6 ms·

>what are developers going to do when Google inevitably acquires GitLab? Fork it and move on with their day.

by iaml 8y ago

some_account 8y ago
You will not be able to easily move away from any dominant platform because it will be not just the code but the community you leave behind. Also it's quite possible that github will add CI stuff directly into Azure and if you start using that, there may be no other product to move to with the same functionality. Vendor lock-in is a strategy that works even if you know its there. I'm building my code with the excellent CI stuff built into Gitlab today and I really don't want to move away from it because of its amazing ease of use.
- kokey 8y ago
  As long as GitLab remains also deployable on your own infrastructure and not become a SaaS-only platform, I'll worry less about this.
  - _nalply 8y ago
    You know that GitLab offers commercial add-ons?
    - zaarn 8y ago
      You know that in most cases, they are "neat-to-have" and not essentials?
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  This is why I'm very wary of recommending any serverless solutions. All the consultants we work with are lusting for them. It's pretty hard to push back against it.
- amelius 8y ago
  > You will not be able to easily move away from any dominant platform because it will be not just the code but the community you leave behind. I find it hard to believe that an audience of developers can't point their browser to a different url, or search for your project using Google.
  - sleepychu 8y ago
    Right but because they're otherwise decentralised it would take co-ordinated effort and ultimately it fragments the community. What we need, if we want to solve this issue, is a federated network of servers which provide the functionality of github today.
    - amelius 8y ago
      Then I'm curious what kind of data would be shared on the federated protocol. Why can't projects be independent?
      - sleepychu 8y ago
        I think primarily identity and git locations. I want stuff like the issue tracker/merge request dialog to be consistent across the federation (and of course for projects elsewhere in the network to be able to be the source for those merge requests) I don't want an account on everybody's git{lab,hub,ea,xxx} instance I want a single identity that people can trust is me. I want a way to discover and index other projects on the network. The same way that I often just go to github without knowing the name of a project just roughly what I'm looking for.
        tomxor 8y ago
        > I don't want an account on everybody's git{lab,hub,ea,xxx} instance I want a single identity that people can trust is me. I know blockchain is excessively overhyped, but to my limited understanding this appears to be a good fit... Look at how cryptocurrencies work, a wallet is singular (i.e your identity), exchanges and mining pools are numerous and independent (hosts and services for git repos). The vital part to make this work is a specification for storing the social aspects of collaborating on these platforms in a git repo itself - it can definitely be done, git is so flexible, it doesn't have to interfere with the project code or even need to be present in the visible tree of any branch - but we need that for interchangeability. This first step could be made before figuring out how to make neatly interacting network to add portability to existing platforms.
romanovcode 8y ago
Not all of GitLab is open source, you know that, right?
- r3bl 8y ago
  That's a valid argument against GitHub, since they open source a ton of code, but you can't run GitHub yourself. That's not a valid argument against GitLab, which offers you the option to host it yourself, and then builds features on top of the free version. While GitLab EE isn't released using an open source license, its source is publicly available and you're allowed to make modifications to it, satisfying 2/4 essential freedoms of free software, as defined by FSF[0]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/ https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/ [0] Open Source Initiative's definition contains 10 rights, I'm too lazy to memorize them.

>what are developers going to do when Google inevitably acquires GitLab? Fork it and move on with their day.

by iaml 8y ago

>what are developers going to do when Google inevitably acquires GitLab? Fork it and move on with their day.

You will not be able to easily move away from any dominant platform because it will be not just the code but the community you leave behind. Also it's quite possible that github will add CI stuff directly into Azure and if you start using that, there may be no other product to move to with the same functionality. Vendor lock-in is a strategy that works even if you know its there. I'm building my code with the excellent CI stuff built into Gitlab today and I really don't want to move away from it because of its amazing ease of use.

kokey 8y ago
As long as GitLab remains also deployable on your own infrastructure and not become a SaaS-only platform, I'll worry less about this.
- _nalply 8y ago
  You know that GitLab offers commercial add-ons?
  - zaarn 8y ago
    You know that in most cases, they are "neat-to-have" and not essentials?
rorykoehler 8y ago
This is why I'm very wary of recommending any serverless solutions. All the consultants we work with are lusting for them. It's pretty hard to push back against it.
amelius 8y ago
> You will not be able to easily move away from any dominant platform because it will be not just the code but the community you leave behind. I find it hard to believe that an audience of developers can't point their browser to a different url, or search for your project using Google.
- sleepychu 8y ago
  Right but because they're otherwise decentralised it would take co-ordinated effort and ultimately it fragments the community. What we need, if we want to solve this issue, is a federated network of servers which provide the functionality of github today.
  - amelius 8y ago
    Then I'm curious what kind of data would be shared on the federated protocol. Why can't projects be independent?
    - sleepychu 8y ago
      I think primarily identity and git locations. I want stuff like the issue tracker/merge request dialog to be consistent across the federation (and of course for projects elsewhere in the network to be able to be the source for those merge requests) I don't want an account on everybody's git{lab,hub,ea,xxx} instance I want a single identity that people can trust is me. I want a way to discover and index other projects on the network. The same way that I often just go to github without knowing the name of a project just roughly what I'm looking for.
      - tomxor 8y ago
        > I don't want an account on everybody's git{lab,hub,ea,xxx} instance I want a single identity that people can trust is me. I know blockchain is excessively overhyped, but to my limited understanding this appears to be a good fit... Look at how cryptocurrencies work, a wallet is singular (i.e your identity), exchanges and mining pools are numerous and independent (hosts and services for git repos). The vital part to make this work is a specification for storing the social aspects of collaborating on these platforms in a git repo itself - it can definitely be done, git is so flexible, it doesn't have to interfere with the project code or even need to be present in the visible tree of any branch - but we need that for interchangeability. This first step could be made before figuring out how to make neatly interacting network to add portability to existing platforms.

romanovcode 8y ago

Not all of GitLab is open source, you know that, right?

r3bl 8y ago
That's a valid argument against GitHub, since they open source a ton of code, but you can't run GitHub yourself. That's not a valid argument against GitLab, which offers you the option to host it yourself, and then builds features on top of the free version. While GitLab EE isn't released using an open source license, its source is publicly available and you're allowed to make modifications to it, satisfying 2/4 essential freedoms of free software, as defined by FSF[0]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/ https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/ [0] Open Source Initiative's definition contains 10 rights, I'm too lazy to memorize them.