Bonum Certa Men Certa

GitLab the Company, Just Like GitHub (Now Part of Microsoft, Going Through Several Rounds of Layoffs This Year, Even Office Shutdowns), is Sinking Deep Into Debt and Showing the Risk of Outsourcing

Video download link | md5sum f61ec70272c7d04fdf6f006ec21bc29a Serfs and Sharecropping With Git Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: 'Free' hosting for Git may not be a viable business plan; be wary and careful not to offload creative work to debt-saddled firms (that work being text, code, videos etc.)

THIS post is related to the trend of digital sharecropping we often allude to in the context of social control media such as Twitter or Diaspora or the Fediverse. Many people still live in a fantasy land wherein the Web is full of 'free' services ripe for exploitation. As the old saying goes, there's no free lunch* and anything that seems free may in fact be temporarily free (grace period, sometimes for market penetration and vendor lock-in).



This post will focus on GitLab as an example, but we're not singling out GitLab. There are many others like it, including Clownflare.

"Git is Free software. Some of the Web interface suites are not."Remember that Clownflare is not free. Clownflare is a trap. It's also a cancer on the World Wide Web.

Self-hosting isn't a matter of "making a point". It's a principled and practical decision based on pragmatism. Some people will never learn until they're betrayed time and time again, forced to restart from scratch over and over (ad infinitum**).

Git is Free software. Some of the Web interface suites are not. Some are a hybrid of sorts. Some are purely proprietary, e.g. GitHub. Microsoft is trying to pull an E.E.E. on Git, with stuff like the github/gh command along with proprietary extensions at the Web level and editors' level. Be sceptical of Trojan horses.

Let's examine the situation of GitLab as a company (not GitLab the software):

gitlab-debt
Notice how quickly debt is growing



GitLab Net Income 2021-2023
Income in the red



GitLab shares
GitLab shares over-inflate the
'worth' of this company (not a unique problem)



The short story is, GitLab took ~1,200 million dollar in debt this year while laying off staff. GitLab has a fictional market cap of 7.40B for a company in debt and which cannot make money (losing hundreds of millions each year; number of employees in 2023 is 2,170 and losses per head about $100,000 per annum). It's like Twitter Junior.

"GitHub had two rounds of layoffs so far this year."It's probably the same with GitHub's losses (debt too), but Microsoft does not break down the numbers that way. GitHub had two rounds of layoffs so far this year.

As per this report, published months ago: "investor one-year losses grow to 54% as the stock sheds US$1.4b this past week..."

It says "GitLab didn't make a profit in the last twelve months," further complicating the prospect of a turnaround. No wonder they wanted to just raise more money instead of making money. No wonder GitLab wanted to shut down 'inactive' repos, but stopped only due to mass uproar, which people won't forget (it's not free hosting, it's a trap).

"We cannot help but wonder about sourcehut."Just how much money does Microsoft lose on GitHub each year? Has Microsoft loaded debt onto its subsidiaries to hide deficits? Again, just as a reminder, this past February Microsoft GitHub laid off 10% and then it went further, closing down entire offices and firing entire teams, even in India. GitHub is a money sink. With hiring freeze in place, maybe GitHub got rid of 30% of its staff since the start of this year. GitHub is not doing well.

We cannot help but wonder about sourcehut. They too mass-deleted some Git repos and introduced new demands for payments (to keep some repos online). "That's a smaller shop," one reader explains. "Again there is a problem with growth of storage costs, like with YouTube or Wikipedia, but flat income."

So the take-home message is, if you use Git, roll out your own. Don't rely on others to do it for you 'for free'. They stand to lose money, so it won't last forever. Some exchange control for 'gratis', or in other words take away your freedom/autonomy for a freebie.

"The costs of running YouTube go up, not down, just like Twitter."Now, to use the example of video, the other night we shared this alarming video about YouTube. YouTube is one of the next Twitters. It cannot make money. It can only put off both creators and audiences. So what will happen next? Mass layoffs? That did not work for Twitter. Rebrand? Also did not work for Twitter. What's the "grand plan"?

The costs of running YouTube go up, not down, just like Twitter. Bloat and data storage, more "moderation" staff etc. YouTube has not reported whether it makes money... since 2015. So we can safely assume something is very wrong. Because YouTube is not making money (same as GitHub/GitLab). So it's hiding that and only talks of "revenue" (while defrauding the advertisers... clickfraud and such). As a last resort, courtesy of new management who realise they cannot make money, now they "steal" from creators. What message does that send?

A critic with bad experiences (learning from mistakes made in the past) can promptly point out the importance of self-hosting. Separation is also worthwhile (the video above mentions examples). The bug-tracking is integrated into some of the above Web interfaces, but that is a complexity that might make it worth separating, not outsourcing. For tracking of issues/bugs/incidents/wishlists one can use RT, Mantis, Bugzilla, Trac, Landscape, OTRS and maybe even Jira (I once installed it on a home machine from the 1990s and it worked, albeit slowly). I've had hands-on experience with most of these, also as the administrator. They're simpler to manage than Git. The learning curve is worthwhile. ____ * A related saying is: "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product!"

** One could point out the folly of building digital structures on properties which can vanish overnight because they are owned by and controlled by others and probably without overlapping priorities.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Media Helps Microsoft, Amazon and Others (GAFAM and Beyond) Lie About Mass Layoffs Amid Valuation Bubble
The media, instead of saying that there's an "AI bubble" crashing the economy might instead choose the narrative of "jobs replaced by AI"
Bad Tempered? You Might Have Just Given Away That You're Losing the Argument
Brett Wilson LLP is fully aware that it is being investigated
Lies Need to be Corrected
the Court never invited us
 
Links 17/10/2025: UK’s Largest Breach Penalty and Windows TCO Examples
Links for the day
Go Watch Video About Librephone, Get Microsoft Ads
Very ethical company...
Campaign of Defamation Against the People Who Built NixOS (and Are Now Pushed Out From Their Own Project)
We've already grown familiar with - and resistant to - such tactics
Links 17/10/2025: Nestlé Crisis, Canada Post Versus 'Gig Economy' [sic] and Vista 11 Breaks Itself
Links for the day
Tux Machines Has Helped Separate Opinions/Analysis From News
In September 2023 we decided to split things apart and not repeat links in both sites
Tux Machines Has Improved Navigation of GNU/Linux and BSD News
Some more 'wiring' work
What a World Would Look Like If Everyone Used Free Software Only
Freedom is what matters, not "Open".
Richard Stallman (RMS) is a Target of Defamation Campaigns Because of His Views on Software (But Politics Are the Excuse for Defaming Him)
Here in this site we try to refrain from politics, except in Daily Links
End of Vista 10 and Rise of GNU/Linux as Client Side Operating System
It seems certain GNU/Linux will grow in popularity over time
Taking Stock of a Week's Worth of EPO Leaks
We remain committed to exposing EPO corruption as long as it keeps happening
Mathieu Parreaux claims FINMA knew since day one
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Calumny, Libel, Joerg Jaspert & debian-private untouchable cyberbullies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 16, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 16, 2025
Techrights Turns 19 in 3 Weeks
coverage of suppressed topics and protecting all sources/whistleblowers
International E-Waste Day Same Day as End of Vista 10
message from Akira Urushibata
The EPO's Central Staff Committee Presents Evidence That Staff Compensation Lowered While the Office Increases Income by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents
These people become millionaires by doing illegal things
Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal
Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more
'Help Net Security' (helpnetsecurity.com) May Have Become a Slopfarm as Well
Zeljka Zorz, Editor-in-Chief at Help Net Security, was reported to us
Gemini Links 17/10/2025: Rant About Network Solutions, Strange Anomaly on Lagrange
Links for the day
EPO Staff Representation Lacks Social Dialogue With Relevant Management, Controversial and Sometimes Illegal Policies Implemented Without Necessary Input
"In this open letter, the CSC requests that the President submits an agenda item in the next available General Consultative Committee (GCC) meeting on setting up regular meetings between the CSC and the higher management of DG1."
Links 16/10/2025: Political Leftovers and Gemini Protocol Links
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Guardian Digital (linuxsecurity.com), Slashdot, Google News, and More
Maybe one day, once the bubble pops completely, Google News will just outright delist all slopfarms
Lufthansa Modern Slavery, Joerg Jaspert (ganneff) & Debian NSB Softwareentwicklung charade
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/10/2025: US Starting More Trade Wars With China, CIA War on Venezuela
Links for the day
SUSE Blog is Still LLM Slop, Marketing Manager at SUSE Cannot Write
Would you buy from a company or seek support from a company that cannot even write (or fakes writing)?
Pretend You're Not Dead: Microsoft Spent Almost Two Decades Rebranding Things as "Cloud, Then "AI", Now "XBox" and "Quantum"
"AI" bubble pops, Microsoft harping about "quantum" already
IBM Allegedly Found New Tricks for Silent Layoffs: LPI, Then MIS (Not PIP)
Remember that "Red Hat layoffs" won't be reported after the bluewashing
Links 16/10/2025: Red Lines and Feeding of Microsoft Trolls
Links for the day
MIT as a Propaganda Mill of GAFAM, Paid by GAFAM
"the news" today
Links 16/10/2025: Lies Euphemised as ‘Dueling Versions of Reality’ and Microsoft "Open" "Hey Hi" Resorts to Porn as No Business Model Was Found
Links for the day
The Local Staff Committee Munich (Representation of the EPO's Staff) Explains When Cluster of Pregnancies May Result in Reduced Pay
"...even one week of part-time working is sufficient to reduce the salary you perceive during the entirety of your maternity leave."
Another Black Eye for 'Secure Boot', Microsoft Media Tries to Blame "Linux"
It enables Microsoft to remotely control computers, even computers that don't run Windows and never had any Microsoft software installed
Slopwatch: UbuntuPIT, linuxsecurity.com, and Various Slopfarms in Google News Attacking "Linux"
A new survey of the Web said that the majority of the Web is now slop (that's being said in the news this week)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 15, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Links 16/10/2025: Increased Use of Social Control Media Surveillance in US, French Rage Over Pensions
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Qantas Airways Loses Control of Sensitive Data and Software Patents Are Being Thrown Out
Links for the day
Vista 10 is 'Dead', Here's Why People Should Move to GNU/Linux (or the BSDs)
Today we try to make an outline of reasons move away from Windows to GNU/Linux
Our Sites Continue to Improve
LLM slop has had no noticeable impact on us
Gemini Links 15/10/2025: Neovim, Helix Compared and Gemlog.blue Now Closed
Links for the day
Links 15/10/2025: Mass Layoffs at Amazon, OneDrive Spyware Revved Up, More 'Gen Z Protests'
Links for the day
The EPO's Staff Engagement Survey 2025 is Already Tainted by Intimidation by EPO Management (Trying to Influence Outcomes by Scaring Genuine, Honest Critics)
"[W]e have received reports that, following the previous survey, teams with negative responses were reproached or questioned about their answers..."
The DDoS Attacks by Microsoft's Scam Altman and Other Slop Charlatans and Frauds is Hurting the FSF, Delinking It From Copyleft Projects
This impacts a lot more than access to the licences
Microsoft Scanning Faces in Photos People Upload to Microsoft (Even Unconsciously), Slashdot Turns Report About It Into "Microsoft Sez" (Says)
Or "let's repeat the lies from a PR person/Microsoft's publicist"
[Teaser] Angel Aledo Lopez the Manipulator (Nepotism, Poll Rigging, and Other EPO Corruption)
We'll discuss this later today or tomorrow, based on internal EPO material
Attacks on Techrights Are Only Making Techrights Bigger and Even More Popular
A week ago they offered to settle with us
Epic Metaphor for End of IBM: "The IBM Demolition is Down to the Last Shards!"
Nothing lasts forever
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Proprietary and DRM Prisons Spiralling Down the Sinkhole? Not Just Yet.
Let's hope that more people will flee to GNU/Linux
The European Patent Office (EPO), the Second-Largest Institution in Europe, is Cracking Down on Recreational Activities
Without AMICALE activities, and as staff already says it's pressured to work more for less, how can the EPO recruit bright people?
Transparency: FSFE financial reports exclude speaker fees and expenses
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock