this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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Privacy

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Alt text: an ad for Github Copilot when viewing files in a github repo

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 7 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Codeberg only allows open source licensed code. If you’re working on non-free software you could self host Codeberg’s underlying software, or SourceHut is a different but other good option too.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

In what circumstances would you develop non-free code and still have the need to pick a provider? Don't companies have regulations usually, so your have to use either their own hosted instance or GitHub enterprise?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I use GitHub private repos for my home configuration stuff. So it's not open source since I'm the only one using it and I don't want someone else to know how to attack my network.

For certain configurations, self hosting doesn't make sense. For people like me, who would rather spend his time doing the stuff I care about instead of maintaining the stuff I don't care about, I'm okay giving Microsoft some "control" over my code for the convenience.

That said, I am thinking about moving my FOSS code off of GitHub since that is an option. I'd have to see their CI/CD pipelines though.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (8 children)

Just FYI, you can keep personal repositories for configurations and whatnot on Codeberg, check out the FAQ: https://docs.codeberg.org/getting-started/faq/#can-i-host-personal%2C-private-repositories-that-i-do-not-intend-to-publish%3F

I'd have to see their CI/CD pipelines though.

~~Codeberg hasn't deployed their Actions yet, but the software Gitea and Forgejo both have it, so I believe it will come some time in the near future (don't know how near though, could probably ask them over on @Codeberg).~~

EDIT: not completely true, actions have been ready for a while apparently, but you currently have to provide your own compute: https://docs.codeberg.org/ci/actions/
Which isn't ideal, though

In the meantime you can either use Woodpecker or use another forge like Gitea hosted (has Actions already) or Gitlab with their CI/CD

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

i work for some people who don't host their own gitlab/gitea/whatever and use the paid tier from github or gitlab. they could not use codeberg.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

That's what I said, they use paid GitHub, so you as the worker don't get the choice, you need to use whatever they do

Meanwhile, if you start your own project, you need to choose a platform, but you also need to choose a license, so nothing is stopping you from using a free licence and picking Codeberg

I struggle to see many cases where someone that cares about FOSS gets to choose between GitHub, Codeberg etc, but doesn't get to choose the license of their project. As an employee you get neither, for your own projects you get both.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)
  1. it's not intrusive
  2. it can be dismissed in one click, and this hides these ads everywhere and permanently
[–] [email protected] 63 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah... And microtransactions in videogames used to be "just cosmetic". /s

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Nah, no /s needed when there are actual ample examples of enshittification via nickel and diming ads and ad-like bwhavior.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Someone needs to turn the hyperbole dial down on Lemmy. My feed is frequently nothing but Chicken Little's whining about trivial shit. When something truly egregious comes up, I'm not going to be able to see if in a sea of outrage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Privacy, FOSS, leftists -- all of these communities have a very large presence here, and while I love all of them, they do tend to love their purity tests. Purity tests have been a constant in these communities for as long as I can remember them existing. Lemmy just has a high concentration of 'em.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Horse armor

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Please drink verification can to push

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

Honestly, I feel like you guys are just nit picking now lol

That's the least intrusive ad I've ever seen

[–] [email protected] 59 points 7 months ago

It always starts small. The next step is, every time you commit code you get that then every time you commit code you have to disagree not using copilot.

It has to be stopped when it is small.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (5 children)

It has no place in a source code repository.... It starts small and gets worse. Always.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You go accepting one small thing after another, and soon you will be locked into a crappy service.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago

Thanks but where did keanu come from 😂

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That text has been there for like a year?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Only noticed it today. I guess years of adblocking made me ultra sensitive to ads that this one stuck out like a sore thumb.

It is quite antithetical to the principles of FOSS to rely on a platform that pushes ads. It’s unfortunate that we settled on github but it is what it is.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

it is what it is.

Isn't the whole point of git that the repo is cloned in a million places. You can switch the remote repo really easily?

Maybe i'm wrong; I stopped using github years ago. And I don't do a lot of collaborative stuff, so I'm happy with just local git + rsync, local backups for most things. Maybe it has loads of unique features I've never noticed.

I'm sure there are ways to scrape other data off the platform too. For example:
https://docs.codeberg.org/advanced/migrating-repos/

I'm not saying the alternatives are necessarily better for every project. Maybe github really is best for some - but it is a choice of the project to use github. They can move if they prefer the set of features of another repository.

I'm not convinced by anyone using "critical mass" justification for choosing github, that sounds like stockholm syndrome even though you have a key to the door.
"Too lazy to switch" that's legitimate; if a wee bit dissapointing.
"Doesn't allow my special sauce proprietary licence" - well . . .

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Github did a lot of work into making it incompatible with just git. Moving issues, wiki, projects etc. etc. Makes it not just a simple switch to another hoster.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

You can always clone it and use services like gitlab or codeberg. Or host your own Gitea instance.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Enshitification doesn't really apply to GitHub because you aren't really locked into GitHub. At least you aren't so long as you consider the git part of it to be more important than the social media platform part of it. Repositories are totally interoperable with other services so the cost to jump platform is fairly low. At least so long as you aren't relying on curling stuff directly from GitHub, which everyone knows is a terrible idea and very bad practice yet happens all the time anyway.

The template and framework of this idea requires social media platforms be finger traps, with way higher costs to leave than enter.

Doctrow himself is pretty clear about this. Interoperability is the way you fight back against enshitification.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Github is pretty much a social network for coders these days. If it was so easy to switch away or just not use their service, why is it that the vast majority of projects are hosted there? Git alone can't be the reason, as you rightly say it isn't any different from other git hosts. The relevant parts are the collaboration features and those are exactly the type of social media that enshittification applies to.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Doctrow himself is pretty clear about this. Interoperability is the way you fight back against enshitification.

funny that's not what I just read in his FT piece "There are four constraints that prevent enshittification: competition, regulation, self-help and labour. To reverse enshittification and guard against its re-emergence, we must restore and strengthen each of these." published just yesterday.

Also FWIW we absolutely are locked into GitHub... because others are too. That's why M$ bought it in the first place, classic strategy from Redmond. I go use Gitlab, have my own Gitea instance, but in practice where do people talk on issues? Github. That's why even entities like Mozilla or KDE that have entire CI and bug system outside of Github still often have mirrors there. Because that's sadly where most of us end up being locked.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Ublock > Pick Element > Click that > Create.

I get that it shouldn't be there but imo GitHub has made a lot more annoying changes to their UI than this piece of text

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

you don't need ublock to remove it, just hover over it and press a cross button. it permanently dismisses ALL copilot ads.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

i deleted my github a while ago. now i use codeberg for my public repos and just use a local git repo for dotfiles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Github is not a two sided market, enshittification does not apply. They make all their money from users.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No they don't. Github was aquired by Microsoft to act as a funnel into their Azure Cloud and similar projects and thus subject to that "market".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

All owned by microsoft right?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yes, hence the quotation marks in "market". But Microsoft is a company large enough to have an internal "market" for different departments and there is also the outward pressure from Mirosoft's shareholders for whom the cloud business in the main driver of profits/stock value.

Edit: Maybe to make it more clear: Yes there are no advertisers as in the classical "enshittification" model, but Github is subject to similar outside pressures that do not prioritize the needs of the Github users and thus a very similar dynamic enfolds.

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