quitter.no - a new GNUsocial site

On 11.09.2014 21:12, name at domain wrote:
> I highly doubt that GitHub is SaaS - or, how stallman know refers to the
> problem, SaaSS (Service as a software substitute).
> You can't do GitHub's job (basically hosting code) using your own
> _computer_ with an appropriate piece of free software.
> Of course you can replace github by setting up an own _server_ which
> does the same thing as github, but this holds for almost every website
> and is not covered by the term SaaSS.

I believe you are right, GitHub is not SaaSS, while it could be still
considered SaaS as communication service -- this being the reason why
FSF now uses SaaSS instead of SaaS to refer to the issue of not having
control over your computing because it's done on a server.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html
(SaaSS and SaaS)

http://www.readysaasgo.com/github/

However I disagree that a service such as GitHub is not mistreating
users (besides forcing users to run nonfree JS code on client side) if
it doesn't misuses user data and it doesn't do surveillance (let's
assume GitHub doesn't), as this article signed by RMS explains:

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/network-services-arent-free-or-nonfree.en.html

I feel the main problem with services which don't distribute the
software used to run the service like GitHub (so it can't have a license
applied to it to be considered nonfree and boycotted) is *dependency*.

With the "fork me *on GitHub*" motto, GitHub defeats the decentralized
nature of git on which is based, in order to gain more and more users to
have power over them, over the community.

This dependency is building the monopoly that cannot be safeguarded by
hosting your own GitHub in freedom. This of course, opens the way for
censorship of free software repositories (DCMA takedowns).

https://github.com/github/dmca

Also, if GitHub doesn't work or even closes up, you can't access or even
lose your community comments, code review, bug reports, everything but
the code which is safeguarded by the free decentralized version system
git, on which GitHub is based.

Even worse, if you come to understand the issues with GitHub, and you
decide to move to your own git hosting provided by a free software, you
risk of losing a big part of the community of testers and occasional
developers of your project. Because they want to continue to stay on
GitHub and don't follow up your project on another server with a
different software, with a different interface.

Fortunately, GitLab Community Edition is free software and follows up
closely the features in GitHub, so users can more easily break free from
the dependency of GitLab.

Since we are talking about GNU Social, a free software for communication
service, StatusNet developers made efforts to educate users to run their
own server, not sign up all on Identi.ca. Even though it was free
software and decentralized, common (uneducated) users still think in a
centralized fashion and sign up to the biggest service out there. With
pump.io now running at identi.ca, the developers are encouraging people
to open public services and register them so users can be redirected to
a diversity of servers, while at identi.ca they closed the registration.
Everybody can break from none server and set up their own server without
losing data and community. They are still in the same network, even if
on a different server.

Services like GitHub and Twitter should at least release the software as
free software. If not build decentralization protocols for
interoperability of different instances. Other members of the free
software community can build the protocols and propose those as standards.

--
Tiberiu C. Turbureanu
Președinte, Fundația Ceata
Telefon: +40-761-810-100
GPG: 8B51 53CB 354E 3049 FAE9 3260 F033 8452 4154 1967

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