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Why FOSS projects are using proprietary, privacy invasive infrastructure? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 months ago by JustMarkov@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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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?

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[-] xilona@lemmy.ml 4 points 6 months ago

Well put!

Gitea is simply amazing! Give it a try!

[-] Veraxus@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

Gitlab just stomps Github into the dirt these days. For my own projects, I’m now Gitlab all the way.

My one complaint, though, is that Gitlab’s Git LFS is way more pricey than Github, which sucks.

[-] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago

Gitlab's offerings are always better. There isn't a single feature that I use between the two that I don't prefer gitlab.

[-] toastal@lemmy.ml 2 points 6 months ago

Performance is absolute ass, but featureset is hard to deny

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[-] unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 6 months ago

I am also thinking of starting an open source project, and honestly, will do it on Github, because so far, GitHub does not require microphone or location access, yadayada... And the AI thing would happen anyway. Do you think Google has not used GitHub repos for training Gemini?

I am very interested in syncing the repo with a federated git server, but from what I am reading Codeberg/Forgejo still don't have federation working?

[-] hperrin@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I run a few reasonably popular FOSS projects, and basically the reason I use non-free infrastructure where I do is that my users prefer I use that. I love open source, and I love privacy centric services, but not everyone does, and for open source projects, having (and enabling the most) community involvement is more important than privacy centric toolsets.

In a perfect world, I could self host my own code forge and support forum, and everyone would be willing and able to use it, but we don’t live in a perfect world, and I can’t do that yet. If we keep working toward it, I believe it will happen, but it’s just not ready yet.

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