Google's Summer of Code Over

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Posted by Zonk on Sunday September 11, 2005 @04:25AM from the put-down-your-pencils dept.

yootje writes "The Summer of Code ('Google's program designed to introduce students to the world of open source software development.') is now over. The result: 410 participants helping 38 projects suchs as Apache, KDE and FreeBSD. 'Among the project awards are both complex and simple innovations spanning the width and breadth of everything that the open source world has to offer. There are projects dealing with security, networking, VoIP, Java, mono, IP-PBX, online picture galleries, instant messaging and content management. There is even a game that Google's summer internship helped to pay for.'" Update: 09/11 17:15 GMT by Z : Added the story link at submittor's request.

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awesome! by xintegerx · 2005-09-11 04:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

This is awesome! There is nothing like the highest worth technology company paying students to work their ass off in the summer to make and improve products and open source software in the name of Google.

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1. Re:awesome! by Anonymous Coward · 2005-09-11 05:10 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Google giving $4500 to each student is pretty darn good. When I was in school, it would have paid an awful lot of bills. Also, the projects are all sorts of open source projects...Asterisk, apache, whatever. What are you complaining about?
2. Re:awesome! by cide1 · 2005-09-11 06:14 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Not to be picky, but $4500 for a summer of work isn't pretty darn good. Most companies factor a summer as 12 weeks * 40 hrs/week = 480 hours. This is $9.37 / hour pretax. If the students were going to do the projects anyways, out of the goodness of their hearts, than this was a nice gesture, but it is not the same as an internship where the pay is normally twice that of google, and an internship which will have mentoring and allow a student to learn a companies culture.
  
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3. Re:awesome! by Vann_v2 · 2005-09-11 07:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  He's right. There were two big problems for me with Google's summer of code. The first was that they announced it well after most major summer internship deadlines. Even if I had wanted to do it I was already committed to doing an REU. The second was the pay. $4500 for the entire summer? Give me a break. Most REUs pay better than that per-hour and include room and board.
  
  Personally, I did an REU for the first 8 weeks of summer, which paid two thirds the amount Google was paying. The remainder of the summer I work full time and by the end I'll have made significantly more than Google's $4500, plus I'll have learned a lot of research-level mathematics. Most of the Summer of Code projects seemed to be plain BORING. Never mind that $4500 for someone in rural Iowa will go a lot farther than $4500 for someone living in San Francisco -- cost of living doesn't figure into Summer of Code anywhere, while it does for typical summer research or internship opportunities.
  
  I'm glad Google did this because it will help out a lot of projects, but the only way Summer of Code is compelling to a college student is if they've already exhausted other avenues.
4. Re:awesome! by MourningBlade · 2005-09-11 07:31 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Depends on where you live. Here in Oklahoma, $9.37/hr is pretty damn nice for a summer student internship.
  NYC it's not so hot.
  Also, given the nature of the project, it was possible to hold down a part-time job while working on it. So you're not comparing apples to apples.
  That "12 weeks * 40 hrs/week = 480 hours" would be with an office space they'd expect you to be in for those 40 hours.
5. Re:awesome! by laurensv · 2005-09-11 09:51 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  OT, but still;
  " It's a bit like the CIA funding the mujahadeen to fight the soviets, it probably cost them $1 to inflict $10,000 worth of damage onto the soviet economy."
  That strategy did backfire upon the USA and did much more harm in the end.
6. Re:awesome! by NetRAVEN5000 · 2005-09-11 11:02 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  No, what alternatives you have ISN'T beside the point. MS is completely exempt from making MS Office for Linux because no one would want it - people switch to Linux to get away from MS products (this is why they stopped making IE for Unix/Linux - it sucks, and no Linux user would want to use it). Likewise, Google is exempt from making Linux versions of some of their products because Linux already has more powerful programs that do the same thing - and then some - and are already in your distro and that you probably use every day anyways.
  It's fine by me that Google didn't make Desktop Search and Gmail Notifier for Linux because I don't want them, as I already have programs that serve the same purpose. Likewise, it's fine by me that MS doesn't make MS Office for Linux because I would never buy it anyway.
  It's not that Google is focusing solely on Windows apps, it's that they're prioritizing and they realize that they shouldn't waste time making Linux programs that Linux users wouldn't use, and that, while they should try to please the Linux and Mac users, they have more to benefit from pleasing the Windows users. Obviously they do plan on porting some of their software to Mac and Linux, though - why else would they use the Qt toolkit for Google Earth? Qt is used mostly for Linux programs.
  
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7. Re:awesome! by rbaf · 2005-09-11 19:11 · Score: 2, Insightful
  Open source != developing apps for Linux.
  
  I want to see their current windows apps to be open source.
  
  I want to see GFS to be open source.
  
  If they're really developing a browser or whatever OSish thing, I want it to be 100% open source :-)
  
  This is not to say what they've done is without merit, of course it is a good thing, but if we're going to talk about Google offering open source products, they could be doing it already, and instead, they're quite secretive with almost everything they do (which again, is fine with me, but it contradicts what some of you guys are saying here)...
  Oh and before someone jumps in, offering APIs is not the same as open source. MS has been publishing APIs for years, the reason many people can and do write stuff for Windows.
  Do they really open source LOTS of code? Where?
Where is the story? by hritcu · 2005-09-11 04:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

When I saw the subject I was really expecting to see some analysis, some statistics, at least a list of projects. Well ... where are all these things? The only reference in the article is to the official Summer of Code page, and that has been unchanged for weeks. So I have ask: where is the story?

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1. Re:Where is the story? by jgaynor · 2005-09-11 04:37 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Amen. I've had a problem with this since they announced it - such a great idea but no content on their site re: the actual work. They should have paid someone $4500 to maintain their summer of code page!
2. Re:Where is the story? by hritcu · 2005-09-11 04:58 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The article is interesting, and I really have to agree with the ending phrase:
  
  "Quite frankly, I don't know how Google will use the projects' results," Macieira said. "I hope they use it to promote free/open software and show that there is a healthy relation between the corporate world and the free software developers."
  
  I know that there will be enough of you trying to find a hidden (evil) reason for Google's action, but it is simply not the case. Google has very many benefits from open source, and now that they have the power to help back, they are actually doing it. Thank you Google.
  
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  If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough. (Alan Kay)
3. Re:Where is the story? by JPriest · 2005-09-11 07:37 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  My opinion is that Google is doing this to promote (improve) FOSS and Linux. It gives them a good opportunity to scout talent and also improve the only other real alternative to Microsoft products. If Ballmer ever does try to kill Google they could fight back by expanding this program.
  
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4. Re:Where is the story? by TheRaven64 · 2005-09-11 07:54 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Well, this isn't entirely altruistic, but then I'm distrustful of altruism. Google benefit because for a small investment they body of Free Software is improved. They can then skim these and use them as foundations for more of their own products. They also win because they gain good PR in the Free Software community. The projects benefit, because they receive funding and code. The students benefit, because they receive funding and mentoring. The world benefits because there is more Free Software available for them to use.
  Make no mistake though, Google are doing this because it benefits them. The fact that they choose to do things that benefit them and other people, rather than benefiting themselves at others expense, is why (for the moment) we like Google.
  
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One Google Clapping by Doc+Ruby · 2005-09-11 04:56 · Score: 2, Insightful

How "open" is the "Summer of Code" when there are no links to the projects? I've been looking for these projects, from which Google is getting the best PR since their IPO, since they started. Where are they? If source is released in a forest, and there's no one to read it, is it really open?

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Any results? by shish · 2005-09-11 06:04 · Score: 3, Insightful

Projects I've been looking forward to:
Apache Perchild MPM: Coder selected, can't find any code
Apache mod-bandwidth-limit: 2 people have shown an interest, can't find any code
Firefox bittorrent: Alpha 0.0.2
Several gaim projects: One project has commited *something* to HEAD
Several gnome projects: Can't find any news
Several SVN projects: Can't find any news
So has anything really changed?

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Re:Blenders Summer of Code projects by TheQwe · 2005-09-11 08:52 · Score: 2, Insightful

You also forgot to mention PyTexture, IMO one of the cooler projects to come out of SoC. qwe
Re:Nmap Project Results by jgaynor · 2005-09-11 10:43 · Score: 4, Insightful

Two points here -

1. Holy shit. wow. The above list just goes to show how much work can be involved in maintaing a tool which im sure many administrators take for granted and assume is more or less static.

2. This is exactly the kind of summary each project needs. A list of developers and features (or at least a link to the relevant changelogs) and the version number (or future version number) we can see those changes in.