The Problem with GitHub

…and why we need a better home for Free/Libre and/or Open Source Software (FLOSS)

Transcript

1. The Problem with GitHub …why we need a better home for Free/Libre and/or Open Source Software (FLOSS) Yorgos Saslis | @yorgos@chaos.social (mastodon) Fosscomm @ Oct 2023
2. Yorgos Saslis Software Engineer Works for Red Hat, remotely, from Crete devstaff.gr co-founder Open Space Events Software Craft & Testing Open Space UNconference (socrates-crete.org) jcrete.org , agilecrete.org
3. Executive Summary
4. Who remembers this?
6. not to be confused with …
7. …the problem
8. Questions (?)
9. … but is that all? Ok, so the “Musk” factor is clearly a problem.
10. WE choose to host Public Goods on a Proprietary Platform (GitHub)
11. Open Source Software as a PUBLIC GOOD
12. Public Goods Definition nonexcludable non-rivalrous
13. WE choose to host Public Goods on a Proprietary Platform (GitHub)
14. Proprietary Platform GitHub is not open source. Owned by a single company megacorp Can decide to exclude ban users, based on its Terms of Service (ToS) (that nodody reads) Forced to comply with US legislation MUST comply with “US trade sanctions” Can just change its mind about what it offers
15. Microsoft …oh, and, one more problem:
16. –Yorgos Incompatible.
17. Ok, yorgos, it’s a problem. Now what?
18. Step 1: Acknowledge this isn’t a new problem Look at existing solutions out there
19. Step 2: Check if existing solutions solve the specific problem Examine new/upcoming solutions
20. Step 1: Existing Solutions Self-hosted open source forges: GitLab Gitea / Forgejo Sourcehut Gogs, etc. etc. Overkill for solo maintainers **AND** contributors Usually deployed by orgs supporting open source e.g. Foundations
21. Plenty of examples
22. Step 2: Did we solve the problem? To an extent, yes: forge is open source ! no single entity controls access / can block users Musk can’t buy all the Foundations / independent orgs a single govt can close these all down
23. Step 2: Did we solve the problem? But not really: orgs can still be forced users need to maintain different accounts with each forge one more hurdle for contribution no single profile discovery is still an issue
24. Can we do better? Let’s look elsewhere… Federation Fediverse Mastodon, etc…
25. Can we do EVEN better? What is one system that hasn’t been shut down? Torrents!!
26. Peer to Peer (p2p) Torrents haven’t been shut down for decades. Continue building “on the shoulders of giants” for generations to come Individuals are the ones who can take action
27. Any p2p forges? THANK YOU for asking! YES!!!!!1 ISN’T IT AMAZING!?!?!? 😎 😍 🚀 🎉 🥳
28. Introducing radicle.xyz ! A p2p forge Peers can seed projects! A gossip protocol tells you about all available projects. You track (and seed) only the ones you trust!
29. Introducing radicle.xyz ! p2p network … but… Local-first ! all the data you care about is on your machine Uses git as storage backend. No central database.
30. Radicle Repository How does it work ? Code Issues Patches Releases …more (all stored inside a git repository)
31. How does it work ? Storage Radicle Node Storage Storage Repositories gossip gossip gossip
32. How do I use it? Storage copies Working copy push pull normal git operations with `rad` git remote 2 different folders on your disk
33. Sounds great! Can I try it out? Kind of … WARNING: STILL ALPHA !!! Rough ride! 1.0 Beta around Jan 2024 Start from https:/ /radicle.xyz Few docs - but we’re friendly and welcome questions on our Zulip! https:/ /radicle.zulipchat.com #support stream ; )
34. Amazing! What about integrations? “coming soon” ! need your help! CI/CD tools IM tools Dev Env tools 3rd party registries / repositories … and more! come talk to me !! ( ;
35. thanks for listening & caring !! Yorgos Saslis | @yorgos@chaos.social (mastodon) Fosscomm @ Oct 2023