GForge 4.0 Released

jaaron writes "Ever wanted your own personal SourceForge? If so, then be sure to check out GForge which just released version 4.0. GForge is a fork of the original GPL'd SourceForge code and like sf.net provides forums, mailing lists, revision control via CVS or Subversion (yes, Subversion!), issue trackers and much more for any number of teams and projects."

Comments

Useful for its parts

[abulafia]

You're right, to an extent. Few folks are actually going to deploy the reference release.

I've used parts of prior releases, though - there are handy things there, and it saved me a hell of a lot of work.

The conjunction of the features are terribly useful in many specialized settings, and not having to either ingregrate a bunch of different crap or rebuild it is great. I suspect this is how most people use it.

Re:Useful Only Once?

[jaaron]

I just think that, really now, who, other than huge developers who most likely have something similar to this, is really going to use this?

We use it internally at my work as do many other companies from what I understand. It's great for handling internal customer requests and project tracking. In fact, if I had my way, GForge would be the core of our entire intranet.

So yeah, most single developers may not set this up on their home network, but as soon as you have a team (even a small team), it's a really great tool.

Check out this list of GForge powered sites.

Re:Useful Only Once?

[jaaron]

I have not evaluated the new enterprise version of SourceForge, so it's hard for me to compare.

Setting up GForge isn't a cakewalk, but it's not horrible either. If you're going to run it on Debian Linux, then it's very simple. Otherwise, you just have to follow the directions and give yourself a couple of hours. A lot of it depends on how many options are you going to use. Will you use Subversion? Mailing Lists? LDAP? Adding these components will increase the install time.

Most all the developers like GForge, but it took us a while to figure out exactly how we were going to use it. One concern we had was cross-project reporting, that is, developing reports that span several GForge projects. There are new default reports in 4.0 that do this and once you figure out the database schema it's pretty easy to add whatever else you need.

Manager buy-in has been fine since GForge is years ahead of what we were using (which was next to nothing) and cost us next to nothing. However, we didn't get professional support from the GForge Group though I wish we had. Their prices were very reasonable, could do all sorts of customizations, and could have saved us (me) some time.

So, in conclusion, I definitely recommend you check out GForge and contact the GForge Group. I imagine they can do better than what SourceForge is offering.