this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Are you guys fine with these new shenanigans from Github. I found a bug and wanted to check what has been the development on that, only to find out most of the discussion was hidden by github and requesting me to sign-in to view it.

It threw me straight back to when Microsoft acquired Github and the discussions around the future of opensource on a microsoft owned infrastructure, now microsoft is exploiting free work from the community to train its AI, and building walls around its product, are open source contributors fine with that ?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Microsoft acquired Github and the discussions around the future of opensource on a microsoft owned infrastructure

Personally I'm impressed it took them so long to start driving it to the ground

I moved to Codeberg

Codeberg is a non-profit, community-led organization that aims to help free and open source projects prosper by giving them a safe and friendly home

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Personally I'm impressed it took them so long to start driving it to the ground

You mean their copyright washing of FOSS projects using copilot wasn't enough of a warning?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

No, that is actually useful. Blocking access for anonymous users is not

If anything, the boom of LLMs like copilot and chatgpt actually shows the power of open source and open access to information. Underlying algorithms would mean nothing without open source, open access to stackoverflow, forums, etc

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

My hot take is the quickest way out of this quagmire is to abandon Git. With the education system & bootcamps raising the next generation to think MS GitHub is Git, it would probably be less work to start rolling with another VCS as megacorp Microsoft won’t have the agility to pivot away from Git. Git isn’t even that great—arcane CLI, patches don’t commute, basically permanently locks in your name & email, large files require a separate tool, etc. And most of the popular alternative forges are literally just trying to clone MS GitHub rather than invent something new or solve the shit problems it doesn’t like threading, pull request model sucks, source code doesn’t need to be a social media platform with gamified stars & anxiety-inducing activity charts to encourage that MIT code in your free time the corpos will use & never contribute back while demanding you use it to build your résumé… or it’s built on email as the common denominator with fingers in ears as if mailing lists are the optimal workflow for all projects when a majority of folks don’t even know how to bottom post & keep their mail with the same evil Microsoft or the other evil Google. Nothing is being bold enough to actually have a better user experience—currently the best lure is… free software, but worse UX? Being a better UX the Microsoft GitHub is not a even that high of a bar. Some folks claim “network effect” but it seems clear that a lot of folks already want out.

Nah. Start anew. Check out Darcs, Pijul, Fossil, Mercurial, Bazaar, or whatever else is out there. Build on the ideas that improve version control.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Wtf just use gitlab/gitea/whateverthefuck instead of Microsoft garbage

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Your project will inevitably get forked onto MS GitHub & the SEO will rank that fork above you—changing VCS adds a layer of friction that discourages forking back onto MS GitHub. Best you see is these pretty please attempts to encourage not forking to Microsoft’s platform. Microsoft has a massive pull in the direction Git goes, & whatever MS GitHub does, the alternative forges seems to want to clone even if it’s bad (look at Forgejo diverging from Gitea to copy Actions verbatim even tho we all know working with YAML for CI is a bad idea that scales poorly). When you look at the latest release notes for Git, often the first publisher is GitHub’s blog—this is what gets shared around the link aggregators. Part of the strategic purchase of GitHub on Microsoft’s part was getting access to that project sway (& upselling services—it’s not pure conspiracy—with some of the changes definitely being for the better).

And again, Git is not the best DVCS—but folks are hesitant to try other platforms since there is less forges & tooling. If Microsoft is controlling the Git ecosystem like it is, that effort, in my opinion, would be better spent choosing a better DVCS system that isn’t already infected by Microsoft or Google or Apple or similar.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I self-host GitBucket, and honestly your reasoning behind giving up arguably the best version control application, just because of one hosting site, is downright ludicrous.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I stand by my stance that Microsoft has poisoned the whole Git experience, where everyone will be comparing all forges to MS GitHub & the direction of the Git project ship is being steered heavily by Microfsoft. I also disagree with “best” VCS—I will agree with Git having currently the most/best tooling around it which can lead to a better overall experience, but Git’s fundamentals are not without some obvious flaws.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It hasn't. There are literally thousands and thousands of developers using Git daily without having nothing to do with GitHub.

You are entitled to your opinion, but that's a fact. What MS does or doesn't, with GitHub, has no effect on these devs. You can see how egregious it is to read a random person sayint we should stop using a certain tool, because Walmart also uses it? Jeesh.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I would venture while thousands use Git without MS GitHub, 98% have an account since you largely can’t contribute to many projects without due to lock-in.

If Walmart was the biggest funder, making the most calls to the project, & optimizing it to be sold in their stores, I would 100% have hesitance against something if I could find an alternative (physical vs. digital goods working a bit different).

It’s not that I don’t see your point, it’s just that I’m pessimistic that the open source community at large would in practice move off of MS GitHub or otherwise offer alternative contribution channels before we would see another tool + platform supplant Git as the status quo in the next generation of VCSs. I would rather accelerate that future—unless like Google or Facebook is the clear leader of that new tool, but many projects right now not named Jujutsu seem to be independent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

The great majority of developers never contribute, that's a false expectation. Majority of programmers work in the private sector and use local git hosts/solutions instead of GitHub.

Again, expecting those devs to not use git because of one hoster, is a ludicrous idea in itself.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget you're contributing your code to Bill's AI

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is exactly why I add a non-commercial license to my comments. If courts decide that Github was in the wrong, then there's a chance commercial AI makers just scraping the web might be on the hook too.

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I just scraped your profile and used it for training my commercial AI product. sue me b.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

so original  
     wow  
  much impress  
new response
  intelligence overload

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Federated forges can't come soon enough. Git is already federated. There is absolutely not fucking reason for this.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Git is already federated.

New to me. Do you mean decentralized instead of federated?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Distributed version control system

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I would not say that distributed is federated. But i could not find a widely accepted definition of it.

For example i would call FTP also not federated🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Agreed. That said, with a few remotes and a cron job git could facilitate "duct tape and zip ties" federation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Can't wait for the day when I can collaborate with all my Forgejo homies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Forejo-mies?