SourceForge

URL	http://sourceforge.net/ or http://sf.net/
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	collaborative revision control and software development management system
Registration	Optional (required for creating and joining projects)
Owner	SourceForge, Inc. (Formerly VA Software)
Created by	VA Software
Launched	November 1999
Alexa rank	196 (August 2009[update])[1]
Current status	Active

SourceForge is a web-based source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. The website is operated by SourceForge, Inc. (formerly VA Software) and runs a version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition, forked from the last open-source version available. As of February 2009^[update], the SourceForge repository hosts more than 230,000 projects and more than 2 million registered users,^[2] although not all are active. The domain sourceforge.net attracted at least 33 million visitors by August 2009 according to a Compete.com survey.^[3]

SourceForge offers free access to hosting and tools for developers of free / open source software, competing with other providers such as RubyForge, Tigris.org, BountySource, Launchpad, BerliOS, JavaForge and GNU Savannah.

[edit] Features

Project developers have access to centralized storage and tools for managing projects, although it is best known for providing revision control systems such as CVS, SVN, Git and Mercurial.^[4] Major features (amongst others) include project wikis, metrics and analysis, access to a MySQL database, and unique sub-domain URLs (such as http://project-name.sourceforge.net).

The vast number of users at SourceForge.net (over 2,000,000 as of 2009 ^[5]) exposes prominent projects to a variety of developers, and can create a positive feedback loop. As a project's activity rises, SourceForge.net's internal ranking system makes it more visible to other developers who may join and contribute to it. Given that many open source projects fail due to lack of developer support, exposure to such a large community of developers can continually breathe new life into a project.

Developers must agree to grant SourceForge.net a perpetual license before they can host code on its servers.^[6] SourceForge.net uses Trove Categorization for its projects.

[edit] Temporary bans in China

The entire SourceForge.net website was banned in China around 2002,^[7] though the ban was later lifted in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Sourceforge.net was again blocked for about a month (June 26, 2008 – July 24, 2008).^[8][9][10] The Moonlight Blog suggests this might be related to the "Boycott Beijing 2008" banner placed on Notepad++'s SourceForge.net homepage.^[8]

[edit] Banned countries

In its terms of use^[11], SourceForge states that its services are not available to users in countries on the sanction list of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (e.g., Cuba and Iran). As of January 2008^[update], people from those countries can browse SourceForge projects and download from them, but access to the secure server (which uses HTTPS) is not allowed. This means that people coming from those IP addresses can't log in to SourceForge or contribute to projects.

[edit] Suit by SPPF

Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France is an umbrella group for a variety of organizations in France. In November, 2008, SPPF initiated a suit against Sourceforge.net, Vuze, Limewire, and Morpheus for hosting P2P file-sharing application Shareaza that "facilitates mass copyright infringement". ^[12]. SourceForge is not sued for hosting copyrighted material itself.

[edit] See also

Free software portal

• Comparison of open source software hosting facilities

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• SourceForge.net
• "The SourceForge Story", by James Maguire (2007-10-17)