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The GIMP developer has asked SourceForge to remove the installer. Guess they just ignore him. https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg

by ww520 11y ago

The GIMP developer has asked SourceForge to remove the installer. Guess they just ignore him. https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May/msg00098.html https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2015-May...

giancarlostoro 11y ago
This alone seems like reason enough not to use SourceForge even if just for mirroring a project. Which is what a lot of projects do including some Linux Distributions, what are alternative hosts at that point though?
- rylee 11y ago
  Gitlab, Bitbucket, GitHub are the big three. There's a whole lot of others, but those are the ones I know off the top of my head.
  - datenwolf 11y ago
    There's also Gitorious
    - sytse 11y ago
      GitLab CEO here, Gitorious was acquired by GitLab https://about.gitlab.com/2015/03/03/gitlab-acquires-gitorious/ https://about.gitlab.com/2015/03/03/gitlab-acquires-gitoriou...
      - carussell 11y ago
        It seems like there's an opportunity here for the big three. I'm thinking something along the lines of, "Don't like the way services like SourceForge are handling your project nowadays? There are better services to use; here's a list. Obviously, we'd like you to use ours. We've already set up a home for you on our service in anticipation of your stay with us, which we think you'd enjoy. You'll find that it's already fully furnished, even. Here are the keys. Give us the go-ahead and we'll aggressively pursue the takedown of badware distributors." The benefits to any of the three who go for this plan would be the host's association with such high-profile projects. GitHub may look at this and decide that at this point in their trajectory, there's just not enough in it for them, but it seems like either GitLab or Atlassian could benefit from it.
        sytse 11y ago
        At GitLab we already have one-click importers for GitHub.com, Google Code and Bitbucket. We would love for someone to contribute a SourceForge importer.
        rylee 11y ago
        That's not quite the angle he(?) was going for — he(?) is saying that an aggressive campaign from one of the Big Three in Git hosting to aggressively take down badware distributors while hosting your software would be one hell of a PR campaign.
        sytse 11y ago
        I don't think any of the big three are hosting badware. We want people to choose GitLab, I don't want to start distributing software like Gimp without their blessing.
        carussell 11y ago
        I think you're still not hearing what I'm getting at. The idea isn't that the big three are now peddling crapware-infested downloads, but there exist services like SourceForge and tons of download sites that are. This is about aggressively courting existing projects that may still be on SourceForge out of nothing more than inertia. Migrating away is a process, even with importers. My original comment was about surveying the landscape for potential candidates that you'd like to see using GitLab, and then go ahead and set up a home for select projects before approaching them. This could include reserving accounts for the core developers, pre-seeding the project with whatever importing would be required, and just generally making it stupid-easy to migrate--as easy as just saying, "yeah, okay; we'll do that", and then setting up their password. If you're worried about doing anything with their blessing, this could all happen in such a way as to not be publicly accessible until the project actually gives the go-ahead and confirms they would like to make the switch.
        11y ago

by ww520 11y ago

giancarlostoro 11y ago

This alone seems like reason enough not to use SourceForge even if just for mirroring a project. Which is what a lot of projects do including some Linux Distributions, what are alternative hosts at that point though?

rylee 11y ago
Gitlab, Bitbucket, GitHub are the big three. There's a whole lot of others, but those are the ones I know off the top of my head.
- datenwolf 11y ago
  There's also Gitorious
  - sytse 11y ago
    GitLab CEO here, Gitorious was acquired by GitLab https://about.gitlab.com/2015/03/03/gitlab-acquires-gitorious/ https://about.gitlab.com/2015/03/03/gitlab-acquires-gitoriou...
    - carussell 11y ago
      It seems like there's an opportunity here for the big three. I'm thinking something along the lines of, "Don't like the way services like SourceForge are handling your project nowadays? There are better services to use; here's a list. Obviously, we'd like you to use ours. We've already set up a home for you on our service in anticipation of your stay with us, which we think you'd enjoy. You'll find that it's already fully furnished, even. Here are the keys. Give us the go-ahead and we'll aggressively pursue the takedown of badware distributors." The benefits to any of the three who go for this plan would be the host's association with such high-profile projects. GitHub may look at this and decide that at this point in their trajectory, there's just not enough in it for them, but it seems like either GitLab or Atlassian could benefit from it.
      - sytse 11y ago
        At GitLab we already have one-click importers for GitHub.com, Google Code and Bitbucket. We would love for someone to contribute a SourceForge importer.
        rylee 11y ago
        That's not quite the angle he(?) was going for — he(?) is saying that an aggressive campaign from one of the Big Three in Git hosting to aggressively take down badware distributors while hosting your software would be one hell of a PR campaign.
        sytse 11y ago
        I don't think any of the big three are hosting badware. We want people to choose GitLab, I don't want to start distributing software like Gimp without their blessing.
        carussell 11y ago
        I think you're still not hearing what I'm getting at. The idea isn't that the big three are now peddling crapware-infested downloads, but there exist services like SourceForge and tons of download sites that are. This is about aggressively courting existing projects that may still be on SourceForge out of nothing more than inertia. Migrating away is a process, even with importers. My original comment was about surveying the landscape for potential candidates that you'd like to see using GitLab, and then go ahead and set up a home for select projects before approaching them. This could include reserving accounts for the core developers, pre-seeding the project with whatever importing would be required, and just generally making it stupid-easy to migrate--as easy as just saying, "yeah, okay; we'll do that", and then setting up their password. If you're worried about doing anything with their blessing, this could all happen in such a way as to not be publicly accessible until the project actually gives the go-ahead and confirms they would like to make the switch.
        11y ago