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Eclipse Foundation Launches Community Portal
Eclipse Plugin Central (EPIC) helps developers and enterprises find plug-ins, tools, and add-on services to enhance their Eclipse development.

JavaOne, May 15, 2006

The Eclipse Foundation launched today a community portal to promote the adoption of Eclipse-based commercial products, complementary open source projects, and Eclipse-related training, support, and services. The portal, Eclipse Plugin Central (EPIC), helps developers, software vendors, and enterprises find open source and commercial plug-ins, tools, and add-on services to enhance their Eclipse development.

EPIC was initially created in 2004 and operated by an alliance of three Eclipse Foundation member companies Genuitec, Innoopract, and Instantiations. The three companies have contributed the existing EPIC site to the Eclipse Foundation and will remain involved in the development and evolution of the site.

The Eclipse ecosystem features more than 1,000 plug-ins, 950 Eclipse-related projects listed on SourceForge, and an estimated 200 independent software vendors (ISVs) that are using Eclipse as the platform for their commercial products. The new portal offers a central repository for this community to promote their Eclipse-based products. It will also make it easier for potential users to find Eclipse-based products.

"The Eclipse ecosystem has greatly matured over the last few years, evidenced by the growing number of plug-ins and tools available," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. "We believe that to realize the full potential of the ecosystem, it is important that we make it more accessible to the community. Our goal with EPIC is to have it be the place for finding Eclipse-related products and services."

"Instantiations is pleased to participate in this important donation to the Eclipse Foundation. The EPIC portal is a key tool for us and our customers, and we look forward to the Foundation taking it to the next level for the entire Eclipse ecosystem," said Mike Taylor, president and CEO of Instantiations.

The EPIC community portal can be found at http://www.eclipseplugincentral.com/.