Microsoft’s announced acquisition of Github, due to be completed by the end of the year, has triggered a lot of speculation and reaction. The most plausible theory of why Microsoft is spending $ 7.5 billion on the platform is the lock-in effect created by the proprietary code that powers Github. Projects that use Github can not switch to another platform without leaving much of their data behind, including all information and discussions about errors and user preferences. Because there is no way for Github to export this data. Already years ago, the FSF had warned against dependence on a provider and pointed out that Github does not even begin to fulfill its criteria for “ethical” project hosting sites.
In response to the increased interest, GitLab has now announced that its fee-based project hosting packages GitLab Ultimate and GitLab Gold are now free for open source projects and educational institutions. GitLab Ultimate is a package that runs on customer-owned servers while GitLab Gold runs on GitLab servers. Entitled are all non-profit educational institutions and all open source projects with OSI recognized free licenses. Again, the exclusion of projects that achieve profit directly with the software applies. Compared to the freely available community edition of GitLab both packages contain additional functions, only support is excluded. If support is needed, it can be purchased for five percent of the regular price, $ 4.95 per user per month.
Source: http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/25968/gitlab-ultimate-und-gitlab-gold-f%C3%BCr-open-source-projekte-kostenlos.html
Submitted by: Arnfried Walbrecht
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