CodePlex was originally launched in 2006, as there were very few open source project hosting sites for developers to share software, collaborate on code and host open source projects before GitHub came into prominence a few years later. Undoubtedly, over the years, GitHub has become the de facto place for open source sharing and most open source projects have migrated there. Even Microsoft is currently using GitHub and many of its key open source projects are now on GitHub (Visual Studio Code, TypeScript, .NET, the Cognitive Toolkit, and more). Microsoft said that it would work closely with GitHub to promote open source. While Microsoft has already disabled the ability to create new CodePlex projects on the website, it will be converted into read-only mode in October, before it is completely shut down on December 15th, 2017. In association with GitHub, Microsoft is providing a streamlined import experience to help developers bring their CodePlex source code, license, and documentation to GitHub. Besides this, the developers will also be able to download an archive file with their CodePlex source code, releases, documentation, issues, and license, all in common, transferrable formats like Markdown and JSON. They have also added a new option on the developer’s project to set an “I’ve moved” banner on the project that will direct their users to their new home page. For more information regarding the announcement made by Microsoft, click here. Also, check out the guide on CodePlex for migrating to GitHub.
