[Bioperl-l] Possible migration to git/github

[D. Joe Anderson]

On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 11:18:13AM -0500, Chris Fields wrote:

> I wanted to get the BioPerl community's general input on a
> possible Subversion to git/github migration for the BioPerl
> repository.

Moving to git seems like a great good thing with few downsides. 
Distributed revision control has been gaining ground for years,
and seems to have exploded with the development and adoption of
git.  All the cool kids are doing it.

Moving to github, however, brings up all the usual concerns with
getting locked-in to a proprietary application, since the github
software is not open source.  Granted, given the decentralized
nature of git development, the code itself would be fine. 
However, contributor metadata and workflows could be at risk
from changes in github's business model down the line.

I realize these concerns face an uphill battle, given the
popularity of github in particular and of proprietary
software-as-a-service more generally (Google, various social
networking sites) and, most perniciously, the intrusion of
proprietary software-as-a-service into partially- or mostly-FOSS
projects (like Ubuntu One), but I felt they needed airing.

We should note here that Biopython is already using git and
github in some fashion:

http://www.biopython.org/wiki/GitUsage

and that gitorious also offers git project hosting backed by
FOSS software, even if it doesn't reproduce all the qualities of
github:

http://www.gitorious.org

a comparison between github and gitorious

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/78991/why-is-github-more-popular-than-gitorious


-- 
Joe
man screen | grep -A2 weird
  A weird imagination is most useful to gain full advantage of
  all the features.