Ask HN: Is Sourcehut a good GitHub/Gitlab alternative? - AquiGorka
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sivers
I've been using it exclusively for months, and it's great. Fast server. Great
features. But most importantly, good leadership whose incentives I feel align
with mine.

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tristan957
I have been using SourceHut since the alpha went public. I think the hardest
thing to adjust to is patchsets being sent over email. But when you think
about it that is the way git is supposed to work. It keeps version control
decentralized. Drew DeVault has also created a site git-email.io I believe to
help new users with the process. He has also either implemented or is
implementing a good web interface to sit on top of patchsets.

It is nice knowing that your data is actually protected and private because
Drew is very public about his ideals.

One of the cooler features I think is the site runs without JavaScript
entirely, unless you need to pay for the first time, which uses Stripe, but
even then Drew allows for alternative methods of payments including walking up
to him at FOSDEM and giving him a check.

The communication of the service to its users is actually really nice. You get
monthly updates regarding development, and quarterly updates which I will are
similar to like state of the union addresses, where Drew will talk about the
financial situation in detail, including a line item receipt of expenses like
new hardware and salaries. Drew used to put his own salary down, but since
Simon Ser was hired to work for SourceHut, Drew has chosen to protect Simon's
salary and reports salary payouts in totality.

The performance is also a big bonus. Consistently you will find that SourceHut
just outperforms GitHub and GitLab on SSH operations. Now this might have a
lot to do with the amount of users who use the site, but if you watch the dev
mailing list, performance is a top priority. And it is funny watching Drew
complain about Python on Mastodon every once in a while.

As far as self-hosting, the documentation seems fairly straightforward. You
can pick and choose the services you want, so unlike other options where its
all or nothing you can cater to your needs. You can also just move to
SourceHut incrementally. Some projects use lists.sr.ht but keep code
elsewhere. Some use git.sr.ht, but run CI on Travis. Some use the github.com,
but use builds.sr.ht. Any combination is possible.

I definitely recommend using the service. Later this year the service will be
in beta, and there are some good features coming right around the corner
including names.sr.ht and hub.sr.ht.

Important note that at least during the alpha you can use the entire site for
free. Pricing is a pay what you want scale (for sr.ht, there are 3 options),
but you get all the features.

~~~
AquiGorka
Thank you very much for the rundown of features and your description of the
service, I was interested but after reading your comment I'm definitely gonna
try it out.

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stratosgear
I hate to be that guy, but have you given it a try?

~~~
AquiGorka
No, I just learned about it today while reading a guide on putting together my
own git server and wondered what the opinion was about it - they offer
testimonials that make it sound wonderful but what landing page wouldn't do
so.

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timvisee
You should give it a try.

When comparing it to Git{Hub,Lab}, it misses an issue board, pull requests and
many other features in favor of different approaches. It might feel limited
because of it.

That being said, it's brilliantly clean, simple and fast.

For just hosing a repo online it's perfect.

~~~
dhagz
Technically it has an issue tracker, just not tied directly to a repository:
[https://todo.sr.ht](https://todo.sr.ht)

I kind of like the "federated" nature of sr.ht's offerings though. If I don't
want an issue tracker for a repository, I don't have something sitting on the
repo page by default.

~~~
passivepinetree
I like that too, but it's worth noting that Github (not sure about lab) allows
you to disable these features (wiki, issues, etc.) with a checkbox on the
repo's settings page.

~~~
dhagz
Very true. I guess it comes down to if you prefer "on by default" or "off by
default".

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enriquto
I find it is. A very good alternative. Cleaner and simpler interface than
github.

Notice that it is also a much better travis. The fact that build jobs are not
necessarily matched with repos is a very liberating experience.

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a_e_k
I switched to it recently as a refugee from Bitbucket since it supports
Mercurial. No complaints so far, though admittedly my needs are pretty simple
(just a few private repos).

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rrjanbiah
What about [https://gitea.io/en-us/](https://gitea.io/en-us/)

