Since its launch in November 1999, this fast-growing SourceForge community has fueled software innovation on software platforms including Linux®, Unix, Microsoft®, Palm and Apple. SourceForge.net’s robust online services facilitate real-time software collaboration and distribution across virtual teams. Specialized communities, called Foundries, enhance peer-level participation around specific technologies.
With an average of 16,000-19,000 separate code changes happening daily, and developer-to-developer emails ranging from 800,000-1,000,000 on a daily basis, more Open Source developers collaborate on more projects at SourceForge.net than anywhere on the web.
“SourceForge.net provides a medium for the Open Source community to collaborate, innovate and develop,” said Richard French, senior vice president and general manager, OSDN. “More and more Open Source developers recognize the benefits of building their software in a collaborative and dispersed community setting. The growth of the SourceForge.net community to half a million registered users marks a milestone not only for SourceForge.net, but for the entire Open Source community.”
In an effort to better manage its rapid growth, on August 13, 2002, OSDN announced plans to port SourceForge.net to IBM’s DB2 database software for Linux. Parts of SourceForge.net are currently running on DB2, and the site will be fully converted to DB2 by mid-January of 2003.
“As the momentum surrounding the open movement continues to grow, it’s critical that the world’s most widely used Open Source development site has the infrastructure in place to handle high volumes of traffic and data over the net,” said Lauren Flaherty, vice president of marketing, IBM Data Management Solutions. “By making the move to DB2 for Linux, SourceForge.net is creating a powerful, reliable database that will easily scale to meet the needs of their current users and will help OSDN as they grow the site to celebrate the next 500,000 users.”
“SourceForge.net provides the best environment for collaborative software development online because it enables our developers to reach a global audience,” said Rob Flynn, project leader for Gaim, an instant messenger client recently recognized as SourceForge.net’s Project of the Month. “SourceForge.net’s collaboration tools, reliability and cost effectiveness, has helped make our Gaim application a great success.”
The site registers approximately 600 new users and 70 new projects per day, and delivers on average 300,000 applications daily to developers and users globally. SourceForge.net’s global network of servers includes Time Warner Telecom, CESNET and Telia. SourceForge.net can be found at http://sourceforge.net.
About OSDN
OSDN, the Open Source Development Network, Inc., a subsidiary of VA Software Corp. (Nasdaq: LNUX), is the leading news, collaboration and distribution community for IT and Open Source development, implementation and innovation. OSDN delivers more than 134 million page views and reaches 6.6 million unique visitors per month. The OSDN audience is comprised of IT professionals, including C-level and senior management, middle management and a variety of technical staff including developers and systems and network administrators. OSDN sites offer IT news, development tools, distribution and discussion channels, cutting-edge editorial, and ongoing education and evangelism among the IT and Open Source community.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings’ Fall 2002 @plan data, OSDN is the No. 1 network for delivering people who look for technology news online and the No. 2 network for delivering people who look for general/political news online, based on composition. OSDN is the home of several popular web sites, including the award winning news discussion site, Slashdot.org, and the world’s largest collaborative software development site, SourceForge.net.
Note: Slashdot is a registered trademark of the Open Source Development Network, Inc., in the United States and other countries. SourceForge, OSDN and VA Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of VA Software Corporation in the United States and other countries.
Contact:
Marla Kramer
OSDN
mkramer@osdn.com
