5 ms·

A Change to Google Code Download Service

55 points by yeukhon 13y ago

packetslave 13y ago
This was announced in May (as noted by the date of the blog post)
- yeukhon 13y ago
  And it's good to remind again.
jhawk28 13y ago
Their recommendation isn't going to work for me at work. They actively block Google Drive/Dropbox/Skydrive/etc.
- carsondu 13y ago
  Well why do they that do that? It's like complaining that Amazon can't deliver to you because you don't allow FedEx in your building.
  - giovannibajo1 13y ago
    I know some companies that just have a blacklist of services that can't be used (popular cloud ones); then of course you can use the N+1 clone of such services, until it gets popular enough for the IT dept to ban it. Eg: Dropbox & Drive are blocked, but maybe copy.com isn't. IOW they block Drive not because they don't want people to download open source tarballs from it, but because they don't want them to use it for company files/docs.
    - carsondu 13y ago
      How about they just ask their employees not to use it for company files? Or do they think their employees are idiots or not trustworthy? How do they think that reflects on them and their employees?
      - giovannibajo1 13y ago
        My experience is that, beyond some size threshold, people tend to stop caring about generic company policies because they don't understand them (nor they are well communicated or explained, since there is a large gap between management and employees) and just do whatever is handy to them. At the same time, management stop thinking that trust works as a way to enforce policies and start enforcing them technically.
      - simonh 13y ago
        Financial services companies have legal obligations to cntroll the ways their information is managed. Even in other industries there are some kinds if information for which legal restrictions and responsibilities apply to their storage and dissemination.
  - dgesang 13y ago
    More like: they want to enforce the use of their own delivery service, because they don't trust FedEx.
- yeukhon 13y ago
  But I don't get why they didn't block Google Code in the first place, given it is part of Google. Google Drive or Skydrive is probably the best alternative, depending on the corporate environment.
analog31 13y ago
Ask HN: What problem triggered this?
- plorkyeran 13y ago
  People figured out that Google Code made a great file hosting site for piracy and Google didn't want to invest the resources to combat it.
  - MrBuddyCasino 13y ago
    But won't Google Drive have the same issue then?
    - plorkyeran 13y ago
      Google Drive's free tier has (fairly low) daily download limits. It's not actually a suitable replacement for popular projects.
    - X-Istence 13y ago
      Google Drive isn't nearly as public though, so it doesn't become searchable easily...
    - zmmmmm 13y ago
      Yes, however there's a crucial difference which is that a Google drive account is attached to an individual, who then is the legal entity responsible for the download. All Google has to do is follow the DMCA and they are safe. Under the current arrangement Google appears to be the delivering the download themselves, putting them in the legal firing line.
- gcb0 13y ago
  1)Another Google drive/plus account begging. 2) data control/access. Same reason they don't include sd card slots on nexus. They can't mine/ad adds on offline data. And google code was too hard to monetize (old system and all) 3) inside Google, engineers get big raises when they make their pet projects work (see mayer and gmaps) and abandoned projects can be fiddled by anyone. So abandoned gcode gets abused at will by prodigal gdrive rising star. Much easier to sell you added users to a project being monetized than to justify you added monetization to a project the press doesn't mention anymore.
endgame 13y ago
Right. So what code hosts actually still allow downloads, which are imho the best way to handle disciplined releases and to feed into package managers?
- dydx 13y ago
  Bitbucket
- grandpoobah 13y ago
  github offers free homepages, i use mine to host an installer for my github project
  - giovannibajo1 13y ago
    GitHub has removed the generic files section, but they have introduced some features for "releases" (basically, additional metadata associated to git tags) and that includes file hosting for release binaries. That should work for most use cases.
- _delirium 13y ago
  The original, Sourceforge, still does. Also, GNU Savannah.
  - makomk 13y ago
    Trouble is, a lot of Sourceforge sofware is bundled with adware these days, so anyone with sense won't download from them.
    - JohnTHaller 13y ago
      No, it isn't. There were a total of 3 projects (literally 3 out of 300,000+) that use the SourceForge adware download feature. These are the 3 (or was it 4?) that signed up during the test period before SF closed the program to re-evaluate it. Other than that, there are open source projects on SourceForge that manually use adware installers of the publishers' own choosing (OpenCandy, Sweet IM, etc) to try to make money. But I've seen this on other services as well, since it's up to the publisher
thelonelygod 13y ago
When they say downloads won't work does that include the ability to use git/svn etc. on google code?
- Stratoscope 13y ago
  No, this is about downloads only. It doesn't affect cloning and accessing repositories with version control software, which continues to be supported as before.
  - gcb0 13y ago
    So the project front page can just link to the source file raw url?
el_duderino 13y ago
Bintray is a simple, smart and social binary distribution platform. Y'all more than welcome to try it.
JohnTHaller 13y ago
Note that this announcement is from May 2013 but comes into effect for existing projects next month. As for alternatives, SourceForge still supports binary downloads. Github introduced the feature this year as well.

55 points by yeukhon 13y ago

packetslave 13y ago

This was announced in May (as noted by the date of the blog post)

yeukhon 13y ago
And it's good to remind again.

jhawk28 13y ago

Their recommendation isn't going to work for me at work. They actively block Google Drive/Dropbox/Skydrive/etc.

carsondu 13y ago
Well why do they that do that? It's like complaining that Amazon can't deliver to you because you don't allow FedEx in your building.
- giovannibajo1 13y ago
  I know some companies that just have a blacklist of services that can't be used (popular cloud ones); then of course you can use the N+1 clone of such services, until it gets popular enough for the IT dept to ban it. Eg: Dropbox & Drive are blocked, but maybe copy.com isn't. IOW they block Drive not because they don't want people to download open source tarballs from it, but because they don't want them to use it for company files/docs.
  - carsondu 13y ago
    How about they just ask their employees not to use it for company files? Or do they think their employees are idiots or not trustworthy? How do they think that reflects on them and their employees?
    - giovannibajo1 13y ago
      My experience is that, beyond some size threshold, people tend to stop caring about generic company policies because they don't understand them (nor they are well communicated or explained, since there is a large gap between management and employees) and just do whatever is handy to them. At the same time, management stop thinking that trust works as a way to enforce policies and start enforcing them technically.
    - simonh 13y ago
      Financial services companies have legal obligations to cntroll the ways their information is managed. Even in other industries there are some kinds if information for which legal restrictions and responsibilities apply to their storage and dissemination.
- dgesang 13y ago
  More like: they want to enforce the use of their own delivery service, because they don't trust FedEx.
yeukhon 13y ago
But I don't get why they didn't block Google Code in the first place, given it is part of Google. Google Drive or Skydrive is probably the best alternative, depending on the corporate environment.

analog31 13y ago

Ask HN: What problem triggered this?

plorkyeran 13y ago
People figured out that Google Code made a great file hosting site for piracy and Google didn't want to invest the resources to combat it.
- MrBuddyCasino 13y ago
  But won't Google Drive have the same issue then?
  - plorkyeran 13y ago
    Google Drive's free tier has (fairly low) daily download limits. It's not actually a suitable replacement for popular projects.
  - X-Istence 13y ago
    Google Drive isn't nearly as public though, so it doesn't become searchable easily...
  - zmmmmm 13y ago
    Yes, however there's a crucial difference which is that a Google drive account is attached to an individual, who then is the legal entity responsible for the download. All Google has to do is follow the DMCA and they are safe. Under the current arrangement Google appears to be the delivering the download themselves, putting them in the legal firing line.
gcb0 13y ago
1)Another Google drive/plus account begging. 2) data control/access. Same reason they don't include sd card slots on nexus. They can't mine/ad adds on offline data. And google code was too hard to monetize (old system and all) 3) inside Google, engineers get big raises when they make their pet projects work (see mayer and gmaps) and abandoned projects can be fiddled by anyone. So abandoned gcode gets abused at will by prodigal gdrive rising star. Much easier to sell you added users to a project being monetized than to justify you added monetization to a project the press doesn't mention anymore.

endgame 13y ago

Right. So what code hosts actually still allow downloads, which are imho the best way to handle disciplined releases and to feed into package managers?

dydx 13y ago
Bitbucket
grandpoobah 13y ago
github offers free homepages, i use mine to host an installer for my github project
- giovannibajo1 13y ago
  GitHub has removed the generic files section, but they have introduced some features for "releases" (basically, additional metadata associated to git tags) and that includes file hosting for release binaries. That should work for most use cases.
_delirium 13y ago
The original, Sourceforge, still does. Also, GNU Savannah.
- makomk 13y ago
  Trouble is, a lot of Sourceforge sofware is bundled with adware these days, so anyone with sense won't download from them.
  - JohnTHaller 13y ago
    No, it isn't. There were a total of 3 projects (literally 3 out of 300,000+) that use the SourceForge adware download feature. These are the 3 (or was it 4?) that signed up during the test period before SF closed the program to re-evaluate it. Other than that, there are open source projects on SourceForge that manually use adware installers of the publishers' own choosing (OpenCandy, Sweet IM, etc) to try to make money. But I've seen this on other services as well, since it's up to the publisher

thelonelygod 13y ago

When they say downloads won't work does that include the ability to use git/svn etc. on google code?

Stratoscope 13y ago
No, this is about downloads only. It doesn't affect cloning and accessing repositories with version control software, which continues to be supported as before.
- gcb0 13y ago
  So the project front page can just link to the source file raw url?

el_duderino 13y ago

Bintray is a simple, smart and social binary distribution platform. Y'all more than welcome to try it.

JohnTHaller 13y ago

Note that this announcement is from May 2013 but comes into effect for existing projects next month. As for alternatives, SourceForge still supports binary downloads. Github introduced the feature this year as well.