Google Code to stop Download service Jan 2014! What's your plan?

Sparktank · 15th October 2013, 20:56

So this morning, I signed into my email to check my... email.

SourceForge had a "Major Site News" but it was just a reminder that Google Code is stopping their download service in Jan. 2014!

SF Email:

Quote:

Major Site News

...

Many of you are aware that Google has announced that it is ceasing its download service effective January 15, 2014. If you have a project on Google Code, stay tuned for a blog post from us on this front.

The email actually linked to their Code of Summer events rather than the actual announcement from Google.

Google Code Announcement:

Quote:

A Change to Google Code Download Service
Project Hosting on Google Code provides a free collaborative development environment for open source projects. Each project comes with its own member controls, Subversion/Mercurial/Git repository, issue tracker, wiki pages, and downloads service.

Downloads were implemented by Project Hosting on Google Code to enable open source projects to make their files available for public download. Unfortunately, downloads have become a source of abuse with a significant increase in incidents recently. Due to this increasing misuse of the service and a desire to keep our community safe and secure, we are deprecating downloads.

Starting today, existing projects that do not have any downloads and all new projects will not have the ability to create downloads. Existing projects with downloads will see no visible changes until January 14, 2014 and will no longer have the ability to create new downloads starting on January 15, 2014. All existing downloads in these projects will continue to be accessible for the foreseeable future.

If your project is using downloads to host and distribute files and has a need to periodically create new downloads, we recommend you move your downloads to an alternate service like Google Drive before January 15, 2014. If you choose to move your files to Google Drive, check out our help article.

By Google Project Hosting
Posted 20th May by Stephanie Taylor
Labels: project hosting downloads

I cannot think what the misuse is and what the incidents involved.

I know a quite a few here use Google Code to host their projects.
Were you given a notice on May 20th about the change of direction?

What are your plans for maintaining project updates?

I wonder if we should start a thread with collective information on existing projects and their hosting sites.
A more updated and informative index, if you will.

Updates can be made when project moves to a new host.

The actual doom9 site is quite dated.

LoRd_MuldeR · 15th October 2013, 22:33

Yeah, it's quite annoying that Google Code will stop hosting downloads. But Google is well-known for discontinuing some of their "old" services now and then. They rather go on to the "next big thing".

GitHub also removed the "downloads" feature, a while ago

Fortunately there are still various alternatives for project hosting with integrated download service, such as SourceForge, BerliOS, CodePlex and BitBucket - just to name a few.

Guess I will move all of my downloads to one of those

Furthermore, there are numerous file hosting sites, like GoogleDrive, Dropbox, MediaFire and Co, which one can use to host the downloads. You can use those in combination with a code-only hosting service.

And, well, you could always run your own dedicated server for a few bucks per month...

(What we can learn from this? Never rely on a single service provider! It's always a good idea to keep many mirrors of your project. And fortunately Git makes that very easy, compared to SVN or CVS)

LoRd_MuldeR · 29th November 2013, 16:30

Update/Correction:

As I just have learned, GitHub has revamped their "Releases" section. And now you can host your own downloads for each release, in addition to the source code packages

foxyshadis · 1st December 2013, 07:33

Hopefully by the time it's implemented, Google will offer an option to put the external download front and center, instead of on the sidebar. I just don't understand why they don't let you set up Google Drive and then upload transparently downloadable files linked the same way as before. It seems like change just to make Code into a lower traffic "for developers only" area, when you'd think they'd want more information on who's downloading what, but Google's never been great about consistency.

As for abuse, people have been uploading copyrighted material as project downloads. It's fast and there's no waiting; free file hosting is always going to be abused, and I guess they'd rather lump all of that hassle into one department.

LoRd_MuldeR · 1st December 2013, 13:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxyshadis

I just don't understand why they don't let you set up Google Drive and then upload transparently downloadable files linked the same way as before.

Same here. I think the GitHub method is very straight forward. It allows you to create "releases" directly from the source code "tags" in your repository. Source code downloads are added automatically to each release. Binary downloads can then be added (uploaded) manually, via drag&drop. Couldn't be easier! Google could have implemented something like that, just with Google Drive as the back-end. But apparently Google Code is not a priority for them (anymore).

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxyshadis

As for abuse, people have been uploading copyrighted material as project downloads. It's fast and there's no waiting; free file hosting is always going to be abused

Sure, but the same goes for Google Drive and any other file or video hosting platform. Also they could just have removed any "fake" OpenSource projects that only abused the file hosting service and then they could have made registering a new OpenSource project a little bit more challenging. Like at BerliOS, where you have to request a new project with a detailed description of what you are doing. So new projects will be accepted only if the project description is compelling. Sure, this requires more administrative overhead. But how many new legitimate OpenSource projects are created per day? Can't be that many that a company like Google couldn't have handled it easily...

Ghitulescu · 1st December 2013, 16:49

Well, Google code did not bring any real money to google. But it helped creating a monopoly for Google. Now it can be shutoff.

View Poll Results: Do you have plans beyond Google?
Yes, slowly moving to new host.	4	30.77%
Yes, it's called "retirement". (I.E. no more updates)	2	15.38%
No, I was not aware of this.	5	38.46%
No, I'll just improvise as it happens.	2	15.38%
TBA.	0	0%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 13. You may not vote on this poll

15th October 2013, 22:33	#2 \| Link
LoRd_MuldeR Software Developer Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Last House on Slunk Street Posts: 13,244	Yeah, it's quite annoying that Google Code will stop hosting downloads. But Google is well-known for discontinuing some of their "old" services now and then. They rather go on to the "next big thing". GitHub also removed the "downloads" feature, a while ago Fortunately there are still various alternatives for project hosting with integrated download service, such as SourceForge, BerliOS, CodePlex and BitBucket - just to name a few. Guess I will move all of my downloads to one of those Furthermore, there are numerous file hosting sites, like GoogleDrive, Dropbox, MediaFire and Co, which one can use to host the downloads. You can use those in combination with a code-only hosting service. And, well, you could always run your own dedicated server for a few bucks per month... (What we can learn from this? Never rely on a single service provider! It's always a good idea to keep many mirrors of your project. And fortunately Git makes that very easy, compared to SVN or CVS) __________________ Go to https://standforukraine.com/ to find legitimate Ukrainian Charities 🇺🇦✊ Last edited by LoRd_MuldeR; 16th October 2013 at 23:49.

29th November 2013, 16:30	#3 \| Link
LoRd_MuldeR Software Developer Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Last House on Slunk Street Posts: 13,244	Update/Correction: As I just have learned, GitHub has revamped their "Releases" section. And now you can host your own downloads for each release, in addition to the source code packages __________________ Go to https://standforukraine.com/ to find legitimate Ukrainian Charities 🇺🇦✊ Last edited by LoRd_MuldeR; 29th November 2013 at 17:04.

1st December 2013, 16:49	#6 \| Link
Ghitulescu Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Germany Posts: 5,769	Well, Google code did not bring any real money to google. But it helped creating a monopoly for Google. Now it can be shutoff. __________________ Born in the USB (not USA)

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1st December 2013, 07:33	#4 \| Link
foxyshadis ангел смерти Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Lost Posts: 9,555	Hopefully by the time it's implemented, Google will offer an option to put the external download front and center, instead of on the sidebar. I just don't understand why they don't let you set up Google Drive and then upload transparently downloadable files linked the same way as before. It seems like change just to make Code into a lower traffic "for developers only" area, when you'd think they'd want more information on who's downloading what, but Google's never been great about consistency. As for abuse, people have been uploading copyrighted material as project downloads. It's fast and there's no waiting; free file hosting is always going to be abused, and I guess they'd rather lump all of that hassle into one department.