Gentoo on Codeberg

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Gentoo’s move and what actually changed

  • Commenters note Gentoo has long self‑hosted its primary git/bug infra; GitHub and now Codeberg are “just mirrors” for contributor convenience.
  • The stated trigger for moving mirrors is GitHub’s attempts to push Copilot/LLM integration into workflows, plus frustration with recent pricing and product changes.
  • Gentoo’s experience is seen as a proof‑point that large projects can avoid dependence on GitHub while still accepting outside contributions.

Broader dissatisfaction with GitHub

  • Complaints focus on:
    • Aggressive Copilot/AI integration and “enshittification”.
    • Frequent outages and degraded performance, especially on large PRs.
    • Cluttered and confusing review UI compared to 10 years ago.
  • Some still praise GitHub for strong org‑wide search and mature Actions, and argue the hate is partly fashionable or overblown.

Codeberg, Forgejo, and alternatives

  • Codeberg is praised as simple, snappy, and “what GitHub should have remained,” especially for personal projects.
  • Others report slow git operations, downtime, and worry about limited, donation‑funded infrastructure for mission‑critical use.
  • Forgejo/Codeberg’s AGit workflow (push without forks) is highlighted as a nicer contribution model than GitHub’s fork‑per‑PR.
  • Several run self‑hosted Forgejo/Gitea/Gerrit and find them far more performant.

Federation, workflows, and “what a forge should be”

  • Strong interest in federated forking and federated pull requests, so repo location matters less. Forgejo and GitLab federation efforts are discussed, but progress is slow.
  • Debate over email‑based git workflows vs modern web forges: some love the old mailing‑list model; others never want to go back.
  • Gerrit’s per‑commit review and stacked changes are widely liked; many dislike GitHub/GitLab’s squash‑centric PR model.
  • There’s skepticism toward “AI‑first” repository UIs; some see them as hype that would drive users away.

Funding, politics, and decentralization

  • Multiple commenters stress that serious GitHub competitors need substantial funding for infra, anti‑DDoS, and backups; donation numbers for Codeberg look thin.
  • Ideas like per‑user “cost indicators” are floated to nudge more people to pay.
  • European users increasingly seek non‑US hosting for political, sanctions, and dependency reasons, accelerating moves to Codeberg/self‑hosting.
  • Reminder that git itself is decentralized; centralization is a social/hosting choice, not a technical requirement.