Exclusive: Google-backed software developer GitLab explores sale, sources say

Typical that the title does mention Google (who currently has a minority stake) but not Datadog, who would become the new owner.
But yeah, I don't foresee a new owner making things better for gitlab.
- I don't know, seems like being owned by Google would be worse. They kill stuff left and right.
  
  But they have been partially owned by Google for the past time, and the product has been great.
  Google's involvement is only going to lessen, so the only reason to put so much emphasis on that in the headline would be to get those rage clicks.
- Oh, neat, DataDog. So if you add a new label to a repo your monthly bill would rocket to the moon.
  
  I feel this so much. We evaluated them at work, and while they did pretty much exactly what we wanted, we weren't willing to pay their fees.

This worries me, i can see the new owners killing the Community edition and/or enshittifying the software to uselessness. Do we have a FOSS alternative that does the whole CI/CD pipeline too?
- Gitea and forejo are doing some amazing work
  
  forgejo
- Codeberg, but you have to manually apply for the CI/CD part. Also, Codeberg only allows you to host FOSS projects.
- https://docs.codeberg.org/ci/
- SourceHut is worth checking out. It leans towards minimal aesthetics, but is actually very functional. Granted, the workflow is quite different than other VCS providers, but you may grow into it, like I have :)
  
  SourceHut burns my eyes. Has Drew (or someone to whom he has delegated such things) announced a dark mode yet?
- Why not fork the latest CE?

I don't think tech people understand how bad it is that Microsoft owns GitHub.
GitLab is one of the few places people could go if GitHub enshittifies too much. Google's stake in it (or full ownership of it) would probably be a good thing, because it would be seen as an important strategic hedge against Microsoft. If it's bought by a smaller player, I can see GitHub squeezing it into irrelevance.
- I view Gitea as the real alternative to GitHub. I was very big on GitLab for a long time, and think any competition is good, but I'd really like it if more people could seriously invest in Gitea.
  They're also working on ActivityPub support: https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/issues/18240
  
  Forgejo?
  
  It's ironic that your alternative for GitHub is hosted on GitHub. That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
- I just wish GitHub wasn't part of MS anymore.
  I also don't want Gitlab owned by another megacorp.
  Something funded by the government but ran by a public org would be ideal.
  
  I just wish GitHub wasn’t part of MS anymore.
  Too bad. Microsoft is using it as part of their extremely long term plan to control the software that developers use to do their jobs. VSCode is another front in that battle. Things are going slowly, but they're winning.
  
  Something funded by the government but ran by a public org would be ideal.
  "the government" which government?
  I don't want software beholden to any state interests. I see donationware as the way to go; or if donations can't sustain server costs, donations for sustaining development, and then a public flagship instance which people can pay to use, or self-host for their own server costs.
  
  Why the government? There are plenty of free git hosting services out there, take your pick. If gitlab goes away, move to gitea, forgejo, gitosis, etc.
- I've been using raw Git for a while now. Glad I switched from GitHub for personal projects.
  Can't share worth a shit that way, but 90% of my code is highly specific, personal scripts that I just want to maintain history and notes for. And a book I'm writing.
  
  The moment I realized that "SSH login" on hosted git forges like GitHub literally just means "there's a folder on a computer that you're connecting to over SSH" was crazy to me. I realized that there's no need to selfhost gitlab, gitea, forgejo. Just put a folder on user@host in the repos folder, then set the origin url to user@host:~/repos/myrepo
  I think there may be some init commands needed before, like git init --bare or something
  
  Yeah, I use personal git repos for most things. But, it's not as convenient if you want to collaborate on something, or if you want to access features like building docker images and having them put into a repo. There's definitely a need for a place for open-source and free software projects to live. And, I personally don't want them on a platform owned by Microsoft.
- GitLab is a parade of avoidable CVEs. There are better alternatives to worry for.

What if source forge bought it lmao

Let's explore the scenarios
Scenario 1: GitLab is acquired by Google
Scenario 2: GitLab is acquired by Apple
Scenario 3: GitLab is acquired by a State government
Scenario 4: Gitlab is acquired by Amazon
Scenario 5: Gitlab is acquired by the Linux Foundation
Scenario 6: Gitlab is acquired by the Federal Government
Scenario 7: Gitlab is acquired by IBM
- Scenario 8: Gitlab is acquired by WalMart
- What if JetBrains bought it though
- Let's be real, 3 and 6 are not possible