Re: Packaging on GitHub ?

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au> writes:
>>> This is not a good idea: http://mako.cc/writing/hill-free_tools.html
>>
>> MUCH seconded. Thanks for sharing the link!
>
> I don't see the problem, github is just a hosting provider. Unlike,
> say Bitkeeper, you are free to make git clones anywhere, entirely with
> open source software, and are in no way locked down to using github.
>
> Except maybe features like the issue tracking, which may not be really
> appropriate for Debian packages anyway. Debian has its own BTS that
> should be used.

Github issue tracking is very bare-bones, and they provide a
convenient API that can be used to extract all information from it (or
add new info); moving a project from github to a new service wouldn't
be a huge task (if the new service provides equivalent functionality).
Moreover, these days it's not uncommon to maintain a project on
multiple sites simultaneously...

So the amount of "lockin" with github seems fairly minimal.

[Mako-hill's paper is well-intended, but seems a little dated in its
assumptions.]

-Miles

-- 
`...the Soviet Union was sliding in to an economic collapse so comprehensive
 that in the end its factories produced not goods but bads: finished products
 less valuable than the raw materials they were made from.'  [The Economist]