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Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

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Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#11

Post by dale_glass »

I don't believe there's any major harm in using Github for most projects.

Maintaining my own servers and chasing ideological purity doesn't improve my project. Any time I dedicate to setting up infrastructure is time I'm not dedicating to making the code better.

The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm. Every developer and contributor has a copy of the repo, should the worst happen setting up home elsewhere isn't that difficult. But until it is, why spend time on it?

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#12

Post by chedabob »

rumblefrog wrote: post #10
miloc_c wrote: post #8

Linus Torvalds (Git was originally created by him) seems to be actively contributing in GitHub for the Linux kernel repository (also created by him): https://github.com/torvalds/linux Anyone has seen his position on this topic?

Isn't the Github repo a mirror?

Yeah the commit messages suggest all the heavy-lifting was done on kernel.org's server. It's just matched his GH user to the email in the commit.

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#13

Post by bestouff »

dale_glass wrote: post #11

I don't believe there's any major harm in using Github for most projects. Maintaining my own servers and chasing ideological purity doesn't improve my project. Any time I dedicate to setting up infrastructure is time I'm not dedicating to making the code better. The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm. Every developer and contributor has a copy of the repo, should the worst happen setting up home…

> The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm.

Famous last words

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#14

Post by sublimefire »

dale_glass wrote: post #11

I don't believe there's any major harm in using Github for most projects. Maintaining my own servers and chasing ideological purity doesn't improve my project. Any time I dedicate to setting up infrastructure is time I'm not dedicating to making the code better. The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm. Every developer and contributor has a copy of the repo, should the worst happen setting up home…

My thoughts as well. Microsoft is just one of the companies, Google is no better either. Any OSS component could be bought and made non free, any free project provided by Google etc could change the licence and prevent you from using it, similar happened recently.

I think it is great that people use GitHub as it has a low barrier of entry, if anything happens the stuff can quickly be moved elsewhere. Until then we can piggyback on the free platform. Using some other company does not make it immediately safer anyway.

The challenge here is more about archiving, especially those rarely used repos. In any case GH is safe as MS is focussing more on AI now and they do not have a good alternative to GitHub to think about turning it off like Skype yet.

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#15

Post by vanschelven »

I think the reasons mentioned in the article are to be taken seriously (unlike some of the other commenters here). Historically, Microsoft has shown itself as "not an ally to Open Source" to put it mildly. And there is a real tie-in to Github-the-platform (issues, workflows, etc) despite the fact that git repos themselves can be migrated away trivially (by design).

Having said that, the alternatives they mention aren't realistic. Precisely those things that make GitHub dangerous, are the things that make it worth choosing. In particular: network effects, issue tracking and PRs.

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#16

Post by konimex »

miloc_c wrote: post #8

Linus Torvalds (Git was originally created by him) seems to be actively contributing in GitHub for the Linux kernel repository (also created by him): https://github.com/torvalds/linux Anyone has seen his position on this topic?

> Anyone has seen his position on this topic?

Well, he's not a fan of GitHub pull request as per the last decade.

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/pull/17#issuecomment-56546...

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#18

Post by sublimefire »

cookiengineer wrote: post #7

Related: - Lessons from open source in the Mexican government [1] - Europe as a software colony (documentary) [2] The TL;DR is: If a diplomat from the US is at your doorstep and wants to doxx, eh... talk to, your CEO, you're doing exactly the right thing. [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/1013776/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duaYLW7LQvg

You need to understand how government buys software. Nobody prevents any company to propose the smallest possible price by utilizing OSS. Yet this is not happening because all of those pushing the idea do not really do anything and actually help their governments locally.

Another important factor is that gov workers rarely have enough skills to run OSS software, they are understaffed. And, it is difficult to integrate OSS with the existing systems.

Finally there is a question about responsibility and control. If you get a 0-day in OSS, who will patch it and who has the rights to push that patch? It is about managing risks.

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#19

Post by guappa »

dale_glass wrote: post #11

I don't believe there's any major harm in using Github for most projects. Maintaining my own servers and chasing ideological purity doesn't improve my project. Any time I dedicate to setting up infrastructure is time I'm not dedicating to making the code better. The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm. Every developer and contributor has a copy of the repo, should the worst happen setting up home…

> Maintaining my own servers

You could just use codeberg. But you immediately had to jump to the most difficult alternative.

Re: Important open source projects should not use GitHub (2020)

#20

Post by guappa »

sublimefire wrote: post #14
dale_glass wrote: post #11

I don't believe there's any major harm in using Github for most projects. Maintaining my own servers and chasing ideological purity doesn't improve my project. Any time I dedicate to setting up infrastructure is time I'm not dedicating to making the code better. The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm. Every developer and contributor has a copy of the repo, should the worst happen setting up home…

My thoughts as well. Microsoft is just one of the companies, Google is no better either. Any OSS component could be bought and made non free, any free project provided by Google etc could change the licence and prevent you from using it, similar happened recently. I think it is great that people use GitHub as it has a low barrier of entry, if anything happens the stuff can quickly be moved elsewhere. Until then we ca…

The CI stuff and the fact that you can't really export bugreports and similar things are their lock in.
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