Geek.net, the parent company of SourceForge.net, Slashdot.org, ThinkGeek.com, Geek.com, freshmeat.net, and ohloh.net, has told employees that it will be closing freshmeat.net and ohloh.net. This information has not yet been released to the public, but we’ve heard it from more than one Geek.net employee.
Another insider, when asked to confirm what is going on, said, “They’re being absorbed into sourceforge.net, so … yes, I guess (they’re closing).”
freshmeat.net (never capitalized) was the first listing and announcement site for free and open source software. It was founded by German programmer Patrick Lenz, who has continued to work on the site’s backend code as a subcontractor for its parent company.
Geek.net was previously known as SourceForge.net. Before that it was called VA Linux, and the websites operated as VA’s OSTG division. Before that, the publishing part of VA was known as OSDN, and most of them were owned by a company called Andover.net before VA Linux bought that company and started an endless string of restructuring and rebranding.
Geek.net bought ohloh.net in May, 2009. It acquired Geek.com in May, 2010. We have not yet heard any word about Geek.com’s future, but Geek.net announced — internally — a 25 percent staff cut this week, so things do not bode well for this once-powerful online publisher.
