

A Change to Google Code Download Service - yeukhon
http://google-opensource.blogspot.sg/2013/05/a-change-to-google-code-download-service.html

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endgame
Right. So what code hosts actually still allow downloads, which are imho the
best way to handle disciplined releases and to feed into package managers?

~~~
_delirium
The original, Sourceforge, still does. Also, GNU Savannah.

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makomk
Trouble is, a lot of Sourceforge sofware is bundled with adware these days, so
anyone with sense won't download from them.

~~~
JohnTHaller
No, it isn't. There were a total of 3 projects (literally 3 out of 300,000+)
that use the SourceForge adware download feature. These are the 3 (or was it
4?) that signed up during the test period before SF closed the program to re-
evaluate it.

Other than that, there are open source projects on SourceForge that manually
use adware installers of the publishers' own choosing (OpenCandy, Sweet IM,
etc) to try to make money. But I've seen this on other services as well, since
it's up to the publisher

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jhawk28
Their recommendation isn't going to work for me at work. They actively block
Google Drive/Dropbox/Skydrive/etc.

~~~
carsondu
Well why do they that do that?

It's like complaining that Amazon can't deliver to you because you don't allow
FedEx in your building.

~~~
giovannibajo1
I know some companies that just have a blacklist of services that can't be
used (popular cloud ones); then of course you can use the N+1 clone of such
services, until it gets popular enough for the IT dept to ban it. Eg: Dropbox
& Drive are blocked, but maybe copy.com isn't.

IOW they block Drive not because they don't want people to download open
source tarballs from it, but because they don't want them to use it for
company files/docs.

~~~
carsondu
How about they just ask their employees not to use it for company files? Or do
they think their employees are idiots or not trustworthy? How do they think
that reflects on them and their employees?

~~~
giovannibajo1
My experience is that, beyond some size threshold, people tend to stop caring
about generic company policies because they don't understand them (nor they
are well communicated or explained, since there is a large gap between
management and employees) and just do whatever is handy to them. At the same
time, management stop thinking that trust works as a way to enforce policies
and start enforcing them technically.

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packetslave
This was announced in May (as noted by the date of the blog post)

~~~
yeukhon
And it's good to remind again.

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analog31
Ask HN: What problem triggered this?

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plorkyeran
People figured out that Google Code made a great file hosting site for piracy
and Google didn't want to invest the resources to combat it.

~~~
MrBuddyCasino
But won't Google Drive have the same issue then?

~~~
plorkyeran
Google Drive's free tier has (fairly low) daily download limits. It's not
actually a suitable replacement for popular projects.

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thelonelygod
When they say downloads won't work does that include the ability to use
git/svn etc. on google code?

~~~
Stratoscope
No, this is about downloads only. It doesn't affect cloning and accessing
repositories with version control software, which continues to be supported as
before.

~~~
gcb0
So the project front page can just link to the source file raw url?

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el_duderino
Bintray is a simple, smart and social binary distribution platform. Y'all more
than welcome to try it.

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JohnTHaller
Note that this announcement is from May 2013 but comes into effect for
existing projects next month.

As for alternatives, SourceForge still supports binary downloads. Github
introduced the feature this year as well.

