2022.03.26 20:59 "Re: [Tiff] GitLab policy change", by Roger

Regarding GitLab, there's an upcoming change of policy: https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2022/03/24/efficient-free-tier/. This will limit projects to 5 users when using the "free" plan.

We could register with GitLab as an open source project, which will lift that limit. I can't remember if we already did that, but since it needs doing annually IIRC, we might need to re-register if we already did that.

How does the plan we are using differ from the "GitLab for Open Source Program" (https://about.gitlab.com/solutions/open-source/join/)? Are we aware of any functionality/feature differences?

As far as I am aware, libtiff is not a business, although contributors might make money from it.

Re-registering every year could be problematic if team members change or we forget (recall the DNS registration renewal lapse, which lost the libtiff domain).

I think we're just on the basic "free" plan at the moment, and given the project's current use of GitLab, it serves our needs perfectly well.

The main thing the "Open Source" plan gives you is more CI minutes, and no user limits, but we haven't exceeded the "free" allocation as it stands. The other thing it gives you is all of the more advanced features, but since we currently don't make any use of them it's not really a big loss.

So other than the user limit (which is just for direct access to the libtiff project, and doesn't affect contributors opening merge requests and creating bug reports etc.), we are probably fine as we are. Now Even has deleted the bot which was no longer used, we are within the 5 user limit and everything should just carry on working just as it has since 2019 when we migrated over. If anyone wants to take advantage of any of the other features on offer (basically the "ultimate" features listed here: https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/ which includes 50000 CI minutes per month), we could certainly apply for it. If renewal is ever a problem, you just lose access to the extra features and the CI minutes--the basic facilities will carry on working as before.

Kind regards,
Roger