplex

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gitlab

    Nobody mentioned gitlab yet - if you don't trust any of the big boys you can host it yourself. And there's still trac, redmine etc.

    Given that there are also multiple source control backends (git, svn, hg) the ecosystem seems pretty healthy to me.

    Sourceforge is the Altavista of this party: an early trailblazer but one whose time has long since been and gone. It clings on because some projects still use it for mailing lists (which github doesn't provide).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @AC

      "Nobody mentioned gitlab yet"

      I think there's a very good reason for that.

      It's still a mind blow for me: making backups and then not even bother yourself to check if anything happened at all? Totally inexcusable.

      1. Rainer

        Re: @AC

        Well, you can run on-premise if you don't trust them and think you're better.

        We do.

        Though, you can also run github on premise, if you want.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Gitlab

      GitLab is ok, but it's a bit of a PITA to manage and seems to have a bad case of creeping featureitis.

      For people wanting a GitHub-like web interface, git backend, and low resource usage, Gitea (forked from Gogs) is probably a better choice: https://gitea.io

  5. nuxnix

    Assembla?

    I've been using Assembla for years. Lots of dev team tools inc multiple repo types including git. It is free for Open Source projects, Paid for private ones. Some quirks but generally no isssues whatsoever. No connection with them. Just another alternative to consider.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Assembla?

      Seems like a reasonable solution. Pity it's not OSS, but it still might suit some.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Code hosting?

    If you want code hosting without the corporate drama...

    https://savannah.nongnu.org/

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