If we are being honest, hosting DataLad datasets is not the most straightforward thing in the world. Sure, through the power of git-annex, and with the help of a range of DataLad extension packages they can be put pretty much anywhere. But the fact that it is possible does not imply simplicity. There used to be a time when GitLab supported git-annex repositories directly. But with the arrival of Git LFS it got removed....

Managing my music collection was the very first thing I tried with git-annex. That was more than 13 years ago, and till today I continue to use the very same git-annex repository for this purpose. Screenshot of the first commit’s git log of my oldest git-annex repository that is still in active use today. I still have a clone on my laptop. I had others on machines like the small box plugged into the wall with speakers connected and running mpd....

Why would one start a blog in 2024? Isn’t that about 10 years too late? Well, yeah… There is more than one way to keep in touch with the development of the community and the ecosystem of interoperable tools for distributed data management that the DataLad software is a part of. Joey’s git-annex dev blog has been around for a decade at this point. The DataLad handbook was first released five years ago....