Launchpad (website)
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This article's introduction section may not adequately summarize its contents. To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (June 2009) |
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| URL | launchpad.net |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Project Management |
| Registration | optional |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | Canonical Ltd. |
| Created by | Canonical Ltd. |
| Alexa rank | 21922[1] |
| Current status | Active |
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| Developer(s) | Launchpad Developers |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2.2.4 / 2009-04-01 |
| Preview release | 2.2.5 |
| Written in | Python |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Project Hosting Server |
| License | Closed License |
| Website | https://launchpad.net/launchpad-project |
Launchpad is a web application and web site supporting software development, particularly that of free software. Launchpad is developed and maintained by Canonical Ltd.
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[edit] Components
It has several parts:
- Code: source code hosting using the Bazaar version control system.
- Bugs: a bug tracker that allows bugs to be tracked in multiple contexts (e.g. in an Ubuntu package, as an upstream, or in remote bug trackers).
- Blueprints: a system for tracking Specifications and new features.
- Translations: a site for localising applications into different human languages.
- Answers: a community support site and knowledge base.
A significant but less visible component is Soyuz, "the distribution management portion of Launchpad." Launchpad is currently primarily used in the development of Ubuntu, an operating system. Launchpad uses the FOSS (free/open source) Zope 3 application server.
[edit] Collaboration tools
- Trac/Launchpad Plugin
- The Bugzilla Launchpad Plugin
- Launchpad login module for Drupal
- Teams module for Drupal
- Bazaar Plugin for Eclipse [2]
- Bugmail - for Thunderbird
- Leonov
[edit] Users
Several of Canonical Ltd's own projects use Launchpad for development including Ubuntu and Bazaar, and the development of Launchpad is itself managed in Launchpad.
Other prominent projects using Launchpad for various aspects of managing their development include:
- MySQL (code hosting)[3]
- Zope 3 (bug tracking)[4]
- Inkscape (bug tracking)[5]
- Bazaar
- GNOME Do
- Drizzle
- Upstart
- DrawBerry
[edit] Criticism
Launchpad has been criticized by the Jem Report and other members of the free software community for not being available under a free license, such as the GNU GPL, despite its aims. The developers have stated that they aim to eventually release it under a free software license, but that it could potentially take years.[6] On 9 July 2007, Canonical Ltd. released "Storm", the first Launchpad component made available under a free software license.[7]
Founder Mark Shuttleworth responded to this criticism that Launchpad needs paid-programmers to continue the development of the Launchpad platform and that there would be no point in developing multiple versions of Launchpad due to the probable incompatibility of the forks[8]. However, this has still left some members of the open-source movement dissatisfied.[9] On 22 July 2008 Mark Shuttleworth announced at OSCON that the complete source code is expected to be released within the next twelve months.[10]
On 19 December 2008, Canonical Ltd. released the Launchpad component "lazr.config" and "lazr.delegates" under LGPL v3.[11][12]
An open API is currently in Beta testing, which will allow programs to interact with the website. Calls for an open API to be released were aided by projects like Leonov that resorted to screenscraping to get data from Launchpad.
In the beginning of 2009 Canonical announced that the source code to the Launchpad website would be released under an open-source license by 21 July 2009. [13][14]. It was also announced that two large components of Launchpad, named Soyuz (which is responsible for the build system, package management and Ubuntu package publishing) and Codehosting , would not be released under an open-source license. [15]. Later, the specific date was changed to a more general timeframe of July/August 2009.[16]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "launchpad.net - Traffic Details from Alexa". www.alexa.com. http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/launchpad.net. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
- ^ "Launchpad plugin for Eclipse - using the Launchpad API". 2008-11-14. http://news.launchpad.net/api/launchpad-plugin-for-eclipse-using-the-launchpad-api. Retrieved on 2008-12-10.
- ^ Arnö, Kaj (2008-06-19). "Version Control: Thanks, BitKeeper - Welcome, Bazaar". http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/06/19/version-control-thanks-bitkeeper-welcome-bazaar/. Retrieved on 2008-06-19.
- ^ Launchpad 1.0 Beta Released. Press release. 2007-04-02. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/LaunchpadRelease. Retrieved on 2008-06-20.
- ^ "Inkscape moving to Launchpad!". 2007-11-21. http://news.launchpad.net/general/inkscape-moving-to-launchpad. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.
- ^ "Launchpad Frequently Asked Questions". Canonical. 2006-08-05. https://launchpad.net/faq.
- ^ "Canonical Releases Storm as Open Source". 2007-07-10. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/storm-python-orm-open-sourced.
- ^ "Launchpad should be free software (free as in freedom)". 2007-04-18. https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/+bug/50699/comments/10.
- ^ "Ubuntu is built with proprietary software". 2007-07-10. http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/325.
- ^ "Launchpad Source-Code Within 12 Months". 2008-07-22. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjYwOA.
- ^ lazr.delegates 1.0
- ^ lazr.config 1.0
- ^ Youtube - UDS Jaunty - Graham Binns
- ^ https://dev.launchpad.net/OpenSourcing
- ^ http://blog.launchpad.net/general/how-we-are-open-sourcing-launchpad
- ^ "Open Sourcing Launchpad". Canonical Ltd.. https://dev.launchpad.net/OpenSourcing. Retrieved on 2009-07-04. "The process should be completed in July / August 2009."
[edit] External links
- Launchpad
- Launchpad News Blog
- #launchpad on freenode
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