Accessability of github for europe (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 days ago by Nephalis@discuss.tchncs.de to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I don't know what excatly my question is, because of that I would like to explain my concerns and will see what you all think about it.

It seems like the american actions to come are getting more and more unpredictable or just more assaultive. Especialy the tech scene seems willing to ignore inconvenient laws of foreign countries they operate in. While I can adapt to that by simply use other services, there are a few fields no real option is available.

While having Android as an unavoidable OS for mobile devices (at least when one still wants to use payment services like paypal and google pay) my main concern is about Open Source or better saying the place where most projects are stored: Github.

Did MS said something regarding their intentions for github and europe? While Meta, Google, Ebay etc. for example published updated general terms and conditions and clearly communicated they are unhappy with a bunch of things, MS was not that open and did not take postion as far as I know.

How likely it is to become a problem for europe to access github/gitlab/bitbucket you name it and the hosted FOSS and open dource projects lying there?

I am not that deep into the rules of FOSS and open source, so please lighten my up If I missed something essentialy or provide information about initiatives.

Maybe out there poeple are already creating a clone from github to another archive like it is done with other american public domain data stated here? (Sorry in advance, its a german article. TLDR: its about saving the public domain data of america as it is done for ukrainian data too)

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[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 13 points 3 days ago

I think you're kind of missing the point of OSS. Github could completely fall off the face of the earth tomorrow and nothing bad happens. There are dozens of other platforms to facilitate the development of software online. Github is not the end all be all and in the grand scheme is only a small player.

[-] pietervdvn@lemmy.ml 12 points 3 days ago

Yes, but actually, no. For a ton of projects, Github is an important resource. It is the main collaboration tool through the issue trackers, offers hosting and continuous integration. If it fell of the earth today, a lot of projects would scramble and have a lot of lost (meta)data.

If they were to announce that they would shut down in three months time, those same projects would scramble as well to migrate - which is also a bit chaotic, but less so.

And: many projects are switching away right now. I moved mapcomplete to a selfhosted forgejo instance since a few months ('cause I don't trust github no more), Organic Maps moved just now cause they got a (temporary) ban. One of their contributors was apperantly from a US-sanctioned country (more info about them here: https://en.osm.town/@organicmaps@fosstodon.org).

[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Github is an important resource.

And there's dozens and dozens of replacements available. The issue you're speaking of isn't an issue with Github at all. It's an issue with developers.

If Github going off the map borks your development because PROGRAMMERS can't use anything but Github, you have much bigger problems than you think.

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 5 points 3 days ago

How do I discover your code if it is on a selfhosted repo? On GitHub I can just search for keywords and find interesting projects.

[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

The same way you do any other project. If you're interested, you go looking. You find my project which has a link to the repo. A link is a link. You're simply fighting over where the link goes to, and I'm pointing out that it's a stupid argument to be had.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 9 points 3 days ago

I think Github is a relatively simple issue. There isn't really a shortage of european (or just selfhostable) alternatives, and the way git works means that most contributors have complete local copies of the codebase. TBH I worry more about the ability of american contributors to continue working on a project if the code is hosted in europe - basically a lot of open source developer teams could end up being split or shut down entirely. And the bigger projects like Linux and a lot of the intermediate layers between the Linux kernel and applications are majorly backed and developed by american companies and their employees.

[-] j4k3@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Most key stuff is not on GitHub or GitHub is just a mirror. The heir apparent to Linux is Hartman and he moved to Europe a long time ago.

No mobile devices are safe. Those are all proprietary black boxes for hardware. If the shit hits the fan, it is back to dumb phones and x86 computers. Digital doomsday prepers are not sounding all that crazy right now IMO.

I have gotten weird interactions with rate limiting through GitHub because I will not whitelist their stalkerware collector server. They also pushed 2 factor to stalk and exploit through the only documented path they wanted people to take. I quit because of it.