Is it ethical to use github?

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rcl
rcl
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Joined: 11/20/2016

The FSF rates with F github and an A Savannah.
On the other hand, there are a lot of projects that I want to contribute to that are hosted in github...
Damned network effect...

Time4Tea
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Joined: 07/16/2017

Trisquel uses Gitlab for its own development, which apparently is on an 'open source' license and seems to work with LibreJS enabled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitLab

ADFENO
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Joined: 12/31/2012

> On the other hand, there are a lot of projects that I want to
> contribute to that are hosted in github...
> Damned network effect...

Sometimes you can send patches to the email of the authors, and insert
in the same message an explanation as to why you don't use GitHub (with
references, preferably).

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ADFENO
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Joined: 12/31/2012

Another thing that helps is convincing the authors to insert alternative
ways to contact them, preferably those which Git itself already supports
(email).

happy_gnu
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Joined: 08/06/2017

If there is a libre program on github and you want to contribute and it will help the freedom of more users I would recommend you to use it.

You can always ask, in a kind and polite way, to the maintainers to change to gitlab or something else. Many projects are migrating from github to gitlab.

Anyway you don't have to sacrifice your freedom, but if it is with a good purpose I don't think anyone would think it is "unethical".

onpon4
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Joined: 05/30/2012

God, ADFENO, you really have a knack for resurrecting month-old threads.

I disagree with the FSF on this. I never enable JavaScript when accessing GitHub, and I get zero problems. In fact, it's one of the best no-JavaScript designs I've ever seen. And the whole C2 thing... that page they link to is just telling you that GitHub complies with a U.S. law and gives a brief summary of what that entails. Plus, it only applies to the Enterprise service.

I'd also like to note any two Git repositories can be merged. They don't have to both be from GitHub. In fact I never tell people who want to contribute to my projects to use Savannah; I tell them to host a copy in whatever Git host they prefer, make their changes, and send me a link. It's really trivial for me to do:

git remote add example https://example.com/foo.git
git pull example master

You can even use "git request-pull" to make it even easier for whoever needs to merge the changes.

ADFENO
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Joined: 12/31/2012

> I disagree with the FSF on this. I never enable JavaScript when
> accessing GitHub, and I get zero problems. In fact, it's one of the
> best no-JavaScript designs I've ever seen. And the whole C2

The fact that JavaScript is (by default and by the standard) enabled in
most browsers leads me to consider it as required still.

> best no-JavaScript designs I've ever seen. And the whole C2
> thing... that page they link to is just telling you that GitHub
> complies with a U.S. law and gives a brief summary of what that
> entails. Plus, it only applies to the Enterprise service.

Hm... perhaps you should tell the evaluators about this, I think they
have a dedicated mailing list (repo-criteria-discuss, I think, check the
webpage for the evaluation to see the exact name and email address).

> I'd also like to note any two Git repositories can be merged. They
> don't have to both be from GitHub. In fact I never tell people who
> want to contribute to my projects to use Savannah; I tell them to host
> a copy in whatever Git host they prefer, make their changes, and send
> me a link. It's really trivial for me to do:
>
> git remote add example https://example.com/foo.git
> git pull example master
>
> You can even use "git request-pull" to make it even easier for whoever
> needs to merge the changes.

Agree! ;)

cmsimon
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Joined: 02/08/2018

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/discuss-gnustep/2015-12/msg00168.html "GitHub does things that are quite bad for free software and is
not interested in changing them. If you want to move off Savannah,
please pick some other place.

The reason that attending to user requests for Savannah is slow
is that there are not enough volunteers doing it. Would someone like
to volunteer to help run Savannah? Can you find someone else who
would like to do this?" -- rms