[jwells89]

Yes, your first paragraph is the big standout in my memory. GitHub and Google Code were clean, uncluttered, and focused in a way that SourceForge was very much not. Almost what Google was to Excite, Lycos, etc in the early 2000s.

[everybodyknows]

What were Google's reasons for shutting down Code?

[outop]

Same as their reason for shutting down all their other projects. They only ever existed as a distraction for their underemployed workforce and as part of the PR that they have a mission other than pulling cash out of their personal-data-monetising advertising monopoly, forever.