[Not posted on emacs-devel but redirected to emacs-tangents] * Richard Stallman <[email protected]> <[email protected]> Wrote on Thu, 11 Sep 2025 22:43:18 -0400 > > On any [GNU/]linux boxe these days to use SVG you need to download and use thx > > librsvg. To compile it you need to download and install the > > rust toolchain. To compile it it you have to use the rust > > package management system "cargo" which uses a centralised > > software distribution system to download all components when > > compiling it. > librsvg is a pile of problems. > 1. It refers people to a site, github, that is hostile to free > software in many ways.. It even requires nonfree software to make an > account. > (Yes, I know it is possible to do git clone without an account. > That doesn't change the situatoin much.)
It has been pointed out that the site running on gitlab (which is opensource) and hosted on Gnome (Redhat) infrasture. Gitlab markets the software which Redhat uses to host the Gnome and Freedesktop opensource projects. Github provides no equivalent, Microsoft controls the hosting, So Gitlab is seen as a "free software alternative" to Github for "hosting your own freesoftware projects" However I find Gitlab software has been even more hostile than Github in pushing surveillance javascript on the developer, and the infrastructure sponsors are invested in that. It was possible at some point to use Github with a lightweight browser without javascript fo looking up information, and this was not possible with GitLab from the start, by design. The Gitlab owners actively bought out and killed other Git providers (gitorious) which were focussed on usability rather than on getting information to sell (probably to bogus buyers as a part of some banking fraud). Gitlab was first to deploy the heavy pageloads and the react technologies, and Github followed later. Nowadays looking at a few issues pages on either site for a few minutes weighs 40-50MB -- just the page loads and interaction. (Considering this from an information theoretic point of view may be instructive in figuring out the motives behind this sort of landscaping) --- via emacs-tangents mailing list (https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-tangents)
