Open Source Software projects comparison

In this document, several big Open Source Software projects are investigated to figure out how they manage their communities, project planning and documentation.

NodeJS

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance: see Github (opens new window)
  • Technical steering committee (opens new window) (TSC)
    • Meetings are live streamed on youtube (opens new window).
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • Everything is done through issues/pr's. Even (meta (opens new window))discussion points for TSC (opens new window)
  • Also uses Github Projects for some things
• Documentation:
  • custom scripts (opens new window) to convert markdown files to API docs website
  • Own style guide (opens new window) based on Microsoft Style Guide (opens new window)
  • Guides (opens new window) and Tutorials (opens new window) (websites bit chaotic)
  • Auxiliary repositories are documented through readme's
• API Contracts:
  • Documentation defines API, as described in the doc tool readme (opens new window)

Kubernetes

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance: see Github (opens new window) - Committees, Special interest groups (SIG), Working groups, User groups - Steering Committee is the special committee that governs the project - communication through slack, public/private mailinglists, github team, open community issues/prs- googlegroup
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • backlog/tickets seems to be done through issues/pr's, SIGs and working groups are using github projects, but things may also be hiding in slack…
• Documentation:
  • Main project: Separate repo (opens new window) for website made with Hugo (opens new window)
  • Auxiliary projects:
    • readme/docs in repo (dashboard (opens new window))
    • separate Hugo websites (Minikube (opens new window))
    • mkdocs on github.io (NGINX ingress (opens new window))
• API Contracts:
  • Main: OpenAPI specs in repo (opens new window)

Angular

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance:
  • Project is governed by a private team at Google (assumption based on lack of governance information)
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • Public facing things are done through issues/pr's
  • Use github projects for some things
• Documentation:
  • Contributor docs in main repo (/docs (opens new window))
  • Regular docs in main repo (/aio (opens new window)), custom system build on angular (very meta)
  • Auxiliary projects: mixed bag
• API Contracts:
  • Documented in code (documentation is generated from source code)

Docker

Note: Docker has extracted some of its core components into different projects: containerd and Moby

Docker

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance:
  • Docker company
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • tickets/roadmap (opens new window) in github project management tools, but not always
  • issues/feature reqeuests
  • community slack
• Documentation:
  • Jekyll in separate repo (opens new window). Refers/includes docs folders for specific repos
• API Contracts:
  • Unclear

containerd

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance: see Github (opens new window)
  • core maintainers are called "reviewers"
  • decision making through pull requests
  • cannot find indications of formalised organisation structures
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • (abandoned?) folder in repository (opens new window) with design documents
  • uses github projects to manage code review tasks
• Documentation:
  • Markdown in containerd repo (opens new window)
  • Unfinished pages in containerd website repo (opens new window)
• API Contracts:
  • gRPC definitions in repository (opens new window)

Moby

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance: see Github (opens new window)
  • Technical steering committee (opens new window): elected position, 2 year seat.
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • roadmap document (abandoned?) (opens new window) / issues
  • uses github projects for planning releases
• Documentation:
  • Swagger documentation ends up as Docker Engine API docs on docs.docker.com (opens new window)
• API Contracts:
  • OpenAPI/Swagger (opens new window) see also (opens new window)

Vue

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance: see Github Wiki (opens new window)
  • Project lead (benevolent dictator)
  • (core)team (opens new window)
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • Decision making: RFC (opens new window) process through PR's + Github discussions
  • Backlog: issues + github projects (looks abandoned on "core" repo)
  • There maybe things going on that can't be seen on Github. It's not clear to me how they plan what to include in releases.
• Documentation:
  • Main: Separate repo (opens new window) based on Vitepress (opens new window)
  • Axiliary projects: Vuepress (opens new window) or Vitepress from markdown in repo
• API Contracts:
  • They're doing things with api-extractor (opens new window)

Gitlab

• Code: Gitlab (opens new window)
• Governance
  • Gitlab team (hidden community)
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • Issues/pull requests
  • Gitlab Epics (opens new window)
• Documentation:
  • Build from markdown files in main repo (opens new window)
• API contracts:
  • ??

Tensorflow

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance:
  • Some special interest groups (opens new window)
  • Main governance seems to be done by a private team at Google (hidden comunity)
  • See also (opens new window)
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • RFC process (opens new window)
  • issues/PR's
  • Github Projects is used to track progress on releases
• Documentation:
  • Separate repository (opens new window) with markdown, yaml and jupyter notebooks that's rendered to the documentation website (opens new window).
• API contracts:
  • ??

Go

• Code: Google Source (opens new window) mirror at Github (opens new window) N.B. I'll link to Github, because I find it easier to navigate.
• Governance:
  • Core team "at Google", but very community driven. Blogpost describing another blogpost + subsequent hackernews discussion on whether Go is a community language or Google's language
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • Proposals/RFC's (opens new window)
  • Issues/Pullrequests
  • Uses Github Projects to track releases (opens new window) and proposal status (opens new window)
• Documentation:
  • Separate repository (opens new window) for Go website (opens new window) with documentation
• API contracts:
  • Spec page (opens new window) on website (source in main repository (opens new window))

Rust

• Code: Github (opens new window)
• Governance:
  • Core team + various other teams + working groups (see website (opens new window))
• Backlog/tickets/development:
  • Issues/Pullrequests
  • RFC's (opens new window)
• Documentation:
  • "The Book" (opens new window), markdown files in a separate repository (opens new window) coverted into a webstie (or an actual book) using their own tooling (opens new window)
  • Reference (opens new window): markdown files in a separate repository (opens new window)
• API contracts:
  • standard library docs (opens new window) generated from in-code documentation (opens new window)