Your Preferred Site for Open Source Project Hosting

[SuperMike]

Your Preferred Site for Open Source Project Hosting

Please choose which site would be your preferred site for open source project hosting.

• Google Code
• Launchpad
• SourceForge
• Savannah
• SWiK
• Apache
• Novell Forge
• Sarovar
• (My Own)
• (Other)

I am seeing where to host my project for the community to enhance.

If you choose "Other", please let me know where. I think the intuitiveness and ease of this hosting is an area that badly needs improvement, IMHO. When I say user interface intuitiveness, I mean on the par of some Web 2.0 interfaces or perhaps the Hula Project (http://hula-project.org/). (Yeah, I know, Hula is dead and Hula Lite lives on, perhaps. But darn if it doesn't have an AWESOME user interface!)

[matthewrevell]

Hi SuperMike,

Launchpad can offer you features that no other project hosting service can:

• translations - an easy web interface for translating your project, along with automatic suggestions
• specification tracker - you can track and monitor feature specifications (or blueprints, as Launchpad calls them), to create a roadmap for your project
• shared bugs and external bug watches - ideal if you need to monitor the status of a bug in another project
• easy web and email interfaces - the bug tracker is intuitive and flexible
• support tracker - a structured way for your users to ask for and get help
• integration with Bazaar - an easy to use and very flexible version control tool, with free code hosting.

There's a new improved interface coming soon too.

Stop by #launchpad on irc.freenode.net if you want to talk more.

[marianom]

Cannot you post a poll? Would be easier for you.

[rolando2424]

I don't know, I've never had to host a REAL Open Source project, just some little scripts... And for that I use a little project's homepage tha't I've created using Nvu (nothing special, you can even see it in W3M in the console

Also, the only ones I've heard are SourgeForge and Freshmeat, but I never created an project in them to know the user_interface...

[SuperMike]

Cannot you post a poll? Would be easier for you.

I didn't know how, but would love to learn.

[SuperMike]

Matt,

re: "Launchpad can offer you features that no other project hosting service can..."

Sounds like the one to consider strongly. I like the snappiness to it. Some things I'd like to see, however, are:

* A screenshots link to view screenshots of what the app looks like. Often I find that if someone hasn't bothered to make the app look halfway decent, then the rest of the code probably isn't worth my time either. It helps me zoom in on what's real and what's being posted by an amateur that needs a clue really bad.

* I think it looked confusing to where the download link was located. How about a great big download button like other sites? Even if that took you to a page where you had to download which download you wanted, it would still be a big help in the interface.

Other than that, I like Launchpad and I like the snappiness of it. SourceForge's servers badly need a few extra mirrors. I also noticed that most of the stuff people abuse the SF servers for are for those file sharing apps. Those are the # 1 downloads, time after time. And who knows -- perhaps the RIAA or MPAA are hiring black hatters to overload the SF servers because it defeats their empire?

[winch]

Source forge is ok for hosting downloads. It's generally fairly reliable and there are plenty of mirrors. In my experiance the rest isn't so good. The issue tracker is basic and clunky and the cvs servers have a reputation for being unreliable.

Source forge is also closed source with all the disadvantages closed source software has. When promoting an open source project and the benifits of open source development it sends a confusing message if you host it on a closed project site.

[jblebrun]

There's also http://www.berlios.de -- it's pretty similar to sourceforge, though.

[Note360]

I use Google Code and Launch Pad (depending on the project). I agree though that Launchpad is easier.

[stoffe]

When promoting an open source project and the benifits of open source development it sends a confusing message if you host it on a closed project site.

Like launchpad?