From the ‘Don’t Download This’ file:
Google Code got started back in 2006 as an alternative open source code hosting repository and 
collaborative development site. At the time of its creation, I had thought that it would competitive with Sourceforge (which it was), but as it turns out Sourceforge will now get the last laugh.
This week after seven years of enabling developers to host code that could easily be download, Google in its wisdom is shutting down the Google Code Download services.
“Downloads were implemented by Project Hosting on Google Code to enable open source projects to make their files available for public download,” Google stated. “Unfortunately, downloads have become a source of abuse with a significant increase in incidents recently. Due to this increasing misuse of the service and a desire to keep our community safe and secure, we are deprecating downloads.”
Google is now recommending that developers use Google Drive to host files instead. Yeah good luck with that Google, remember Sourceforge?
Sourceforge is now offering Google Code devs the ability to host download code on Sourceforge.
Personally, I think developers want to have code development and hosting download in the same spot — it’s just easier. Though of course, open source software has a long history of mirror download sites and such, so perhaps this isn’t a big deal after all?
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Enterprise Networking Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.