* Richard Stallman <[email protected]> : Wrote on Thu, 18 Sep 2025 22:50:18 -0400: > Would you like to test accessing the GNOME version of librsvg > using the GitLab site that it is hosted on, and see what problems > actually appear? Can you send a bug report to the developers > without running nonfree JavaScript software?
I do have a gitlab.gnome.org account, which I think I was able to create only by "Logging in through Github" i.e. by authenticating through Github.com using my Github.com account information to authenticate and to create the Gnome.org (redhat) account. I think This necessarily involved using non-free javascript. I have never registered with any other GITLAB instances (like gitlab.com or gitlab.common-lisp.net) which I attempt use as an unregistered user. To browse gitlab (in read-only mode) i.e. just to get information about issues, files, directories commits (without authentication) , requires javascript. The javascript comes from the same server I can turn off cross platform requests and can browse the gitlab instance. But the traffic is heavy and it makes unnecessary polling connections. Nowadays all redhat gitlab instances are "protected by anubis" (because of "abuse by AI startups" and this is a challenge that requires javascript and cookies and profiles your GPU and your OpenGL implementation, before allowing you read-only access to the gitlab instance. There are command line clients (glab for Gitlab, gh for github, both written in Go, that ship binaries) that let you do some operations without opening a browser. In both cases most operations require logging in (You can't anonymously browse issues and comments in a read-only mode) without logging in. In the case of the GITAB.FREEDESKTOP.COM (also redhat) instance I have not been able to create an account. The only way to look at issues at any of the projects (xorg, wayland,) is to use invasive and heavy surveillance javascript. I *think* gitlab passes the FSF conditions for non-free javascript but personally I don't find the fsf criterion are relevant but are just eyewash -- it just validates the goals of the investors in achieving overreaching and illegal ownership and control over the users and user behaviours who now fit the role of the serfdom (browser tenantship) in the feudal information economy. --- via emacs-tangents mailing list (https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-tangents)
