[Savannah-hackers] Savannah featured on www.lwn.net

[Mark H. Weaver]

http://www.lwn.net/2001/0315/devel.php3

Development projects

News and Editorials

   In past issues of LWN, we have discussed the need for alternatives to
   the popular [15]SourceForge site at VA Linux. SourceForge provides an
   excellent resource for open-source development, but we firmly believe
   in the axiom "Don't put all of your eggs in one basket". Currently,
   SourceForge lists over 17,000 projects and over 134,000 users. That's
   a lot of eggs.
   
   Some fairly recent entries into the world of open-source project
   hosting include [16]BerliOS which currently hosts 85 projects and has
   265 registered users, and [17]Savannah [18][Savannah] which claims 85
   projects and has 328 registered users. Savannah is based on the
   SourceForge 2.0 code, which is freely available.
   
   Savannah seems to be strongly oriented toward GNU projects, leading to
   the question of whether non-GNU projects can be hosted there. Not
   everybody wants to work within the rules for GNU projects (i.e.
   signing copyright over to the FSF, coding standards, etc.). One has to
   dig pretty far into the site before finding the following text:
   
     The FSF would like to extend an invitation to any Free Software
     project to be hosted for no price and no catch. This is our token
     of appreciation to the people who help make the GNU project a
     reality.
     
   Thus, it is not necessary to go the full GNU project route, as long as
   the software involved has an FSF-approved free license.
   
   The open availability of SourceForge software takes a lot of the work
   out of starting a new software hosting site, it seems like the time is
   ripe for some new sites to open up.
   
   Surprisingly, there are not very many small, focused-area software
   hosting sites. Many areas of focus are available, including among
   other things, specific languages, embedded systems, and database and
   web applications to name a few.
   
   Whether it is possible to make money with a software hosting site
   remains to be seen, but such a site brings a level of community
   recognition that money can't buy. One would think that a few of the
   larger, well established computing companies such as Sun or IBM would
   venture into the software hosting arena. It's probably only a matter
   of time before they do.
   
   Meanwhile, the launch of Savannah should provide a much-needed
   alternative to SourceForge. (Thanks to Marko Schulz for the pointer to
   Savannah).

[...]
   
References

  15. http://sourceforge.net/
  16. http://developer.berlios.de/
  17. http://savannah.gnu.org/
  18. http://savannah.gnu.org/