BookStack Moves from GitHub to Codeberg

Source: Hacker News

Update

The project has now finally migrated to .

You can find a blog post with details here:

Status

• July 27 2024: Our secondary repos have now been migrated to BookStack on CodeBerg (), with the GitHub originals archived and linked to the equivalent CodeBerg projects.

Motivation

As GitHub evolves under Microsoft, staying on the platform feels increasingly uncomfortable. Key concerns for BookStack include:

• Our audience values privacy and rights; a large corporate platform can be a barrier to involvement.
• As an open‑source project, we prefer to use and support open platforms ourselves.
• GitHub’s consumption of public code for AI services raises questions about licensing and author respect.
• Recent shifts toward AI features (e.g., AI‑generated PR descriptions) suggest a focus on revenue over developer experience.

  • References:

    • (AI‑powered developer platform)
• LFS access was temporarily revoked due to bandwidth limits on public repos.

These points have not been raised as community concerns, but they indicate an unfavorable direction that we want to be prepared for.

Benefits of GitHub

• Free hosting and code‑management platform.
• Large market share and visibility, aiding involvement and access.
• User‑friendly UI with features like issue forms.
• Free CI via GitHub Actions.
• Significant income from GitHub Sponsors (see the blog post on financial stability).

Our Attachments to GitHub

The project is currently entwined with GitHub in several ways that would need addressing during migration:

• Six active BookStack repositories with external links.
• Extensive use of GitHub Issues (open, closed, and commented) and cross‑referencing of issue IDs in commits.
• CI pipelines built with GitHub Actions.
• Income from GitHub Sponsors.
• Installation and update processes that pull directly from GitHub URLs.
• Composer dependencies that often resolve via GitHub.
• Integrations with external services (Crowdin, CodeClimate).
• Community projects (e.g., linuxserver) that monitor GitHub releases.
• Pull‑request workflow for contributions.
• GitHub stars used as a growth metric (though their value is debated).

Alternatives

Potential platforms to consider as replacements:

• Codeberg
• Sourcehut – respected platform, but UX targets developers.
• GitLab – concerns about a shift toward commercial/enterprise focus.
• Gitea