Bonum Certa Men Certa

Black Duck (Created by Microsoft Veteran) Adds More Microsoft Veterans by Buying Ohloh

Water birds



Summary: Black Duck buys Ohloh and we analyse the meaning of it

JUST OVER a year ago SourceForge made the mistake of hiring Microsoft alumni by buying Ohloh. The Ohloh acquisition didn't work so well for Free software, for obvious reasons.



Another notable company which has some Microsoft roots and focuses on proprietary software development (for tracking free/open source development) is Black Duck (background reading may be required).

“The Ohloh acquisition didn't work so well for Free software, for obvious reasons.”One trend we have been noticing in recent years is that Microsoft alumni are getting authority in Microsoft's opposition including Free software, occasionally counting all sorts of things in ways that are beneficial to Microsoft (we gave examples before, ranging from C# boosting to promotion of Microsoft's software licences and insistence that Microsoft is an open source player rather than adversary).

Black Duck is finally picking some Microsoft alumni from Ohloh away from SourceForge (renamed and restructured for separation) and here is the official announcement:

Black Duck Software, the leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source software, today announced that it has acquired Ohloh.net from Geeknet, Inc (NASDAQ: GKNT.) The transaction closed on September 30, 2010.

Ohloh, founded in 2006, is the largest free public directory of open source software, and also hosts a vibrant web community of software developers and Free and Open Source (FOSS) users. Ohloh’s directory contains information aggregated from over 250,000 public code repositories, projects and forums. Black Duck, which has acquired all assets of the Ohloh property, will maintain and enhance the Ohloh website, brand, and project information for the Ohloh community, and will ultimately combine Ohloh and Koders.com to establish a comprehensive, free resource for developers to find, create, use and manage FOSS.


The announcement is not open to feedback, so comments in LWN (if any) will go here.

There is also news coverage, such as this:

Open source software company Black Duck Software (which is backed by close to $40 million in funding from Red Hat, Intel Capital and others) has acquired Ohloh, a free public directory of open source software and people. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Ohloh, sold by its previous owner and operator Geeknet (formerly known as SourceForge), will be integrated with Black Ducks’ free code search site Koders.com in an effort to further promote the adoption of open source software around the world.


For those who do not know, Black Duck has not a good relationship with the SFLC as they patented Bradley's job, which led to polite confrontation last year. "A #Disturbing Combo" called Bradley the above development "#BlackDuck buys Ohloh [...] was already proprietary, now can only get worse. Use @openhatchery instead!"

Here is a post from last week where Black Duck tried to associate itself with the Linux Foundation. All in all, Techrights views this news as two Microsoft sympathisers (they facilitate Microsoft influence inside "open source") becoming one entity. Whether that's good or bad is open to debate. At least they are under a single umbrella now.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
 
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025