SourceForge says, “With a single click, projects can opt-in to switch their web hosting from HTTP to HTTPS.”
SourceForge has added a feature that gives project websites the opportunity to opt-in to using SSL HTTPS encryption. Project admins can find this option in the Admin page under “HTTPS.”
Opting-in will also trigger a domain name change, from http://name.sourceforge.net to https://name.sourceforge.io. Visitors using the old domain will automatically redirect to the new domain.
This is the latest of several changes that BIZX, LLC has made since acquiring the site, along with Slashdot, in January.
The changes started with the ending of the controversial and unpopular DevShare monetization program as a “first order of business.” That program, which bundled third party proprietary software offers with Windows downloads, had prompted several high profile open source projects — including GIMP and phpMyAdmin — to leave to find other solutions.
In May, SourceForge added security scanning to find adware, viruses, and any unwanted applications that may be intentionally or inadvertently included in the software package hosted on the site. Then in July, a free onsite HTML5-based Speed Test was added. Included in the test are “latency/ping” (the time it takes for a packet to make a round trip to a remote computer), “download speed,” “upload speed”, and “packet loss.” The test also looks at “jitter and “buffer bloat.”
“This is just one step of many in our continued effort to improve security throughout SourceForge,” the company says in their announcement of the HTTPS project. “See our Site News section for a comprehensive list of SourceForge improvements including recent past announcements about multifactor authentication, virus scanning, and more.”
