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It seems to me that the most obvious explanation for the decline of SourceForge is that it gave (gives?) too much away free of charge. In this respect, it seems

It seems to me that the most obvious explanation for the decline of SourceForge is that it gave (gives?) too much away free of charge. In this respect, it seems to me that GitHub, Bitbucket, and hosted GitLab are no better. This is making me stop and think about whether I should use GitHub for my primary open-source project. Will GitHub become the next SourceForge? Is it already happening? I respect SourceHut's decision to charge all users (at least once it leaves alpha), but GitHub's network effect is strong, and as much as I respect Drew for pushing toward a free software future, I need Windows and Mac CI. Maybe I should set up something self-hosted; I can afford it, at least for now.

cryptonector 5y ago
Maybe. GitHub and others have deeper pockets and provide more services (CI/CD) and so they have more ways to monetize (build cycles, private repos, org sizes, and so on).
DrSiemer 5y ago
Github has something extremely valuable on their hands: the perfect dataset to teach an AI how to program.
Beltalowda 5y ago
GitHub is essentially a "freemium" business; a lot of businesses use it and pay for it. This is quite different from SourceForge which never really had such a model, and AFAIK relied 100% on ads. At its peak SourceForge had about $23m in revenue, and GitHub has ~$300m currently. While both serve the same purpose, they're very different as a business. GitLab and BitBucket have similar business models (with some differences). I can't predict the future, but I see no reason why GitHub should "become the next SourceForge". The SourceForge exodus to GitHub was already well underway (and, at the time, also Google Code, BitBucket, Launchpad) because they offered vastly superior products than SourceForge, which was always a mess. People seem to have a lot of rose-coloured glasses about SourceForge, but their UI was clunky (even for the time), slow, chaotic with all the ease of use as your tax form, stuff often didn't work, etc. The whole adware fiasco was the death rattle of an already declining business that couldn't build a vaguely decent product.
- fmajid 5y ago
  GitHub is the leading social network for an incredibly valuable demographic, developers. Just the social graph is worth far more to Microsoft and LinkedIn than the purchase price or any revenue it may produce. The potential of GitHub Actions for Azure is too, which is why it was so short-sighted for Google or Amazon not to bid.

cryptonector 5y ago

Maybe. GitHub and others have deeper pockets and provide more services (CI/CD) and so they have more ways to monetize (build cycles, private repos, org sizes, and so on).

DrSiemer 5y ago

Github has something extremely valuable on their hands: the perfect dataset to teach an AI how to program.

Beltalowda 5y ago

GitHub is essentially a "freemium" business; a lot of businesses use it and pay for it. This is quite different from SourceForge which never really had such a model, and AFAIK relied 100% on ads. At its peak SourceForge had about $23m in revenue, and GitHub has ~$300m currently. While both serve the same purpose, they're very different as a business. GitLab and BitBucket have similar business models (with some differences). I can't predict the future, but I see no reason why GitHub should "become the next SourceForge". The SourceForge exodus to GitHub was already well underway (and, at the time, also Google Code, BitBucket, Launchpad) because they offered vastly superior products than SourceForge, which was always a mess. People seem to have a lot of rose-coloured glasses about SourceForge, but their UI was clunky (even for the time), slow, chaotic with all the ease of use as your tax form, stuff often didn't work, etc. The whole adware fiasco was the death rattle of an already declining business that couldn't build a vaguely decent product.

fmajid 5y ago
GitHub is the leading social network for an incredibly valuable demographic, developers. Just the social graph is worth far more to Microsoft and LinkedIn than the purchase price or any revenue it may produce. The potential of GitHub Actions for Azure is too, which is why it was so short-sighted for Google or Amazon not to bid.