SourceForge.net, World's Largest Open Source Development Site, Surpasses 100,000 Projects Hosted on the Site

SourceForge.net, the world's largest Open Source collaborative development site, and part of the OSTG (a subsidiary of VA Software (NASDAQ: LNUX) technology network has announced that it has surpassed the 100,000th project milestone. SourceForge.net is the world's largest collaborative development site and repository of Open Source projects. The momentum behind SourceForge.net's continued rapid growth has been fueled by the visibility of new projects posted by leading organizations such as NASA, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and SalesForce.com. In the past 100 days, SourceForge.net has approved and launched nearly 6,000 new projects. Registered users on the site have surpassed the one million mark to reach a new high of 1,074,424 as of May 17, 2005.

The largest site of its kind, SourceForge.net enables development and IT professionals worldwide to collaborate on Open Source projects, download code and projects, and actively interact with other members of the technology community through mailing lists and other forums.

"We've long viewed SourceForge.net as a catalyst for change in the way technologies are developed and distributed," said Jeff Bates, site director for SourceForge.net and VP of editorial operations for OSTG. "The community that relies on our site represents the earliest of early-adopters -- the most forward-thinking development and IT professionals who are seeking better, faster, and frankly, cheaper, ways to achieve their business goals."

Bates continued, "Corporations posting projects to SourceForge.net view their Open Source strategies as a critical component towards accelerating adoption and migration to their products and services. SourceForge.net is an integral part of the Open Source dialog to stimulate technology innovation, add value to proprietary technologies, and facilitate and spur continuous change and growth in software development across the board."

Organizations and companies posting successful projects to SourceForge.net include:

-- NASA Java Pathfinder, a program that helps people find 'bugs' in other
programs by running a number of test trials, until it finds a test that
causes the program to fail. The project, hosted at
https://sourceforge.net/projects/javapathfinder/, is one of several NASA
projects has posted on SourceForge.net, including World Wind, a graphically
rich 3D virtual globe combining NASA imagery generated from satellites.
World Wind has generated more than 600,000 downloads in past 60 days.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/nasa-exp/

-- IBM has contributed more than 30 Open Source projects to the site
since February 2005, and launched new online skills-building programs to
spur innovation, collaboration and development around emerging Open Source
projects. Combined, the projects have been downloaded more than 52,000
times in the past 60 days.
https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=449291

-- Google has recently released four projects to the site, including
Google mAIM, CoreDumper, Sparse Hashtable, Perftools, and GoopyFunctional.
Combined they have been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the past 60
days. http://code.google.com/projects.html

-- Microsoft has posted several popular projects to the site enabling
developers to build collaborative online content, build installation
packages for Windows products and create graphic interfaces for Windows
programs. In the past 60 days, the projects have combined downloads of more
than 21,000. For more information, view the press release
www.ostg.com/pdfs/flexwiki.pdf.

-- SalesForce.com has posted utilities and samples for use with sforce --
the SalesForce.com Web services platform. The project has received nearly
4,500 downloads in the past 60 days.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sforce/

Open Source Adoption Reaches New Highs
As Open Source technologies become mainstream and IT professionals evangelize adoption of Open Source tools and technologies, more companies and organizations are launching Open Source initiatives as a way to drive additional evaluation and consideration towards their solutions and services. Large corporations like IBM, Sun and HP have made major public commitments to Open Source as a way of spurring innovation and purchase towards next generation technologies and services. IBM's recent acquisition of Gluecode is another indicator to support these trends. According to a recent study by Forrester Research, 60% of firms interviewed are using or planning to use Open Source software in their organizations,* further supporting the trend of Open Source adoption and migration.

"Increasingly we are seeing commercial organizations adopt Open Source tools, technologies and techniques that have evolved on SourceForge.net. This is a significant shift in the computer industry where high-quality, well-supported, rapidly evolving applications can be freely shared to break the decades-old dependencies on a few strong software vendors. Everyone benefits as a result of this shift," said Colin Bodell, CTO for VA Software Corp., OSTG's parent company. Bodell continued, "What is especially exciting is that we're seeing more and more software companies adopting Open Source business models and practices -- this is not just a trend; it's becoming the way that all software will be developed, distributed and maintained."

For more information about SourceForge.net, visit www.sourceforge.net.

About OSTG, Inc.

OSTG (Open Source Technology Group), is the cornerstone of the Open Source movement and the leading online network for IT managers and development professionals. OSTG's technology-focused sites include Slashdot.org, SourceForge.net, ITManagersJournal.com, NewsForge.com, Linux.com and freshmeat.net. OSTG also owns ThinkGeek.com, the leading retailer for innovative technology products, and AnimationFactory.com, a leading online-image content provider. The network serves more than 290 million page views and nearly 19 million unique visitors a month**. For more information, visit www.ostg.com.

VA Software (NASDAQ: LNUX), is at the center of today's technology revolution and incites innovation by empowering the IT and developer communities with information, community support and software. VA Software is the parent company of OSTG and the creator of SourceForge. SourceForge.net is the global nexus for the Open Source community with more than 100,000 Open Source projects and one million-plus registered users. SourceForge Enterprise Edition optimizes distributed development for Fortune 500 companies. For company information, visit www.vasoftware.com.

Slashdot and SouceForge.net are registered trademarks of OSTG, Inc., in the United States and other countries. VA Software, OSTG, and SourceForge are trademarks or registered trademarks of VA Software Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other product names herein are the properties of their respective owners.

*Open Source in the Mainstream, Forrester Research, 2004. **Traffic based on internal auditing data as of March 31, 2005


Press Contact:
Penny Paul
Tel: (973) 744-0707
E-Mail: penny.paul@bhgpr.com


SOURCE: OSTG

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