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To Fork or Not to Fork: Fork Motivations in SourceForge Projects

To Fork or Not to Fork: Fork Motivations in SourceForge Projects
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Author(s): Linus Nyman (Hanken School of Economics, Finland)and Tommi Mikkonen (Tampere University of Technology, Finland)
Copyright: 2013
Pages: 9
Source title: Open Source Software Dynamics, Processes, and Applications
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Stefan Koch (Bogazici University, Turkey)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2937-0.ch007

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Abstract

A project fork occurs when software developers take a copy of source code from one software package and use it to begin an independent development work that is maintained separately. Although forking in open source software does not require the permission of the original authors, the new version competes for the attention of the same developers that have worked on the original version. The motivations developers have for performing forks are many, but in general they have received little attention. The authors present the results of a study of forks performed in SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/) and list the developers’ motivations for their actions.

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