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One important thing many people hardly mention during events in history like this is that often software is lost in the sands of time, never to be recovered. S

One important thing many people hardly mention during events in history like this is that often software is lost in the sands of time, never to be recovered. Some software out there is actually "finished" and undisturbed by surrounding ecosystems for the most part. When the author or maintainers are no longer around and a host collapses around a project, sometimes you just can't find the source anymore. It's out there, for sure, but most likely in cold storage, collecting dust in some old hobbyist's closet.

simplehuman 10y ago
In some circles, "finished" code is removed promptly as "bitrot" :) But seriously, that's a true story!
alexmullans 10y ago
Keeping the source available for projects, even those don't migrate to GitHub or elsewhere, is important to us. We've updated the blog post with some additional details on the long-term archive plans: After December 15th, 2017, "CodePlex.com will start serving a read-only lightweight archive that will allow you to browse through all published projects – their source code, downloads, documentation, license, and issues – as they looked when CodePlex went read-only. You’ll also be able to download an archive file with your project contents, all in common, transferrable formats like Markdown and JSON. Where possible, we’ll put in place redirects so that existing URLs work, or at least redirect you to the project’s new homepage on the archive. And, the archive will respect your “I’ve moved” setting, if you used it, to direct users to the current home of your project. There isn’t currently any plan to have an end date for the archive."
- frik 10y ago
  So everyone will be able to browse and download unmaintained open source code, correct? That would be good.
- vidarh 10y ago
  Thank you for handling this properly. We've had too many instances of sites shutting down without thinking about archival, so it's great seeing it done with some thought.
jeffwilcox 10y ago
Have you heard of the Software Heritage Project? Pretty cool what they're trying to do to help and preserve the world's software. https://www.softwareheritage.org https://www.softwareheritage.org

simplehuman 10y ago

In some circles, "finished" code is removed promptly as "bitrot" :) But seriously, that's a true story!

alexmullans 10y ago

Keeping the source available for projects, even those don't migrate to GitHub or elsewhere, is important to us. We've updated the blog post with some additional details on the long-term archive plans: After December 15th, 2017, "CodePlex.com will start serving a read-only lightweight archive that will allow you to browse through all published projects – their source code, downloads, documentation, license, and issues – as they looked when CodePlex went read-only. You’ll also be able to download an archive file with your project contents, all in common, transferrable formats like Markdown and JSON. Where possible, we’ll put in place redirects so that existing URLs work, or at least redirect you to the project’s new homepage on the archive. And, the archive will respect your “I’ve moved” setting, if you used it, to direct users to the current home of your project. There isn’t currently any plan to have an end date for the archive."

frik 10y ago
So everyone will be able to browse and download unmaintained open source code, correct? That would be good.
vidarh 10y ago
Thank you for handling this properly. We've had too many instances of sites shutting down without thinking about archival, so it's great seeing it done with some thought.

jeffwilcox 10y ago

Have you heard of the Software Heritage Project? Pretty cool what they're trying to do to help and preserve the world's software. https://www.softwareheritage.org https://www.softwareheritage.org