GitLab the Latest Company to Do Mass Layoffs and Use Slop as the Go-to Excuse (GitLab Users Should Worry Too)
Months ago: The Register MS Does Not Know the Difference Between Microsoft GitHub and GitLab
Thomas Claburn (The Register MS) has this new report about how "GitLab has opened the voluntary separation window and hopes an unspecified number of employees will exit the busniess [sic] to help it become "the trusted enterprise platform for software creation in the AI era." According to CEO Bill Staples, the company's effort to trim its workforce differs from other AI-related layoffs."
He probably worked on this too quickly because of the obvious typos (see above) that any simple spellchecker would catch easily.
The reality is, as we put it years ago: 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
This round of layoffs (disguised as something else) has nothing to do with slop ("hey hi"). It's about commercial problems.
As we put it days ago in relation to Clownflare (also using slop as an excuse): Cloudflare is a Giant Pile of Debt, Now There Are Mass Layoffs and Media Coverage About This is Churnalism, Sometimes by Slopfarms (False Excuses)
Months earlier: Clownflare is in Trouble as Its Debt More Than Doubled in Less Than a Year, Expect Further Enshittification
If your project (or projects... or company) depended on GitLab and/or Cloudflare, then you have lots to worry about. Those aren't communities but for-profit companies. GitLab isn't being developed by an altruistic community and no-cost deployments were offered by GitLab to selective projects as bait and for marketing (creating a mere sense or false impression of widespread adoption in Free software communities).
Forgejo is the way to go for Web-based Git interfaces and there are many simpler alternatives (that cover the key needs).
Half a decade ago we developed our own; it uses Gemini Protocol. █