As many of you heard today, Microsoft is acquiring GitHub. What this means for the future of GitHub is not yet clear, but the folks at Gitlab think Microsoft's end goal is to integrate GitHub in their Azure empire. To me, this makes a lot of sense.
Even though I still reluctantly use GitHub for some projects, I migrated all my personal repositories to Gitlab instances a while ago1. Now is time for you to do the same and ditch GitHub.
Some people might be fine with Microsoft's takeover, but to me it's the straw that breaks the camel's back. For a few years now, MS has been running a large marketing campaign on how they love Linux and suddenly decided to embrace Free Software in all of its forms. More like MS BS to me.
Let us take a moment to remind ourselves that:
- Windows is still a huge proprietary monster that rips billions of people from their privacy and rights every day.
- Microsoft is known for spreading FUD about "the dangers" of Free Software in order to keep governments and schools from dropping Windows in favor of FOSS.
- To secure their monopoly, Microsoft hooks up kids on Windows by giving out "free" licences to primary schools around the world. Drug dealers use the same tactics and give out free samples to secure new clients.
- Microsoft's Azure platform - even though it can run Linux VMs - is still a giant proprietary hypervisor.
I know moving git repositories around can seem like a pain in the ass, but the folks at Gitlab are riding the wave of people leaving GitHub and made the the migration easy by providing a GitHub importer.
If you don't want to use Gitlab's main instance (gitlab.org), here are two other alternative instances you can use for Free Software projects:
- The Debian Gitlab instance is available for every FOSS project and not only for Debian-related ones2. As long as the project respects the Debian Free Software Guidelines, you can use the instance and its CI runners.
- Riseup maintains a Gitlab instance for radical projects named 0xacab. If your ethos aligns with Riseup's, chances are they'll be happy to host your projects there.
Friends don't let friends use GitHub anymore.