SourceForge
More info
- Creator
- VA Linux Systems
- Released
- 1999
- Type
- Open-source project hosting
- Website
- sourceforge.net
The first big free host for open-source projects — home to thousands of them before GitHub, and later squandered its goodwill on installers stuffed with junk.
VA Linux launched SourceForge in 1999, handing anyone a CVS repository, a bug tracker, mailing lists and download mirrors. Through the 2000s it was the default address for open source; for many users the green download button was all they ever saw of a project. Its sister site was Slashdot.
Once GitHub made the code rather than the download the point, the exodus began. Under owner Dice, installers were wrapped with adware through DevShare, and in 2015 the site took over GIMP's abandoned Windows account and served it in that wrapper. New owners scrapped the scheme in 2016, by which time most projects had left.