79
Why FOSS projects are using proprietary, privacy invasive infrastructure? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 5 months ago by JustMarkov@lemmy.ml to c/foss@beehaw.org
37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15691030

As you can easily notice, today many open source projects are using some services, that are… sus.

For example, Github is the most popular place to store your project code and we all know, who owns it. And not to forget that sketchy AI training on every line of your code. Don't we have alternatives? Oh, yes we have. Gitlab, Codeberg, Notabug, etc. You can even host your own Gitea or Forgejo instance if you want.

Also, Crowdin is very popular in terms of software (and docs) translation. Even Privacy Guides and The New Oil use Crowdin, even though we have FLOSS Weblate, that you can easily self-host or use public instances.

So, my question is: if you are building a FLOSS / privacy related project, why using proprietary and privacy invasive tools?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 8 points 5 months ago

Putting something on GitHub is really inconsequential if you’re making your project open source since anyone can use it for anything anyway,

Except for people in China (blocked in China) or people on ipv6 only networks, since Github hasn't bothered to support ipv6, cutting out those in countries where ipv4 addresses are scarce.

So yes, it does matter. Both gitlab and codeberg, the two big alternatives, both support ipv6 (idk about them being blocked in china). They also support github logins, so you dob't even need to make an account.

And it's not a black or white. Software freedom is a spectrum, not a binary. We should strive to use more open source, decentralized software, while recognizing that many parts are going to be out of our immediate control, like the backbone of the internet or little pieces like proprietary firmware.

[-] hunger@programming.dev 13 points 5 months ago

The blocking certain countries is a US legal thing. It effects any forge in the US and probably in more areas close to the US. As soon as a forge gets big enough to show up on the radar of government orge they will need to do similar blocking.

You can not really blame github for that part.

[-] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 5 months ago

Gitlab is crazy. They require my phone number and credit card details just to create an account.

[-] DdCno1@beehaw.org 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

This makes this platform next to impossible to recommend to users outside of the US, since credit cards are very uncommon in e.g. Europe.

[-] michael_palmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 months ago

Maybe debit card would also work, but why they need this info at all? I wanted to create new issue for app, but Gitlab required card details. I had to write to the developer in Matrix.

this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
79 points (100.0% liked)

Free and Open Source Software

17550 readers
47 users here now

If it's free and open source and it's also software, it can be discussed here. Subcommunity of Technology.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Gaywallet@beehaw.org
alyaza@beehaw.org