FSF will launch Forge site in 2020, they deem it a problem that OSS are developed on non-OSS platforms

February 25, Free Software Foundation announced their plan to launch a public code hosting and collaboration platform this year.

What FSF is planning to start is a collaboration platform called “Forge”, which will be equipped with features like merge requests, bug tracking, and so on. FSF already runs a similar site “Savannah”, but the new platform will complement the current one. FSF will continue to support and improve Savannah.

Infrastructure plays an important role for free software, and it is unfortunate that the current environment pushes free software to be developed on forge sites that don’t release their source code. FSF points out the problem that this leads to encouraging the use of proprietary software.

FSF tech team is currently in the process of reviewing “ethical web-based software” that helps teams work on their projects. Projects that are currently under evaluation are Pagure, Gitea, and Sourcehut.

Forge, which FSF is planning to launch, will release documents regarding how they will manage the source code and run the system. Also, they are welcoming volunteers to help guide and improve the project.

Free Software Foundation
https://www.fsf.org/