>I wish GNU people could clean up Savannah and use it as their main distribution...

ramshorns · on Dec 21, 2016

GNU grades hosting services based on different sets of criteria. GitLab gets a C, "acceptable hosting for a GNU package", but not "good enough to recommend" because the JavaScript on the website is free but doesn't work with analyzers like LibreJS, and because GitLab doesn't discourage bad licensing practices. GNU Savannah, of course, gets an A.

https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria.html

https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html

dispose13432 · on Dec 21, 2016

> the JavaScript on the website is free but doesn't work with analyzers like LibreJS

How hard would it be for GNU to maintain a fork of that instead of maintaining their own codebase?

>GitLab doesn't discourage bad licensing practices

If they host it, they can discourage whatever they want

pawadu · on Dec 22, 2016

yeah, their complaints against gitlab seems like nitpicking.

If the gitlab people could fix these minor issues and receive the blessing of RMS I think they could get some exposure outside their usual market.

(whether that gets them more paying costumers is a whole different discussion)

jobvandervoort · on Dec 22, 2016

> If the gitlab people could fix these minor issues

Sorry, dropping in here while working on our release of today. Could you clarify what issues?

We're always excited to help projects move to GitLab.

pawadu · on Dec 22, 2016

From the GNU website:

---

Things that prevent GitLab from moving up to the next grade, B:

    All JavaScript code served to the client is free, but does not work with LibreJS enabled. (B0)
    Encourages bad licensing practice, including no license; failure to state the license on each source file; and failure to say which GPL versions apply. (B2)

---

I think at least B2 is a reasonable request, although this may have already been fixed (sorry, I use gitlab but barely visit the site itself).

ramshorns · on Dec 22, 2016

Good point. I was confusing GitLab.com the hosting service with GitLab CE the server software, which they could run an instance of.

dispose13432 · on Dec 22, 2016

Gitlab.com is gitlab EE or CE?

jobvandervoort · on Dec 22, 2016

GitLab.com runs GitLab EE

dispose13432 · on Dec 22, 2016

Slightly off topic, but I find it interesting that they find logging people more ethical than calling Linux the conventional way over Gnu/Linux.

pawadu · on Dec 22, 2016

Yeah, thats RMS in a nutshell for you:

    Avoids saying “Linux” without “GNU” when referring to GNU/Linux. (A8)

Specially now that GNU/Linux is in a minority (if you count installations and include Android and ChromeOS), I think they should drop the whole thing.

Someone · on Dec 21, 2016

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/:

"GitLab Community Edition (CE) is available freely under the MIT Expat license."

I don't see GPL mentioned there.

rekado · on Dec 21, 2016

You are correct. To avoid a common misunderstanding I'd like to note that GNU people have no problem using software that has been released under the Expat license. It doesn't have to be copyleft software to be free/libre.

dispose13432 · on Dec 21, 2016

Oops, but it's free anyways.