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Distributed Development of Closed Source Software?
An anonymous reader queries: "After being laid off recently, I got in touch with a few uni friends. We've now decided to start developing some software in our respective spare time(s), which we may consider commercializing depending on how it goes. We've come across a problem that I am sure is not very new. We are all in different countries and different time zones. How do we best collaborate given that we have such a diverse team."
"Currently we think we need a service that provides the following:
1) CVS or some variant, subversion is fine
2) Bug tracking / issue tracking (bugzilla etc)
3) Discussion board with password protection (phpBoard / cute cast)
4) Some software that lets us book meetings in different time zones. (Calendar system which takes timezone differences into account)
5) Telnet (SSH) access is preferred
6) Shouldn't cost an arm and a leg
We are perfectly willing and capable of setting up some of it ourselves, if the service lets us log in via telnet. I know there are lots of services like this for open source development, but are there any for closed source? Have people used some service like this? A cost/feature comparason would be nice, if that information is available."
1) CVS or some variant, subversion is fine
2) Bug tracking / issue tracking (bugzilla etc)
3) Discussion board with password protection (phpBoard / cute cast)
4) Some software that lets us book meetings in different time zones. (Calendar system which takes timezone differences into account)
5) Telnet (SSH) access is preferred
6) Shouldn't cost an arm and a leg
We are perfectly willing and capable of setting up some of it ourselves, if the service lets us log in via telnet. I know there are lots of services like this for open source development, but are there any for closed source? Have people used some service like this? A cost/feature comparason would be nice, if that information is available."
GForge has all of this and is probably exactly what you're looking for. I haven't used it yet, but a couple of friends and I are planning to pretty soon. Also, free (and Free) is good. BYOS(erver), is all.
Reliable Software makes a product called "Code Co-op: Server-less Version Control", (free trial, then cheap licence per seat) designed exactly for distributed closed-source development, especially where there is no central server. (I have never used it, but I came across their site more than 5 years ago when looking for good windows programming info, which they still have - also cool scientific programming info.)
That said, there's nothing you mentioned that you cannot do if you rent a *nix box and install alexandria, which powers sourceforge or Savane, which powers Gna.org, LCG Savannah and GNU/Non-GNU Savannah
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