Re: [boost] Move project?

From: Nathan Myers (ncm_at_[hidden])
Date: 2000-05-15 14:17:32

On Mon, May 15, 2000 at 11:04:44AM -0400, Beman Dawes wrote:
> At 05:26 PM 5/14/00 -0700, Nathan Myers wrote:
> 
> >I wonder if it isn't time to move the Boost project off of
> > Egroups.com to somewhere less intrusive and more actively helpful.
> >
> >The Source Forge project sponsored by VA Linux Systems provides 
> >not only free mailing lists & archives, but also bug tracking, 
> >CVS repositories, automated member surveys, and a project web site, 
> >and an ftp area.  List mail doesn't get any irritating advertising 
> >footers appended.
> >
> >They currently host some 4400 free-software projects.
> >See http://sourceforge.net/ for more details.
> 
> There are some questions which would have to be answered before we
> could seriously consider SourceForge.
> 
> SourceForge seems limited to "Open Source" projects with specific
> licenses.  See http://www.opensource.org/licenses/. While some of
> those licenses (see
> http://www.opensource.org/licenses/zlib-license.html) are pretty
> close to the various boost licenses, we would have to be very sure we
> were willing to make the leap to a standard license agreement.  

SourceForge doesn't demand any "standard license agreement".  They 
host software licensed under all those in the list, and some others 
besides.  As I understand it, Boost policy is the same.  We just 
have to clearly identify, for each library, which license it is 
released under.

I don't know if Boost has any libraries licensed "free for non-commercial
use"; this would probably be the only one incompatible with Source Forge.
 
> Am I the only one who is put off by SourceForge's apparent
> argumentative political agenda?  Some of their web site material
> seems to come pretty close to out-and-out attacks on commercial
> software in general and Microsoft in particular.  

This question leaves me mystified.  I couldn't find any "argumentative
political agenda" on the SourceForge site.  Maybe you are confusing
it with the "OpenSource.org" site?  That is run by an entirely 
independent organization.  SourceForge just references the other 
site's list of licenses.
 
> Does anyone have actual experience participating in a SourceForge
> hosted project?  Is it better than eGroups, or just different?

Not putting increasingly obnoxious advertising on the e-mail is 
a huge mark in its favor already, even ignoring its many other 
services.
 
> We aren't wedded to eGroups but there isn't any point in moving
> unless some advantage is gained.

The main point (other than obnoxious advertising) is that egroups 
is not particularly oriented to free software projects, where 
SourceForge emphatically is.  They six full-time staff continually 
improving its utility for developers.

SourceForge is not dependent on advertising for revenue; rather,
the site advertises its own merits, and VA Linux pays for it by 
cloning and maintaining copies of the Source Forge infrastructure 
within corporations for their proprietary projects.  It is a major 
profit center for VA, so they have a real incentive to keep it 
working well.  In contrast, I suspect egroups is rather a shoestring
operation.

Nathan Myers
ncm_at_[hidden]