to git or not to git

Guido Arnold guido at fsfe.org
Mon Aug 27 23:19:54 UTC 2018


Hello,

Two cents of a non-qualified non-programmer here. 

On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 10:54:15PM +0100, David Gerard wrote:
> Lotta people use Gitlab precisely because you can self-host a Gitlab
> instance - but you can use them as a service provider it's easy to
> leave.

The beauty of git is that it is decentralized and doesn't even need
something like Gitlab to develop software collaboratively. Alessandro
summed up the situation already.

What I see as the crucial part is the "social" component. I'm afraid
this somewhat derails Alessandro's intended discussion as my point
totally ignores "who" the current owner of github is. 

If you have a project and are looking for more developers to join it,
you need some kind of visibility so potential developers get aware of
you. In that sense, github serves as a social network and its current
state is close to amazon or ebay - and that is what I suspect is why
they even bothered to buy it.

Sure, you can set-up your own ebay-like website or join one of the
existing alternatives, but if you really need to get rid of your old
stuff by the end of the week, your best bet is where the most eyes
will see your offer.  

So the gap we may need to close is how potential developers (and
employers) get to know your project, and its code that might be hosted
in the living room of your parents in law on a RasperyPi. 

> > > than most other companies -- but they are the same ones who
> > > wanted to kill us out of the market, before turning into friends
> > > who still would love
> > > if we disappeared.

Doesn't matter to me. They could have turned by 180° and LOVE us! I
don't want us to rely on "good faith" that this may be the case. We
need a decentralized infrastructure that makes their intentions
irrelevant. Like if they'd take part in torrents. File transfers would 
be faster if they joined, but still be possible if they wouldn't.

Greetings,

Guido

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