Git is already federated & decentralized

There have always been murmurs about “replacing GitHub with something decentralized!”, but in the wake of the Microsoft acquisition these murmurs have become conversations. In particular, this blog post is a direct response to forge-net (formerly known as GitPub). They want to federate and decentralize git using ActivityPub, the same technology leveraged by Mastodon and PeerTube. But get this: git is already federated and decentralized!

I already spoke at length about how a large minority of the git community uses email for collaboration in my previous article on the subject. Definitely give it a read if you haven’t already. In this article I want to focus on comparing this...

Input handling in wlroots

I’ve said before that wlroots is a “batteries not included” kind of library, and one of the places where that is most apparent is with our approach to input handling. We implemented a very hands-off design for input, in order to support many use-cases: desktop input, phones with and without USB-OTG HIDs plugged in, multiple mice bound to a single cursor, multiple keyboards per seat, simulated input from fake input devices, on-screen keyboards, input which is processed by the compositor but not sent to clients… we support all of these use-cases and even more. However, the drawback of our powerful design is that it’s confusing. Very confusing.

Let’s begin...

Simple, correct, fast: in that order

The single most important quality in a piece of software is simplicity. It’s more important than doing the task you set out to achieve. It’s more important than performance. The reason is straightforward: if your solution is not simple, it will not be correct or fast.

Given enough time, you’ll find that all software which solves sufficiently complex problems is going to (1) have bugs and (2) have performance problems. Software with bugs is incorrect. Software with performance problems is not fast. We will face this fact as surely as we will face death and taxes, and we should prepare ourselves accordingly. Let’s consider correctness first.

Complicated software breaks....

The advantages of an email-driven git workflow

git 2.18.0 has been released, and with it my first contribution to git has shipped! My patch was for a git feature which remains disappointingly obscure: git send-email. I want to introduce my readers to this feature and speak to the benefits of using an email-driven git workflow - the workflow git was originally designed for.

Email isn’t as sexy as GitHub (and its imitators), but it has several advantages over the latter. Email is standardized, federated, well-understood, and venerable. A very large body of email-related software exists and is equally reliable and well-understood. You can interact with email using only open source software and customize your workflow at...

A quick review of my Let's Encrypt setup

Let’s Encrypt makes TLS much easier for pretty much everyone, but can still be annoying to use. It took me a while to smooth over the cracks in my Let’s Encrypt configuration across my (large) fleet of different TLS-enabled services. I wanted to take a quick moment to share setup with you.

2020-01-02 update: acme-client is unmaintained and caught the BSD disease anyway. I use uacme and my current procedure is documented on my new server checklist. It might not be exactly applicable to your circumstances, YMMV.

The main components are:

nginx and cron need no introduction, but acme-client deserves a closer look. The acme client blessed by Let’s Encrypt...

Pet Project Releases

Once and then I try to sneak work on my pet projects into my daily routine. Today I want to tell you about two projects that I have released this month: SongBook Pro for iOS, and Introduction to Vala Programming. SongBook Pro for iOS SongBook Pro is a complete rewrite of my iOS songbook app for guitar and ukulele players. It's a lean-and-mean songbook app that concentrates on delivering great typography and the best workflow for people playing music. The predecessor of this app ("ChordPro Songbook") has been in the AppStore since 2011, but had to be removed in 2014...

ToxCon 2018

In October the Tox developer community will be holding a conference in Vienna. Join us as we talk about the progress we have made during the last 12 months with Tox and other security related topics. There will be lots of talks and other cool things to see.

For more details join the #toxcon2018 IRC channel on Freenode and contact robinli, sudden6 or zoff99.

More information will be revealed in a future post.

Should you move from GitHub to sr.ht

I’m not terribly concerned about Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub, but I don’t fault those who are worried. I’ve been working on my alternative platform, sr.ht, for quite a while. I’m not about to leave GitHub because of Microsoft alone. I do have some political disagreements with GitHub and Microsoft, but those are also not the main reason that I’m building sr.ht. I simply think I can do it better. If my approach aligns with your needs, then sr.ht may be the platform for you.

There are several GitHub alternatives, but for the most part they’re basically GitHub rip-offs. Unlike GitLab, Gogs/Gitea, BitBucket; I don’t see the GitHub UX as...

How I maintain FOSS projects

Today’s is another blog post which has been on my to-write list for a while. I have hesitated a bit to write about this, because I’m certain that my approach isn’t perfect. I think it’s pretty good, though, and people who work with me in FOSS agreed after a quick survey. So! Let’s at least put it out there and discuss it.

There are a few central principles I use to guide my maintainership work:

The first point is very...

2018-06-01

The maintainance is completed. Let me know of any important things that are broken. Internally we will keep tweaking the server configuration over the course of time.