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Programming Software The Internet Technology

Distributed Development of Closed Source Software? 33

Posted by Cliff from the de-centralized-programming dept.
An anonymous reader queries: "After being laid off recently, I got in touch with a few uni friends. We've now decided to start developing some software in our respective spare time(s), which we may consider commercializing depending on how it goes. We've come across a problem that I am sure is not very new. We are all in different countries and different time zones. How do we best collaborate given that we have such a diverse team."
"Currently we think we need a service that provides the following:

1) CVS or some variant, subversion is fine
2) Bug tracking / issue tracking (bugzilla etc)
3) Discussion board with password protection (phpBoard / cute cast)
4) Some software that lets us book meetings in different time zones. (Calendar system which takes timezone differences into account)
5) Telnet (SSH) access is preferred
6) Shouldn't cost an arm and a leg

We are perfectly willing and capable of setting up some of it ourselves, if the service lets us log in via telnet. I know there are lots of services like this for open source development, but are there any for closed source? Have people used some service like this? A cost/feature comparason would be nice, if that information is available."
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Distributed Development of Closed Source Software? More

Distributed Development of Closed Source Software?

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  • Telnet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Compuser ( 14899 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @12:28AM (#10370213)
    If you are going to use telnet, might as well make
    it open source...

  • Nice Try... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @12:34AM (#10370251)
    ...but we're not helping you bastards [yourjobisg...oindia.com] figured out how to make this "offshoring" thing actually work.

    I tell you, if people could actually figure this out, I would be worried about offshoring. Until then, I'll continue to listen to story after story after story about disasters and clusterfuckers.

  • uuh why not download the sourceforge program (Score:4, Informative)

    by zaqattack911 ( 532040 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @12:34AM (#10370254) Journal
    You can run your own copy of sourceforge.
    It has everything you listed.
  • colo a server or 'rent' a linux virtual server node.

    the latter can be done for pretty damn cheap.

  • GForge (Score:5, Informative)

    by Felonius Thunk ( 168604 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @12:46AM (#10370331) Journal
    GForge [gforge.org] has all of this and is probably exactly what you're looking for. I haven't used it yet, but a couple of friends and I are planning to pretty soon. Also, free (and Free) is good. BYOS(erver), is all.

    • Re:GForge (Score:2, Funny)

      by moreiwant ( 556533 )
      Man, Google these days, they really are everywhere!
    • I'll throw in a recommendation for GForge as well.

      I setup a GForge Server for our development at work, and it was pretty easy, and really nice. The major features of souceforge, and you get a personal, and customizable setup. You can even restrict gforge to force you to login before it gives you any information (which is good for closed source development).

      The only problem you might run into (unless you plan to host it on your own server in someones place, or have a dedicated server), is finding a ho
    • > GForge has all of this

      Yup, GForge rocks. I help admin CougaarForge [cougaar.org] for a government project; GForge has worked out really well. It's not resource-intensive, either - we run 34 projects and 700 users on one dual proc machine with _plenty_ of horsepower to spare.

      Lots of other folks [gforge.org] are running GForge servers too...

  • One opinion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aminorex ( 141494 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @12:52AM (#10370375) Homepage Journal
    I've been doing distributed development since 1992. I advise using IRC as the primary means of coordination. You can use Yahoo Messenger chat rooms for free voip meetings, but you'd probably be better off running your own Asterisk server and using SIP phone hardware, since every software voice system I've ever seen sucks. CVS is the old work horse, but subversion is what has traction now, so there's little point in clinging to CVS.

    You need a server somewhere. If you are a collection of real-live software developers, probably every last one of you has at least one server online, so it seems odd that you would be looking for a commercial service that gets to own your "closed" source code.
    If you actually can't use one of your members' server installations for some reason, just rent a dedicated host and configure these things. None of them are terribly difficult to setup or manage. Any compentent linux admin, given a debian root prompt, could have them all up and running in a matter of an hour or so.

  • "CLOSED SOURCE?!?" (Score:4, Funny)

    by Paul d'Aoust ( 679461 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @01:13AM (#10370486)
    how dare you?!? "closed source." I spit at the word.

    ha, just kidding. I'm developing a project which will most likely be closed-source for a while myself. Okay, in addition to all the source management thingies that other people have suggested, I'd definitely set up a private Jabber server for you chaps to collaborate on in real-time. My two cents' worth.
  • You can always try https://gna.org/projects/savane It's what powers savannah.gnu.org

  • CVSdude (Score:2, Informative)

    by MarkKnopfler ( 472229 )
    Take a look at CVSDude [cvsdude.org]. It is probably what you need. Offers public subversion and cvs servers. The premium service offers your needs for privacy too. Might be useful for you.

  • What is your problem? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jotaeleemeese ( 303437 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @02:34AM (#10370895) Homepage Journal
    Sometimes I wonder if some people get the full open source,closed source thing at all.

    Look buddy, OSS differs from CSS only in how you decide to license it.

    The software is the same for bunny's sake, there are no tools that magically will convert your software in OOS or CSS just by using them.

    Your question is frankly inane and I wonder why the editors found worth posting (slow day out there guys?).

    In regards to distributed development, you seem to have nailed down the tools you need (once you go live plese let us know the name of your software, your awarness of security, telnet????, is pretty reassuring).
    • Look buddy, OSS differs from CSS only in how you decide to license it.

      The software is the same for bunny's sake, there are no tools that magically will convert your software in OOS or CSS just by using them. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the difference is that sourceforge won't host a closed-source product.

    • Look buddy, OSS differs from CSS only in how you decide to license it.

      And who can contribute - if I find a bug in GPLed software, I can fix it myself, send in a patch, done.

      CSS requires me to wait for the dev team to find the bug, fix it, and make a patch.

      Good enough diff?
    • Try to start a CSS project on Sourceforge.

  • cvs over ssh (Score:2, Informative)

    by ufnoise ( 732845 )
    If your or one of your colleagues has an always on connection, you can use cvs over ssh. The data and password are then encrypted. In case your ip number is dynamically allocated, a service such as zoneedit.com can be used to keep updating your hostname to resolve it.

    Also be sure to check out phpBB as a bulletin board.

  • Seeing as you're going commercial (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DrSkwid ( 118965 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @04:29AM (#10371307) Journal

    If you want the proper answer to your commercial question then you need to ask me in my commerical consultant capacity, reasonable rates available.

  • CollabNet (Score:3, Informative)

    by ManikSurtani ( 764890 ) <manik@s u r t a n i . org> on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @05:19AM (#10371508) Homepage
    Depending on how much you can afford to pay for such a service, give Collab.Net a try. (http://www.collab.net)

    I do something similar, but I've just rebuilt my old PC as a server and have it running all the services you mentioned, connected to my ADSL line at home using a dynamic DNS host. Took me a couple of hrs, using FC2.

  • Code Co-op (Score:5, Informative)

    by stoborrobots ( 577882 ) on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @05:23AM (#10371523)
    Reliable Software [relisoft.com] makes a product called "Code Co-op: Server-less Version Control", (free trial, then cheap licence per seat) designed exactly for distributed closed-source development, especially where there is no central server. (I have never used it, but I came across their site more than 5 years ago when looking for good windows programming [relisoft.com] info, which they still have - also cool scientific programming [relisoft.com] info.)

    That said, there's nothing you mentioned that you cannot do if you rent a *nix box and install alexandria, which powers sourceforge [sourceforge.net] or Savane, which powers Gna.org, LCG Savannah and GNU/Non-GNU Savannah [gna.org]
  • Probably the two best closed source collaboration tools are Lotus Notes or Groove.

    Notes you can get someone else to host it. Groove doesn't require a central server. Both allow you replicate your discussion board offline.

  • I've used Groove [groove.net] for quite some time to facilitate distributed development. It allows you to share files, discussions, etc.. from a single client. For source control, hosting a CVS server wouldn't be hard on any hosting service that allows a shell account.

  • Use Wiki Wiki to discuss design decisions, keep track of bugs and various issues, post GUI snapshots, maintain documentation...

    The good thing with Wiki, compared to forums, is that the information will be better organized, easier to search, and you can use your CVS server to maintain a history.

    There are many good Wiki Wiki implementations available, just google for TWiki or Kwiki as a start...
  • You really should take a look at basecamp [basecamphq.com]. It is great for organizing messaging and calendars for a far-flung team. Password protected with multiple logins. Free to try for a single project so there is really no reason not to try it out. Export everything as XML if you move to something else.

    GREAT interface. One of the best web apps I have ever used.

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