Crafting the free-software future

SourceForge is the answer to a free-software developer's most basic need: computer resources for working together online. Programmers have been coding together for decades via electronic networks. The most famous example is what's commonly called the Linux or GNU/Linux operating system. Linus Torvalds could never have orchestrated the creation of Linux without the help of the Internet, e-mail and Usenet newsgroups.

But creating sophisticated collaborative software projects online has never been easy. The biggest challenges include finding a Web server computer to host projects, managing the various versions of the code, administering the power to choose who can tinker with the software and keeping a handle on which bugs have been fixed.

VA Linux has a long record of hosting online collaborative workplaces. For years, one computer in a back room served as an important repository for work on the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. "(VA Linux) is based on the success of this community," Hall says. "We thought we should give something back."

By the summer of 1999, one of the company's employees did nothing but handle the system administration duties related to project hosting. VA Linux executives, looking forward, realized that the free software world could benefit from a more automated approach to software development. And so was born SourceForge.

SourceForge's mandate is to provide a solid infrastructure for the international, decentralized collaboration that has been at the heart of the free-software movement for decades. Services freely available at SourceForge include mailing lists, discussion forums, project Web pages, bug-tracking programs and a method for letting program leaders give selective permission to other hackers to make changes in the source code. SourceForge also enables managers to categorize their projects by programming language, software license type and intended audience. Project leaders also can post news items about their coding efforts.

Although some developers grumble at a clumsy user-interface, bandwidth shortages, and occasional system crashes, developers also appreciate what VA Linux has given them for free. One grateful user is Dan Kuykendall, a leader of the phpGroupWare project, which is building a program for business collaboration with features like e-mail, a calendar and to-do lists similar to those found in the commercial software Lotus Notes.

"It's run so smoothly because of SourceForge," says Kuykendall, 26. "[Without SourceForge] I wouldn't be able to spend as much time on the code itself. I'd be managing the project."

SourceForge, says Kuykendall, has made it easier to handle the tricky business of virtually leading a team of roughly 20 programmers. For example, the CVS system -- a program for allowing developers to submit code, track changes and keep different versions straight -- and bug-tracking programs allow Kuykendall to parse out work to project developers based on their preferences. SourceForge also provides a way to invite contributions from and evaluate newcomers who haven't been given phpGroupWare programming privileges. Anyone reviewing phpGroupWare's source code can submit a bug report and also propose a software fix.

"We've gotten a lot of developers that way," Kuykendall says. "If they can prove that they understand our code -- that they're following our design of it -- then we can invite them in." For phpGroupWare co-founder Joe Engo, SourceForge has allowed him to make a mark in the free- and open-source software world. "I'm 100 percent proud of this effort," says the 23-year-old coder. "When I first started this project, I never dreamed it'd get to this scale."

Software developers are coming to see posting code at the site as a rite of passage, says Raymond. And by gathering developers in one place, SourceForge simultaneously helps them become more effective in their coding collaboration and more unified in their beliefs, Raymond says.

"Watering holes can be very catalytic places," he says.

In Raymond's view, a number of events have galvanized the open- and free-software communities, including the creation of the Free Software Foundation in the early 1980s, the development of Linux, and the launch of the open-source movement in 1998. "(With each of those developments, the community) became more close-knit, conscious and effective," Raymond says. "SourceForge is another step in that progression."

Brian Behlendorf isn't so sure. While loath to criticize a generous effort by VA Linux, he's concerned that SourceForge may foster fragmentation of the open-source community, because it may be easier to start a new project than help a related one in progress. Behlendorf also doubts the massive numbers of developers at SourceForge feel a strong connection to each other.

"My gut tells me that people don't like to be part of a 100,000-person community. They like to be part of a dozen-person or 100-person community," he says. "Scale isn't everything."

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