Forgejo, a self-hosted free/libre alternative to GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, etc., now uses a free copyleft license

Forgejo, a code self-hosting solution forked from Gitea and powers Codeberg, is now licensed under the GPLv3+: https://forgejo.org/2024-08-gpl/.

While they have just updated their license from the MIT license, they are still actively discussing a more resilient license such as the AGPL or EUPL: https://codeberg.org/forgejo/discussions/issues/192

I encourage anyone with opinions or knowledge about software licenses to add their input in the issue linked above, particularly those with knowledge about copyleft licenses since they are determined to stick with one.


Aside: I believe Forgejo is currently free software, dependencies included, though they have discovered non-free dependencies and actively work to replace or remove them.

On 18 July 2024, a small piece of non Free Software was discovered within the Forgejo codebase. It is only used to display the top authors contribution graph (which is part of the repository activity) in the web interface. A replacement was implemented and merged on 20 July 2024. This piece of non-Free Software is no longer contained in the v8.0.0 release and the v7.0.6 point release.

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I was informed about AGPL when I was modifying source code for my SafeTwitch instance:

Basically, AGPL is more stronger copyleft than GPL, as ā€œnetwork use is distributionā€:

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Iā€™m confident in my knowledge of the GPLv3 and AGPLv3 but I was intending for any license discussion to happen in the Forejo issue linked in my post :sweat_smile: .

Edit: I clarified my intentions in my original post to have any license knowledge contributed to the Forgejo repository issue.

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You could probably have good results by asking on the FSF members forum if you have the FSF membership (mind the referral link) to access it.

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This is great, I hope they go full AGPL.

Meanwhile, GitLab is looking to be sold: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/google-backed-software-developer-gitlab-explores-sale-sources-say-2024-07-17/.

I donā€™t want to be pessimistic but that type of stuff often doesnā€™t end well.
A lot of people seem to like Codeberg lately. Maybe Iā€™ll investigate Forgejo or Codeberg in the future.

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uBlock Origin static filter rule:

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Here is the same news article proxied through my Neuters instance:

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Here is the same news article proxied through my Neuters instance:

Off topic, but what an objectively better news reading experience :slight_smile:

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I know a lot of open source projects such as Purism, KDE, and GNOME all use GitLab Community Edition. I hope that these projects will consider migrating to a more open platform such as, but not exclusive to, SourceHut, Forgejo, and Gogs. (Realistically, migrating would probably be an expensive and time-consuming task, not to mention how they would carry over accounts and post history).
Off-topic: Pijul sounds nice in concept but itā€™s a completely different system that isnā€™t Git so itā€™s not really a strong alternative imo.

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In my humble opinion, a new self-hosted solution for source code under a copyleft license is welcome but I donā€™t see the interest of using yet another platform that could end up being sold and bought by Microsoft, Alphabet or a similar company. In other words, Iā€™m interested in self-hosting my projects, Iā€™m not interested in using some software that allows to do that but not hosted by me.

Moreover, itā€™s a matter of taste but Iā€™ll pick a solution using my favorite programming language in order to be able to contribute and to fix bugs by myself. Go isnā€™t this language.

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Forgejo is owned by the non-profit Codeberg e.V. (https://forgejo.org/faq/#who-owns-the-forgejo-domains-and-trademarks)

It would be very unlikely they would agree to be bought out given it would be against their stated goals:

https://forgejo.org/faq/#what-is-codeberg-ev

Codeberg is a non-profit association registered in Berlin, Germany. The abbreviation e.V. stands for eingetragener Verein, which translates as ā€˜registered associationā€™.

As defined by its Bylaws, its goal is to ā€œguarantee the openness and continued availability of free softwareā€.

Forgejo has to abide by Codebergā€™s goals. [ā€¦]

A for-profit company had already bought Gitea in 2022, which caused Codeberg to create a soft fork at the time. Currently they maintain a hard fork.

I donā€™t understand this statement. Forgejo is software one self-hosts; Codeberg is a managed solution that is powered by Forgejo.

Fair. Depending on your preferences, it can be difficult to find a project that meets this requirement unless you build one yourself. For me, a self-hosted Git hosting solution in my preferred programming language doesnā€™t exist so your mileage will vary.

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Thank you for your detailed explanation. Youā€™re right, there are vanishingly small chances that they would agree to be bought.

I use a single-board computer as a server, there are self-hosted Git hosting solutions in Java and I donā€™t need a lot of features, maybe Iā€™ll use Gitolite, Gitbucket or Gitblit but Forgejo might be a good fallback solution anyway.

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