This doesn't seem quite fair. I don't remember anything else like sourceforge when it came out in 1999. If you ran a project, you found a host somehow or paid

This doesn't seem quite fair. I don't remember anything else like sourceforge when it came out in 1999. If you ran a project, you found a host somehow or paid for one, and you effectively managed and setup all of the services. From just the web site for the project itself, to the source code control, to mailing lists and bug tracking if you need them, forums. Further, colocation was common but VPS wasn't, if you rolled your own host you were on the hook for a computer for it. Now there may have been something else out there but I don't remember it and sourceforge was embraced because of it. They dramatically lowered the cost and effort to putting an opensource project out there. I assume that they basically created the model google code and github and the others have followed. They've been in trouble, effectively since VA Linux's stock crashed...