Would have been interesting to see github acquire SorceForge, for nothing more than the projects. I guess a migration wouldn't be worth it, the projects with life and activity would have left SF sometime ago?
Not really. At least when it comes to desktop software a lot of free software projects I use regularly are hosted on sourceforge. Don't confuse the popularity of github on Hacker News with general popularity.
Conversely, a lot of free software I use on both the desktop and on servers is hosted on GitHub. (I'm not sure how this argument is a rebuttal against GitHub acquiring SourceForge)
Though, GitHub is in the collaboration business. They take the standard git model and remove 99% of the complexity of me trying to share my repo with my co-workers while I'm at a coffee shop and can't passthrough a NAT router, for example. Hosting software is kind of a by-product. SourceForge has always been about software, not collaboration between people. Buying SourceForge wouldn't solve anything since dead software will still be dead software without someone to take the reigns and become a manager of incoming patches and contributing him or herself, which all can be done without spending 20 million.
Yes GitHub is huge - I just say this doesn't automatically mean SF is now getting small. Nothing against GitHub, it is the nicer solution for many projects. But for example for any project with lots of media data I still prefer using SF + svn. Or for any application that is mainly targeted at normal users and not foremost at developers using SF is also great. And it's very complete - you don't have just the usual things like code-browsing and bugtrackers, but you can for example also host a php-forum on SF.
