To all those who are using GitHub:
Please note this is (sadly) a proprietary platform which is unusable in various places without executing proprietary code (JavaScript).
It's a sick, sad irony that probably one of the biggest code hosting services for free software in the Internet is itself proprietary. GitHub has always been this way, long before Microsoft came.
So I think this project is a great idea, there are currently not that many options so far, so having some sort of “safe haven” is always good, even if it will be limited to smaller projects, it will still be a win.
Relevant read:
https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria.htmlApart from all the criteria in C, A+5 is very important to me, too. I have no idea why it comes so late in the list. It should always be possible to download/backup/export your metadata (i.e. bug lists, etc.). That way, you are much less dependent on one particular service.
If storage size or traffic are a problem, you should probably clarify upfront what the expected hard limits are.
I'm not a huge fan of Gitea's Interface that much, it's clear from the web demo that is's a VERY faithful GitHub clone (I didn't like GitHub). They even cloned the reactions. But it's more or less acceptable and more just my personal taste, definitely NOT a deal-breaker. Gitea looks a bit broken when you disable JavaScript. I don't like websites which fail (even just partially) when you disable JavaScript, to me this is just lazy coding. At least Gitea documents all JavaScript licenses, that's good and kills my main criticism of GitHub.
On the other hand, Gitea is having a very simple interface.
Anyway, setting personal taste aside, I am generally in full support of cloning well-known proprietary software/platforms (no matter how “shameless” they clone stuff) to make re-learning less painful for users.
In comparison, GitLab seems much more heavyweight. So if I had to choose between GitLab and Gitea, I would favor Gitea.