[ZF] Proposal: Launchpad code hosting for ZF projects; free commercial support for migration

[Gary Poster]

On Feb 27, 2009, at 2:05 PM, Tres Seaver wrote:

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> Leonardo Rochael Almeida wrote:
>> Most of you were probably around back when we transitioned from CVS  
>> to SVN.
>>
>> Before the transition, some developers complained about having to
>> learn Yet Another Tool to do what they already did successfully with
>> CVS.
>>
>> After the transition, some people still complained of the same thing,
>> as well as not having a properly working ViewSVN to replace the
>> ViewCVS app which worked correctly.
>>
>> And yet, overall, the switch was huge net win, as we managed to work
>> much more effectively with branches and directory management than we
>> could with CVS, and the true problems we faced after the migration
>> were eventually resolved, like the ViewSVN one.
>>
>> And that migration was done entirely on volunteer time.
>>
>> I'm not claiming moving to Launchpad is necessarily going to be a net
>> win for the Zope community, but I suggest we carefully evaluate this
>> offer on the "net win" criteria alone, and not on an eventual vocal
>> minority, whether for or against it, even if in the end we have some
>> drawbacks from adopting it.
>
> Please let us separate the strands of the question here:
>
> 1. Should we move from SVN to a new DVCS?
>
> 2. If so, which one?  There are already folks happily using git,
>   and bzr, and hg in our community:  I'm pretty sure there is no
>   easy consensus among the four choices.
>
> 3. If the developers choose bzr, should we take Canonical up on their
>   offer?  I would vote "no" here:  I don't think the Foundation should
>   outsource managment of the codebase, where custody of that codebase
>   is the entire reason the Foundation exists.

These are good questions.  Two thoughts, though.

1) In regards to item 3, as a ZF member, I'm very appreciative of the  
hosting ZC has provided.  But I'm not clear on how that is materially  
different than Launchpad, or any other friendly company or service  
providing hosting services to the ZF.  Does the company have to be  
paid by ZF?  I thought ZC did this as its own generous offer, but I  
may misunderstand.  Does the company making the offer have to be a ZF  
member?

2) Separating the questions is valuable, but I gave three or more  
examples (depending on how you count them) in my original email of how  
using Launchpad for code hosting can provide significant value beyond  
the individual parts of the story.  That indeed is the thing that  
Launchpad does differently and better than anything else to my  
knowledge.  I'll be happy to highlight or try to clarify the points if  
requested, but until then refer you to the original mail.

Gary