October 2015 Summaries

GitLab, an open-source project launched in 2011, has achieved significant milestones, reaching over one million downloads for its Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) as of October 2015. Initially started as a community-driven project, GitLab evolved into a bootstrapped company by 2013 and gained further traction by participating in Y Combinator's Winter 2015 class. The company secured a $4 million Series A funding from Khosla Ventures in August 2015, highlighting the market's demand for open solutions that enhance collaboration and accelerate product development. GitLab continuously releases updates, with the landmark GitLab 8.0 launch in September 2015 integrating GitLab CI and introducing a new design. Today, GitLab's software is utilized by over 100,000 organizations, including CERN, Alibaba, and SpaceX, and is favored by a substantial portion of the Fortune 500, supported by a dedicated community of over 800 contributors.

Open source has transitioned from being a disruptive force to becoming the standard in software development, with OSCON, organized by O'Reilly Media since 1999, serving as a pivotal event for discussing free and open source software. The conference brings together developers, innovators, business professionals, and investors to explore a wide array of open source technologies, rather than focusing on a single aspect. In 2015, GitLab sponsored OSCON in Amsterdam and offered a special pass to one of its users, valued at 1,545 Euros, which included access to all sessions, keynotes, tutorials, and networking events. To win the pass, participants were required to creatively express their use and love for GitLab by creating a page similar to the OSCON speakers page, submitting a Merge Request in the OSCON 2015 Repository, and tweeting about it with specific hashtags. A panel of GitLab employees would review the entries and announce the winner via Twitter, who would receive a comprehensive gold pass to the event, including additional perks like Safari Pro access and a video compilation of the proceedings.

Perforce has introduced Helix GitSwarm, a new tool built on GitLab, which aims to enhance project and team management by integrating the strengths of Perforce and GitLab. This initiative allows developers to collaborate effectively using Git, their preferred version control system, facilitating a seamless workflow for creating, coding, and deploying projects together. The collaboration between Perforce and GitLab underscores a commitment to providing robust solutions for development teams, ensuring they have the necessary tools for efficient and collaborative software development.