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Towards federated git collaboration


cross-postowane z: https://szmer.info/post/289222
Git was designed as a decentralized version control system from the ground up. Yet it has been subverted by centralizing hosting and collaboration platforms that compete on projects hosting their code on them. Disagreements on where a project should be hosted regularly result in flame wars. But why, since we live in a world of federated services? If the Git hosters would federate, it might not matter on which server a merge request or an issue is filed.

The #gitea issue targeted at adding #activitypub is still open, but it seems to require in-depth architectural changes. So what would be the best bet for a Git hosting platform to be the first in entering the #fediverse?

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in reply to dreiwert

Would be awesome if this got implemented everywhere

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in reply to Anders Rytter Hansen

I commented on the original post. Activity has shifted to Forgejo.


With Gitea Ltd sudden incorporation, the soft fork of Gitea launched as Forgejo (which is what Codeberg now runs on) most of the forge federation efforts have shifted in that direction, as it offers the highest guarantees of remaining to the public benefit. Gitea has received a NLnet grant to add federation support, but it is unknown to what extent they are actively working towards implementing its goals. Those interested to learn more can join the Forge Federation general chatroom on Matrix.

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in reply to Anders Rytter Hansen

Definitely. But I guess the proprietary players will only take part when they are either forced to do so by regulation, or when 80% of the market already federates. So the question is probably which of the open source platforms has the biggest promise for making it happen.

Btw, a similar effort for Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/30672

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in reply to dreiwert

Gitlab is quite big so if they introduce it then the chance of a shift is quite big.

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in reply to dreiwert

Looking forward to this. It will let developers collaborate across hosting platforms without having to create several accounts.