December 2015 Summaries

GitHost has announced significant changes to its platform, including new plans, pricing, and features, to better meet the needs of organizations using GitLab. Effective December 30, 2015, GitHost introduced three new plans—Business, Business Pro, and Corporate—with increased storage and memory capacity, while consolidating its smaller plans into a single Developer plan. Existing subscribers will benefit from a two-year grandfather period at their current rates, with a 40% discount on upgrades available during this time. The new plans and pricing are aimed at ensuring the sustainability of GitHost's services. Additionally, GitHost now offers GitLab Enterprise Edition for enhanced workflow management and integration, requiring a valid license for use. An improved user interface for configuring Omniauth providers and LDAP has been introduced, simplifying setup and requiring a manual reconfiguration for changes to take effect. The platform's redesign aims to provide a more visually appealing and user-friendly experience, enhancing overall service for GitHost customers.

GitLab is addressing the enthusiasm of its users for company-branded merchandise by planning to launch a swag shop, encouraging users to share their "swag portraits" on social media to be entered into a prize draw. This initiative is driven by the recognition of the cultural significance of swag, such as stickers, which can communicate identity and support for projects. The company emphasizes the importance of creating high-quality, meaningful swag rather than "bad swag" that lacks value or purpose. GitLab is exploring creative and sustainable swag options, like locally made products and those using reclaimed materials, to foster community connections and celebrate innovation. Users are invited to share their favorite swag ideas, with the opportunity to be among the first to access the new swag shop and contribute to its development.

Ruby Together addresses the challenge of maintaining critical Ruby infrastructure, such as Bundler and RubyGems.org, which have historically relied on volunteer work. As the Ruby community has grown, this volunteer model has become insufficient, prompting the establishment of Ruby Together to coordinate funding and ensure fair compensation for developers involved in maintenance, on-call rotations, and service improvements. By fostering collaboration among Ruby developers and companies, Ruby Together aims to enhance the tools and infrastructure vital to the Ruby ecosystem. Notable members like GitLab, Basecamp, and Stripe contribute to these efforts, supporting initiatives like turning RubyBench.org into a comprehensive performance benchmarking resource. Membership in Ruby Together offers companies and individuals tax-deductible opportunities to support the ongoing development and sustainability of the Ruby community's tools and infrastructure.

GitLab has consistently maintained a monthly release cycle since October 2011, emphasizing the importance of time-based releases for distributed software projects. This approach is inspired by open-source projects like Ubuntu and GNOME, which also follow predictable release schedules. The predictable cycle helps in planning, developing, testing, and publishing software effectively, preventing stagnation, and maintaining focus on smaller iterations for rapid feedback. GitLab's process involves rotating the role of Release Manager among team members to foster collaboration and ensure documentation is up-to-date, with the release process beginning seven business days prior to the release date. The Release Manager coordinates activities, ensures team alignment, and handles the post-release process, including addressing regression issues and preparing patch releases. This method not only enhances reliability but also encourages team members to gain a comprehensive understanding of the entire pipeline, reinforcing GitLab's commitment to a disciplined and transparent release strategy that builds trust in the open-source community.

GitLab has made changes to facilitate easier contributions from its community by handling feature proposals directly within GitLab projects on GitLab.com and introducing a system for assigning weights to issues labeled as "Accepting merge requests." This shift from using Uservoice to GitLab.com for feature proposals enables more direct engagement and discussion among users, who can now easily propose features by creating issues in the GitLab CE or EE projects. The new weighting system helps contributors identify simpler issues to tackle, with weights under five indicating tasks suitable for those new to GitLab or looking to improve their skills without committing to extensive bug fixes or features. This approach aims to encourage participation by making it easier for both new and experienced contributors to engage with and improve GitLab, while also inviting feedback to further streamline the contribution process.

GitLab CI is a fully integrated continuous integration system within GitLab, offering seamless automation and configuration for modern agile software development. Initially a separate application, it became a core feature from GitLab 8.0 onwards, simplifying setup by removing the need for additional applications. Users can start leveraging GitLab CI immediately by adding a .gitlab-ci.yml file to their project, which outlines the build process, and by using GitLab Runner to execute builds. GitLab Runner, an open-source tool written in Go, supports various operating systems and environments such as Docker, and allows for the execution of multiple concurrent jobs. With features like build status tracking and the ability to learn from other users' CI/CD practices, GitLab CI aims to make continuous integration accessible and efficient. Future developments are focused on enhancing the ease of use and expanding capabilities to keep pace with evolving CI technologies.

GitLab's time-based release cycle, characterized by its strict adherence to releasing updates on the 22nd of every month, is designed to foster a disciplined, predictable, and motivational development environment. This approach, championed by founder Dmitriy Zaporozhets, contrasts with feature-driven releases by emphasizing the importance of shipping products on a schedule rather than waiting for perfection, which can lead to delays and decreased morale. The regularity of releases enhances user trust and planning, while also promoting an active development community that is crucial for open source projects. GitLab's model is similar to that of other open source initiatives, like Ubuntu, and aims to inspire quality work and community participation by ensuring that developers can see the results of their efforts being used promptly. This approach, while sometimes leading to intense periods of work before a release, is balanced with rest and celebration, ultimately creating a vibrant and motivated community focused on continuous improvement and engagement.