Please do not use GitLab!
Please do not use GitLab to host libreboot.
Libreboot is a free software project, so this is only a request, and not a restriction on the software.
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What's wrong with GitLab?
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GitLab itself is proprietary software. There is a community edition but this is only used as
a source of cheap labour for GitLab to prop up its proprietary version, which it sells for profit.
In fact, the Enterprise Edition used to be Free software, until early 2014. What else will they make proprietary? Perhaps one day they will drop the community edition?
- GitLab uses a CLA for all contributions to the community edition. What this means is that they want you to use their permissive (non-copyleft) license, so that they can make your work proprietary as part of the enterprise edition.
- GitLab serves non-free JavaScript code
- The GitLab CEO (Sytse Sijbrandij) really likes to talk about freedom, but in reality that person's opinion is the same as the GitHub CEO
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Monopolistic practises. For instance, GitLab bought out Gitorious just to asset strip it. Gitorious was the go-to Git hosting provider for Free Software developers, and Gitorious was released under AGPLv3 which meant
that it truly safeguarded user freedom. GitLab killed it.
GitLab simply uses Free Software for its own benefit, releasing source code under a free license
only when suited to its business goals; they are quite happy to violate the rights of their users, for profit.
By contrast, the libreboot project adheres strictly to the goals of the Free Software movement, which
seeks to eliminate proprietary software to the point where all software is free.
The opinions expressed by the CEO of GitLab (not to mention, the actions of GitLab BV) are incompatible with those of
the libreboot project. Users and developers of free software are strongly advised not to use GitLab, for any of their projects.