On Sat, 14 Feb 2015 23:19:48 +0000 Ciaran McCreesh wrote:
> On Sun, 15 Feb 2015 02:13:36 +0300
> Andrew Savchenko <bircoph@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > > What's the difference between connecting to a proprietary Git server
> > > over an open network stack, and connecting to an open Git server
> > > over a proprietary network stack?
> > 
> > 1a. If proprietary git server denies user, nothing can be done.
> > Access to a free software project is restricted.
> 
> If an ISP decides to start blocking traffic, access is restricted. This
> happens regularly.

But ISP may be changed or some tunnelling may be used.
 
> > 1b. If proprietary network stack makes it impossible to use free
> > git server, it is possible to change ISP in most of cases.
> 
> It's utterly trivial to move a Git repository. It's not easy to change
> ISP.

When this is your private repository — yes, when you need to
collaborate with hundreds of other developers — no.

> > 2a. Github has almost no obligations to free software users:
> > service access is free, but may be restricted any moment without any
> > legal penalties.
> 
> So what? If it is, it doesn't affect anything, because Git doesn't rely
> upon everything being in one specific place.

Github is more than git server. (And I'm sure Gentoo infra can setup
git server on their own resources.) Github is a development
platform with pull requests, review tools, issue tracker and other
workflow management tools. That can't be easily and arbitrary moved.
I'm not sure if all that auxiliary information may be moved outside
of Github at all.

> > 2b. ISP services are usually paid for, so users have a possibility
> > to affect ISP actions in majority of cases.
> 
> Tell that to anyone whose government decides to block Github...

You know, I usually don't talk to myself. And this is one more
reason why I'm not happy to see github as a main development
platform to be used. In short it hosts too many projects and if one
them makes government unhappy, whole github will be blocked due to
https nature of connection. I wrote this in more detail in my other
mail to this discussion.

Best regards,
Andrew Savchenko