Xubuntu Moved to GitHub from Launchpad

The Xubuntu project announced that they have moved the development activities to GitHub from Launchpad.

Launchpad is a centralized and web-based software configuration management platform that hosts approx 40k+ open-source projects and the platform is maintained by Canonical. However, after an online meeting of Xubuntu project members, it has been decided that the project would be hosted now on GitHub while keeping the mirror copy in the Launchpad as well.

Because, if some contributors prefer Launchpad they can still use Launchpad instead of GitHub. The major driving factor of these decisions which I feel is GitHub is more widely used than Launchpad and the project should get more contributors from around the world. And also, GitHub is very user friendly and would be easier for newcomers to contribute instead of learning the Launchpad system. The team also announced that the translations have been moved to Transifex which is a popular, web-based translation platform.

~~But I am still wondering why the project not in GitLab where most of the open-source projects have moved recently after Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub. Not sure why though.~~

While some of the open-source projects are in GitLab after Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub – the Xubuntu team decided to stick to GitHub primarily because of the wide user base of the platform and hosting issues. This means the project would get more contributors now as it is in a known platform rather than a comparatively less popular GitLab.

Having said that, there are some of the features are still remaining in Launchpad. The issues are still would be reported on Launchpad for each package, and ubuntu-bug continues to work as it always has. The PPAs and daily package builds will continue to be updated as normal.

Currently, there are below Xubuntu project repositories that have been created in GitHub.