DEV Community

Discussion on: If You Don't Know, Now You Know - GitHub Is Restricting Access For Users From Iran And A Few Other Embargoed Countries

Collapse
 
vimmer9 profile image
Damir Franusic • Edited

I think that UK does not impose those sanctions, could be worth investigating and hosting a GitLab on a server in UK.

Collapse
 
davidmaxwaterman profile image
Max Waterman • Edited

I don't think the UK is in a much better position due to its close ties with the US.[1]

Some have suggested gitlab as an alternative, and I've seen they have attempted to make it easy to migrate from github, but wikipedia indicates they're also US based and so directly subject to the control of the US government.

Has someone come up a list of alternatives, with an indication of their exposure to the US government's decisions?

[1] Having said that, at least if you're a UK citizen, you have some influence with the decision makers. If you're not a US citizen, it is unreasonable to be subject to the decisions of the US government when you have no influence on them, so choosing services based elsewhere only makes sense (IMO). It reminds me of the phrase, 'no taxation without representation'.

Collapse
 
vimmer9 profile image
Damir Franusic • Edited

GitLab CE seems to be licensed under the terms of MIT license; I guess that's acceptable or?

Thread Thread
 
davidmaxwaterman profile image
Max Waterman

Well, I meant using them as a hosting service, like github, rather than using their s/w on my own servers. The latter would be ok, but isn't really a replacement for github.

Collapse
 
vimmer9 profile image
Damir Franusic

I thought gitlab used to be open source before and available for download; that's why I suggested it. Maybe I mixed it with something else, it's been a while since I used it, sorry.

Thread Thread
 
davidmaxwaterman profile image
Max Waterman

No, that's cool...but being open source isn't enough, since to replace github requires providing hosted services.

Thread Thread
 
vimmer9 profile image
Damir Franusic • Edited

Yes that's whay I had in mind, wanted to do it myself since I have one server (VPS) that isn't doing anything really and is in London. The problem is the provider, Linode LLC, which is a USA registered company.