Desktop platforms Toolkit

Open source service takes off

Will Knight ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 22 Jan 2001 14:31 GMT

Open source development site SourceForge.net, which coordinates some of the largest and most influential programming projects around, announced Friday that it has reached more than 100,000 registered users. The news underscores continuing interest in the Linux operating system and open source development in general.

Sourceforge.net coordinates more than 13,000 development projects from small-scale non-commercial schemes to major projects including the creation of popular programming languages like Tcl and Python to major components of the Linux operating system like XFree86 and KDE.

Unlike many commercial software companies, which protect the source code to their products fiercely, SourceForge.net encourages developers to share code.

The Linux operating system and many of its components are developed according to this open principle. It is published under the GNU foundation's General Public Licence (GPL) which allows source code to be modified on the condition that further developments are also published under this licence.

John "Tiberius" Hall, vice president of strategic planning for VA Linux Systems -- which backs SourceForge.net -- says that the popularity of SourceForge is an endorsement for these principles.

"The rapid growth of SourceForge.net during its first year of service demonstrates the growing popularity of the open source development model across a wide range of platforms, as well as the popularity of the SourceForge toolset," said Hall in a statement.

SourceForge says it has seen on average 30 percent growth per month. The service is backed by Open Source Development Network (OSDN.com), a division of hardware manufacturer VA Linux Systems.

Find out how the open source movement is revolutionising the high-tech world at the Linux Lounge.

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