
KDE is adopting GitLab - severine
https://about.gitlab.com/press/releases/2019-09-17-gitlab-adopted-by-KDE.html
======
EspadaV9
Couldn't see a link in the post but there seems to be an active GitLab
instance here[1]. I've only done a few patches with their previous Phabricator
flow and it was a very different experience from the usual GitHub/GitLab
workflow. I'm really hoping that switching to something more people have
experience with increases the number of contributors.

[1]: [https://invent.kde.org/public/](https://invent.kde.org/public/)

~~~
cromka
I tried to contribute some simple fixes to kmymoney which I want to move on
from GnuCash, but the amount of work required to set everything up, from git
cloning to building a dmg package was just too much. I spent like 2 hours with
their proprietary build chain and still couldn't obtain a build, so I gave up.

Hopefully leveraging GitLab workflow will make things easy.

~~~
EspadaV9
The first time I was trying to build Konsole was a bit painful too, they don't
really list what the dependencies are. I ended up creating a docker container
based off Fedora 30 and added the packages needed to build the app there, then
I can mount my local checking into the container and run `cmake` and `make`
there. Not sure how useful that would be if you're trying to build a DMG
though.

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TekMol
So far, I am happy only using pure git.

If you guys that use GitLab or GitHub or alike would have to switch to pure
git - what is the one thing you would miss most?

~~~
przmk
There is plenty of things that can make your life easier on Github/Gitlab,
especially when working in a team:

\- Issue tracker

\- Merge requests that are easy to analyze

\- Ability to put comments during a code review on specific lines of code and
discuss it from there

\- Embedded wiki for a project

\- Managing different access rights to different repos

I couldn't see myself using pure git without any additional tooling for
anything more that personal projects that I work on alone.

~~~
zimbatm
I don't understand the utility of the wiki.

Markdown is already rendered in the repo and can live next to the code.
Meaning that merge requests can update both the code and documentation at the
same time. And GitLab / GitHub have embedded editors that allow you to edit
the markdown files using from the browser, just like a wiki.

Basically the only thing that is left is that the wiki can be edited without
supervision.

~~~
OJFord
I find they're rarely good, but I can see that having them live alongside code
is good sometimes (as you say) but not so great when it needs to be changed
independent of the code around it and you have a load 'fix markdown rendering'
or 'fix typo' commits.

~~~
mikepurvis
That feels like a failure of the tool/workflow— when you use the web UI edit
button, it should put your edits on a branch for review, and make it easy to
make further edits/corrections and then squash all of the piddly fixes into
one big change at the end.

------
wodenokoto
With such an announcement, I always become curious about what they are moving
away from.

~~~
przmk
They are currently on Phabricator if I'm not mistaken.

[https://phabricator.kde.org/](https://phabricator.kde.org/)

While it has plenty of features, it's not as user-friendly to use as Github or
Gitlab. It can also be confusing at times.

I'm glad they're moving to Gitlab and I hope it'll bring some new
contributors.

~~~
albertzeyer
Are there more details on why they specifically have chosen to move? Maybe
there were some discussions in some public mailing lists?

~~~
boudewijnrempt
Two things:

* Development and maintenance of Phabricator has slowed down a lot.

* People were claiming phabricator was old-fashioned and confusing and hoping a merge-request based workflow would be more inviting

I'm the maintainer of one of the test projects that moved to our gitlab
instance, and it's mostly fine, we're missing things in the merge request
workflow, but have papered around that with labels
([https://invent.kde.org/kde/krita/merge_requests](https://invent.kde.org/kde/krita/merge_requests)),
but we're still using phabricator for task management because it's so powerful
for that that we cannot move that part of our workflow to gitlab yet.

------
GrayTextIsTruth
more consolidation. at least its competition for github. I could see
IBM/Redhat acquiring Gitlab at this rate.

~~~
PudgePacket
My bet is on google. There's a _lot_ of kubernetes/gcloud integration going on
with gitlab.

~~~
DocTomoe
That would be a major reason to abandon the Gitlab ship. Google is notorious
for killing off projects.

Also, Google had a Gitlab/Github-style page until a few years ago, called
Google Code. Obviously, they weren't interested on that venue anymore.

~~~
gbersac
Google only kills unsuccessful projects. Gitlab is an obvious successful
project.

~~~
dgellow
Google Reader was clearly successful.

~~~
shawabawa3
Was it? I've never met or heard of anyone using it except on Hacker News

I also doubt it made any revenue

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chx
Drupal and KDE has similarities in the width of contributors. Both ended up
with gitlab. Hm :)

~~~
nwellnhof
GNOME as well.

------
jchw
Congratulations to GitLab and KDE, I think it will work out well for both.
GNOME and Freedesktop are both already on their own instances and it’s been
pretty good.

~~~
sytse
Thank you! It has been awesome to see GNOME
[https://gitlab.gnome.org/explore/](https://gitlab.gnome.org/explore/)
Freedesktop
[https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/explore/](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/explore/)
and Debian [https://salsa.debian.org/public](https://salsa.debian.org/public)
embrace GitLab and we hope KDE will have a smooth experience.

We're also hoping to see them contribute back features to GitLab they need for
complex projects, and I think we've already seen a few.

~~~
rpaik
Another open source project on GitLab is Haskell
([https://www.haskell.org/ghc/](https://www.haskell.org/ghc/)).

Also, this blog was published when Freedesktop announced their move to GitLab
(incl. CI): [https://www.fooishbar.org/blog/gitlab-fdo-
introduction/](https://www.fooishbar.org/blog/gitlab-fdo-introduction/)

We actually have a panel with representatives from Freedesktop, GNOME, and KDE
at GitLab Commit in London
([https://about.gitlab.com/events/commit/#schedule)in](https://about.gitlab.com/events/commit/#schedule\)in)
a few weeks discussing their experience with GitLab.

------
thresh
How do people self-hosting gitlab CE for the open-for-all projects fix the
spam problem?

~~~
mgbmtl
On a project I contribute to, we ask people to register on our main website,
which has a pretty good anti-spam. We do that in part to get to know our
contributors more and better engage (after all, we develop a FOSS CRM). Gitlab
uses that authentication source as an LDAP server.

So far in the past 2 years, we have had only 1 spam merge-request.

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InfiniteRand
It's good to see Gitlab staying strong, I worry sometimes that if Github has
no competition it might turn into a new Sourceforge (which to be fair has
cleaned-up its act in the last several years, but only after years of earning
enormous amounts of bad will)

Granted with Microsoft ownership there's less chance of Github becoming cash
desperate, but it seems possible if somewhere down the line Microsoft loses
active interest and goes on life-support, and Microsoft decides that the
property is no longer worth protecting from the arbitrary whims and corporate
commercial strategies internally.

------
stevefan1999
I just hope GitLab won't accidentally delete their entire server + codebases
ever again

