195 lines
9.2 KiB
HTML
195 lines
9.2 KiB
HTML
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<title>Linux Site O' The Month: SourceForge LG #53</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Linux Site O' The Month: SourceForge</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:slambo@linuxstart.com">Sean Lamb</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<h2 ALIGN="center">
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SourceForge (<a href="http://sourceforge.net">http://sourceforge.net</a>)<BR>
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"Breaking down the barriers to Open Source development"</h2>
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<H2>What's This?</H2>
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<P> This article is the the current installment in an ongoing series of site
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reviews for the Linux community. Each month, I will highlight a Linux-related
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site and tell you all about it. The intent of these articles is to let you
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know about sites that you might not have been to before, but they will all have
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to do with some aspect of Linux. Now, on with the story...
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<H2>So you wanna be a developer...</h2>
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Now that you've got your Linux box up and running the way you like it, it's
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time to start building that killer app. But where do you start? You've got
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an idea, and you've already written some code but you're not giving back to the
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community until you've released your code for the world to see.
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<P>
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To get your project out, and to get the feedback that is so essential to help
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find bugs and get feature suggestions, you need to first create a project
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website. It would be nice to build this site with php and mySQL so you can
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add news items through a web form rather than rewriting the page everytime
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you wanted to post a little tidbit. You'd also like your project site to
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have a short and simple URL, rather than stretching to Timbuktu and back,
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peppered with tildes. Your project site needs to link to a download location
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where users can get a copy of your code, and you'll need a place to put the
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app for the users to download. Next, you need to create mailing lists for
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your users and, if you're getting some coding help, your co-developers. Some
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of those web forums would be nice too. Then you remember the old adage
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"release early and often" and you wonder how you can get your code out to the
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masses quicker after you've made changes.
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<P>
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Whew! That's a pretty tall order for some of the smaller projects. How do
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all these developers find the time, servers and money to do all this? One
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answer that is becoming more popular is SourceForge.
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<h2>Project administration for the masses</h2>
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SourceForge brings all of these plus more features together into one location,
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and then gives away these services for free to Open Source projects. Projects
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hosted at SourceForge receive:
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<ul>
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<li>100Mb of web space on a server that features php, perl and cgi support.
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<LI>mySQL database support.
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<LI>a short default URL, http://<i>yourproject</i>.sourceforge.net, and hosting
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for any properly registered domain name.
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<LI>multiple mailing list administration and hosting.
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<LI>working CVS repository; not just a branch in a public CVS tree, but your
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own CVSROOT.
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<LI>anonymous FTP space for package releases.
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<LI>web-based project administration.
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<LI>public and private bug trackers.
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<LI>public and private discussion forums.
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<LI>daily backups with offsite rotation.
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</ul>
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You may be thinking that you don't need everything that's included to host
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your project. Perhaps all you need for your little script is a website.
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Well, then just use the website portion of the service. Projects are not
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required to use all of the services available at all times. They can use only
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the services that they need and let the rest sit until they are needed.
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<P>
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The great unwashed masses need only a web browser and an internet connection
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to get to your project site at SourceForge. The portions that you make public
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in your project hosting are available to everyone. The people you designate
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as developers connect to your project account with ssh1 (note, ssh2 is not yet
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supported at the time this was written), so security is less of a problem.
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<h2>Who's doing this and why?</h2>
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SourceForge is sponsored by VA Linux Systems. VA is paying for the whole
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shebang, so project admins don't need to add a ton of ad banners to their
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sites to help support the servers (only a small SourceForge logo is required
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on project pages. The site's About page answers the why question:
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<blockquote>
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"As open source developers ourselves, we have run into the kinds of obstacles
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that still plague many would-be developers. It was our intent to remove many
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of those obstacles and let developers focus on software development. (An odd
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concept, but easier to get used to than you'd think.) A suite of tools isn't
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enough, though. In the end, you need the hardware power for the whole setup."
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</blockquote>
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The list of projects already hosted at SourceForge is impressive. The current
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categories include:
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<ul>
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<LI>Communications (126 projects)
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<LI>Database (48 projects)
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<LI>Desktop Environment (59 projects)
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<LI>Education (34 projects)
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<LI>Emulators (5 projects)
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<LI>Games/Entertainment (160 projects)
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<LI>Internet (169 projects)
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<LI>Multimedia (163 projects)
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<LI>Office/Business (29 projects)
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<LI>Other/Nonlisted Topic (34 projects)
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<LI>Printing (12 projects)
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<LI>Religion (6 projects)
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<LI>Scientific (86 projects)
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<LI>Security (22 projects)
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<LI>Software Development (174 projects)
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<LI>System (166 projects)
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<LI>Terminals (12 projects)
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<LI>Text Editors (30 projects)
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</ul>
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<h2>So sign up already!</h2>
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With all of these features and services in one place, and to get them all for
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free for open source projects, it's easy to see why so many projects have
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already signed up. In case you're wondering, the first project to be hosted
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at SourceForge is <a
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href="http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=1">SourceForge</a>.
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<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2000, Sean Lamb<BR>
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Published in Issue 53 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, May 2000</H5>
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