-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Fri, Mar 06, 2015 at 09:09:01 -0800, Sytse Sijbrandij wrote: > We may disagree on tactics such as what license is best for GitLab and > our use of an open core business model. But I think that we both want > to see more freedom and collaboration in software development. We admire > greatly what Mr. Stallman and the FSF have done and continue to do for > the world.
Admiration is not a substitute for action. GitLab's "Community Edition" is indeed an excellent contribution to the free software community, and fills a niche that is otherwise dominated by GitHub. That is important. I have encouraged use of GitLab CE (most recently to Devuan) in the past, and will continue to offer it as an alternative to GitHub. But I must do so very clearly, and very cautiously. Unfortunately, the "open core" business model that you describe cannot and will not be embraced by the free software community. Freedom and collaboration are necessary consequences of software freedom---it's not that we want to "see more" of it. We want to see more software freedom. Proprietary extensions to GitLab are antithetical to that level of collaboration. In fact, on the surface, we have a situation similar to that of GitHub: collaboration is encouraged, but not when it comes to their software! GitLab has the benefit of encouraging collaboration on its own free software (which I will not discount), but it veils that with proprietary software, and in fact downplays the Free version: https://about.gitlab.com/features/#enterprise GitLab is encouraging both the use of proprietary software and SaaSS[0]. As such, this places free software activists in a very difficult situation to even suggest GitLab, because the mere suggestion will take them to a website that attempts to up^H^Hdownsell them to a proprietary version. In fact, the GNU project cannot, per its guidelines, even recommend or link to GitLab.[1] That's no good! It's not even obvious how to get to the CE edition source code from the homepage. I would encourage GitLab to put more emphasis on their "community edition"---by providing more clear, dedicated pages (preferably its own website, that free software users can link to, that does not try to promote proprietary versions of GitLab) for it, and a very clear link directly to the source code directly on the homepage, as prominent as all other major links. I would also encourage renaming the project from "community edition" to simply "GitLab", and leave the other as "GitLab Enterprise"; all software should be "community edition" by default; why does that need to be stated? If GitLab is focused on developing communities, then that should be implicit. GitLab is a powerful contribution to the free software community, but if it is to thrive as "the" Free alternative---and it could!---then it needs to hold its head high and be an example of those freedoms. Many of us will never agree with the business model you call "open core", but that does not mean a community cannot continue to be built around it that encourages users' freedoms. [0]: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html [1]: https://www.gnu.org/server/standards/README.webmastering.html - -- Mike Gerwitz Free Software Hacker | GNU Maintainer http://mikegerwitz.com FSF Member #5804 | GPG Key ID: 0x8EE30EAB -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJU/7UoAAoJEPIruBWO4w6roqkP/ijaBPOIzjOgUMBDCPthvmTI gQpuRQhUFPZJtqNd1r64BCjw9s2I+cTclcvMSUHpnG+F4b/4crNnKcUIVaYHEpHp 0CzOEuA+OIRRKA/f1IZhqUHJz1eW4iDat7MWJzfh8Bc6z2E2qd3sJf+DDXvulEPG HOXiIOssmPCF6aw3Tvo7lDGump9CG45+i+nEq2m2wmRI4lTYnbOxJgsurdN5+DEQ JX44EtN6+pd/BoDrKFdZ9YoaQtJSUS06i1GQQ+dE/U8ykbPONFrHj4hVbkx1dW0y qPp30bN8aNsSy46zTZkxLuoUcJMWFfdSIGQGQ/ZvdoKXn1GxbN4ORcKUS7LptPGs HyghFvTwMzl4YJAO5oGSRrFx+7pRcEJDkzZD9B8Jvw1QCevGn0zsqyFdve5XqfG6 Fm8xJvCZ/zcyjCcrJn0ni8A0YnU01/DD+ZTQm1vsk/QoMrAOqPVfQzXhQTSg+j0T U8MDgJwA+eBPNn5XtIx/izvLQDM3y5Nn4cSY+ednSsCWrZuQER0SwRj6yQcWOL3Y Fh0N8MztILYa0lQoJxh3y3X4I7VGKItKGFPmohCzf54M5A23PcLJvoXpfFe5AdAe E/k4eizlRP9NgJtLVvuYSHVD/1vF1MJrOKJFA2Y19wu/h8U1jtZ84LfodCDqSyRR 8XmZC5K4CRqeJ7zzA7oH =cLFg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
