Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alternatives To SF.net's CompileFarm?

Posted by kdawson on from the in-search-of-iron dept.

cronie writes "Not long ago, SourceForge.net announced the shutdown of the Compile Farm — a collection of computers running a wide variety of OSes, available for compiling and testing open source projects. SF.net stated their resources 'are best used at this time in improving other parts' of the service. I consider this sad news for the OSS community, because portability is one of the strengths of OSS, and not many of us have access to such a variety of platforms to compile and test our software on. As a consequence, I expect many projects dropping support for some of the platforms they can't get access to. Are there any sound alternatives with at least some popular OS/hardware combinations? Any plans to create one? (Perhaps Google or IBM might come up with something?)"

6 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Vendor support... by Lord+Prox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Naaahhhhh. Nice thought, but no computational utopia yet.
    How about vendors supply compile farm gateways linked from SF.NET for use by SF members. Great way for hardware vendors to show off their new stuff to folks that might be inclined to buy or have influence in the purchase decision.

    Kinda like a hands-on remote(?!) demo.

    SciTechPulse. Geek News Netcast. Hot Polynesian Geek Chick Host Silulu.

  2. Re:not to be a jerk but... by remahl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hardly. The future is and has long been one of "write once, test anywhere". And that's the need the compile farm filled. Writing once and expecting it to automatically run everywhere without modifications is a pipe dream.

  3. Virtualisation negates the need for a compile farm by Jailbrekr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I use VMWare Workstation and Virtual PC to do testing and whatnot, negating the need for multiple systems in my home office. I have, for example, Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro, OpenBSD, FreeBSD 5.5 and FreeBSD 6.2 all set up as seperate virtual systems on a single computer.

    Who needs a compile farm when most of what we need can be run from a single moderately decent workstation?

    --
    Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
  4. They announced this AFTER the shutdown? by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Posted By: wdavison
    Date: 2007-02-16 00:13
    Summary: Compile Farm News

    As of 2007-02-08, SourceForge.net Compile Farm service has been officially discontinued.

    Shutdown on Feb. 8, announcement on Feb. 16th?

    With behavior like that, SourceForge can't be considered a safe location for important code. I'd suggest that it's time to get projects off SourceForge. Make offsite backups of anything important now.

    Latest announcement from VA Software, which owns SourceForge:

    VA Software Corp., whose software and online media are targeted for the open-source software community, said Thursday it named Scott E. Howe to its board of directors.

    Howe is president of a division of digital marketing company aQuantive Inc.

    "Scott's extensive knowledge of the media markets will be invaluable as we continue to focus on our core media assets and strive to secure alliances in the global competitive landscape," VA Software President and Chief Executive Ali Jenab said in a statement.

    VA Software slipped a penny to close at $4.24 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

    If VA Software thinks they're now a "media company", it's time to get off SourceForge.

  5. Dummy - Slashdot IS VA Software by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Animats wrote:

    If VA Software thinks they're now a "media company", it's time to get off SourceForge.


    VA Software owns Slashdot:

    http://www.ostg.com/about/index.htm:

    OSTG (Open Source Technology Group), formerly Open Source Development Network (OSDN), has had its roots in the technology community since its early days as the ground-breaking tech network Andover.net. Founded in 1996 with the mission to provide unbiased content, community, and commerce for the Linux and Open Source communities, Andover.net grew in community relevance and popularity by adding the provocative community-centric sites Slashdot and freshmeat.net to its technology group, and ThinkGeek and AnimationFactory.com to its e-commerce division. After its acquisition by VA Software Corp. (NASDAQ: LNUX) in early 2000 and the introduction of SourceForge.net and Linux.com, the network cemented its position as the Internet's leading destination for the Linux and Open Source community.


    Ergo, VA Software is a media company.

    Time to get off Slashdot.
  6. Can we start a replacement project by the100rabh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Can we start a community driven project similar to Compile Farm where people with systems contribute their system time in an anonymous fashion. Something like a p2p compilation.