TL;DR

I started using Codeberg.

As a regular nerCOUGHgeek, I’m always fascinated by the latest addition in town. In this case it’s a Git hosting service named Codeberg.

It is based on Gitea, a software that aims at providing the most common functionalities in GitHub/GitLab. I mean, the most common for me: hosting the code, keeping track of the issues, forking and submitting pull requests.

Oh, and hosting Pages, too.

What sets Codeberg apart from its more famous siblings is the transparency model, as opposed to a business model. There simply is no other business than to support software development:

Codeberg, the community-driven non-profit software development platform.

Much more info here. I hope that it will keep the spirit in the years to come.

I don’t have specific information that Microsoft, or GitLab, want to exploit their user base. Surely enough, though, they are businesses driven by business reasons, and try to compete providing additional services that make them apart from the rest. I understand it, and especially for Microsoft it’s been a business model for decades and a pretty successful one (as opposed to the business model of open source, I mean).

On the other hand, I also think that it’s right that there are alternatives where what is available for free software is not necessarily bound to the perceived alignment of the goals of free software with the business opportunities of a few companies. I think that Google did a service to the whole world in this, showing that populare services might be shut down if they’re not deemed worth the business effort.

So… there will be stuff to read!