Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#41

Post by ModernMech » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #25

horsawlarway wrote: post #9

I'm no fan of Windows myself, but I find this a fairly bad policy. If nothing else - what's not used is not tested. And if you expect any real population of users to be using Windows machines with your products, you should have developers/PMs/QA/support interacting with your products using Windows machines. I see this as: We're saving a bit of money and making ITs life easier, and in exchange users will get a worse p…

I mean, Gitlab is a web platform. It's pretty easy to test how it's going to work on different platforms without needing full machines. Heck, you can even just get Microsoft Edge binaries on macOS and Linux if you want to test Edge. But failing that, VMs are pretty sufficient.

Gitlab ships various ci runner executables for all platforms. I use their Windows ci runner and it works well, but I wonder how they test it without running windows.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#42

Post by salzig » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

pjmlp wrote: post #22

I guess Gitlab doesn't care about having customers that work on Windows platforms. Meanwhile Github works just great for us.

because windows can't run browsers anymore? I would say they don't give a f*ck on the operating system you use, as long it includes a browser.

It's just their workforce, where they don't want to see anyone working with windows.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#43

Post by jrochkind1 » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

ironmagma wrote: post #8

This is being posted just a day after this tweet: https://twitter.com/allenholub/status/1555324387087097856 I really wonder what it's like inside Gitlab. The product ticks all the boxes you'd want it to, but the user experience just resonates with sadness and misery.

Woah, that tweet led me to:

"GitLab plans to automatically delete projects if they've been inactive for a year and are owned by users of its free tier."

Which I hadn't heard. That's.... something.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#44

Post by Havoc » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

Doesn’t seem unreasonable. My work is entirely windows cause workload is primarily MS office

Whatever works. There isn’t some sort of diversity and inclusion requirement for OSs

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#45

Post by Xylakant » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

gsich wrote: post #24

horsawlarway wrote: post #9

I'm no fan of Windows myself, but I find this a fairly bad policy. If nothing else - what's not used is not tested. And if you expect any real population of users to be using Windows machines with your products, you should have developers/PMs/QA/support interacting with your products using Windows machines. I see this as: We're saving a bit of money and making ITs life easier, and in exchange users will get a worse p…

Why? Gitlab is not a Windows application per se. Either you use a browser or git on the cli.

GitHub for example does have desktop apps that allow using GitHub for less CLI-inclined folks. This allows integrating people that are not primarily developers into your GitHub-based workflows with less hassle, and fosters collaboration across those boundaries.

Git for windows is also notoriously different when it comes to edge cases, so in Gitlabs place I‘d be absolutely happy to have developers that use that OS as a daily driver.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#46

Post by jhickok » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:41 PM UTC

Xylakant wrote: post #33

jhickok wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although not even hinted at in the doc, I personally find the tedium of buying and provisioning and monitoring licenses worse than the cost of it. I suppose you are also inviting risk in the form of an audit.

Most windows laptops today come with a license key baked into the BIOS. So no need to manage licenses here.

I do not believe those are sufficient for enterprise licenses, which must be provided separately.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#47

Post by marcodiego » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:42 PM UTC

> Due to Microsoft Windows' dominance in desktop operating systems, Windows is the platform most targetted by spyware, viruses, and ransomware.

Consider linux dominance on end-users devices through android and embedded systems like smart tv's. There are more instances of linux running and being used right now by end-users than windows. UNIX legacy and a long maturation process on HPC and servers probably has to do with how linux systems evolved to be so secure today compared to windows; also because of "bad-habits" windows historically brings.

It may sound cheesy and although I'd like to see linux more used on the desktop, I'm pretty happy with the current situation.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#48

Post by ReptileMan » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:42 PM UTC

habnds wrote: post #3

>> GitLab approves the use of Linux, and Apple's macOS. Microsoft Windows is prohibited for the following reasons: Due to Microsoft Windows' dominance in desktop operating systems, Windows is the platform most targetted by spyware, viruses, and ransomware. macOS is preinstalled on Apple computers and Linux is available free of charge. To approve the use of Windows, GitLab would have to purchase Windows Professional l…

Isn't that a case of the wetware that procures the laptops being not quite on the samepage, especially for someone working in geared towards developers company.

A buy something with windows pro is not hard to communicate...

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#49

Post by Tajnymag » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:42 PM UTC

polskibus wrote: post #34

How do they develop and test the gitlab runner for Windows then?

In a VM.

Re: Microsoft Windows is prohibited at Gitlab

#50

Post by sonofhans » Fri, Aug 05, 2022, 2:42 PM UTC

horsawlarway wrote: post #9

I'm no fan of Windows myself, but I find this a fairly bad policy. If nothing else - what's not used is not tested. And if you expect any real population of users to be using Windows machines with your products, you should have developers/PMs/QA/support interacting with your products using Windows machines. I see this as: We're saving a bit of money and making ITs life easier, and in exchange users will get a worse p…

I agree. If nothing else they won’t be able to replicate Windows typography, which is different from Linux and OS X. Base fonts are different; kerning and anti-aliasing are different. Web design is still 90% typography, and cutting the largest install base out of your test matrix seems silly to me.