[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] Date Index Thread Index Search archive:
Date:14 Oct 2004 00:51:45 -0000 
Subject:Is sourceforge safe for the openpoplog project? 
From:Aaron Sloman 
Volume-ID: 

I wonder if continuing to rely on sourceforge for the open poplog
project

	http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/poplog/openpoplog.html

is a good idea, if this article is to be believed:

	http://fsfeurope.org/news/article2001-10-20-01.en.html

E.g. here's an extract:

    Because of the convenience of SourceForge, many Free Software
    developers have come to take this collection of features for
    granted, and would be reluctant to go back to the old way of
    doing things. Unfortunately, this means that when SourceForge
    itself takes a turn for the worse, it tends to pull Free
    Software developers down with it.

    The second important thing SourceForge did was to provide
    this environment based exclusively on [11]Free Software. By
    doing this, SourceForge not only provided a powerful
    methodology for the Free Software community, it also
    demonstrated what Free Software could do, and promoted the
    use of Free Software. And since the special software for
    SourceForge was itself free, anyone could set up a similar
    site. The SourceForge software became permanently available
    to developers everywhere. Developers in (say) India who can't
    afford the bandwidth to use the SourceForge site could have
    the benefit of the same features on their own server.

    In August 2001, VA Linux reversed those policies and
    introduced non-free software on the SourceForge server. In
    [12]announcing this (the original document was removed or
    moved shortly after the publication of this article), Larry
    Augustin (VA Linux CEO) claims that SourceForge.net users
    will "see virtually no changes". That may be true if they
    narrow their vision and consider only what job the site does
    and how to operate it. But when we consider the implications,
    things are very different now. Instead of a showcase for Free
    Software, SourceForge is now a demo site for non-free
    software. There is a danger that the many thousands of people
    registered on SourceForge will become increasingly hooked on
    the SourceForge site and on features implemented by
    proprietary software.

	....

and it lists other worrying points.

Aaron
===
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~axs/