Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub has paid off for rival GitLab. Many GitHub users were unhappy at the Windows-maker's involvement and promptly jumped ship -- there were over 100,000 repositories imported in the 24 hours following the acquisition, and #movingtogitlab was trending on Twitter.

Looking to make itself even more attractive than just not being owned by Microsoft, GitLab has now made its premium Gold and Ultimate packages free to some users, specifically educational establishments and open source projects.

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GitLab says that it has seen a seven-fold increase in orders, and this is likely to rise even further with the free packages. GitLab says that these are its two "most comprehensive offerings", but points out that they do not include support -- although this can be purchased separately, at a discounted rate, if required.

In a post on the GitLab blog, the company says:

Today, we're excited to announce that GitLab Ultimate and Gold are now free for educational institutions and open source projects. Educational institutions: any institution whose purposes directly relate to learning, teaching, and/or training by a qualified educational institution, faculty, or student. Educational purposes do not include commercial, professional, or any other for-profit purposes. To apply, send an email to [email protected] Once your application has been approved, we will send your license code. Open source projects: any project that uses a standard open source license and is non-commercial. It should not have paid support or paid contributors. To apply, send a merge request to add your project to a list of open source projects using GitLab Ultimate and Gold.

GitLab is offering a big saving here -- so you might well wonder why it makes any sort of sense. The company explains: