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## Editions
There are two editions of GitLab.
*GitLab [Community Edition](https://about.gitlab.com/features/) (CE)* is available without any costs under an MIT license.
*GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE)* includes [extra features](https://about.gitlab.com/features/#compare) that are most useful for organizations with more than 100 users.
To get access to the EE and support please [become a subscriber](https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/).
The source of GitLab Community Edition is [hosted on GitLab.com](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/) and there are mirrors to make [contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md) as easy as possible.
Please see the [requirements documentation](doc/install/requirements.md) for system requirements and more information about the supported operating systems.
The recommended way to install GitLab is using the provided [Omnibus packages](https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/). Compared to an installation from source, this is faster and less error prone. Just select your operating system, download the respective package (Debian or RPM) and install it using the system's package manager.
There are various other options to install GitLab, please refer to the [installation page on the GitLab website](https://about.gitlab.com/installation/) for more information.
There are a lot of [third-party applications integrating with GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/applications/). These include GUI Git clients, mobile applications and API wrappers for various languages.
Since 2011 a minor or major version of GitLab is released on the 22nd of every month. Patch and security releases are published when needed. New features are detailed on the [blog](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/) and in the [changelog](CHANGELOG). For more information about the release process see the [release documentation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/tree/master/doc/release). Features that will likely be in the next releases can be found on the [feature request forum](http://feedback.gitlab.com/forums/176466-general) with the status [started](http://feedback.gitlab.com/forums/176466-general/status/796456) and [completed](http://feedback.gitlab.com/forums/176466-general/status/796457).
For updating the Omnibus installation please see the [update documentation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab/blob/master/doc/update.md). For installations from source there is an [upgrader script](doc/update/upgrader.md) and there are [upgrade guides](doc/update) detailing all necessary commands to migrate to the next version.
To work on GitLab itself, we recommend setting up your development environment with [the GitLab Development Kit](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit).
If you do not use the GitLab Development Kit you need to install and setup all the dependencies yourself, this is a lot of work and error prone.
One small thing you also have to do when installing it yourself is to copy the example development unicorn configuration file:
Instructions on how to start GitLab and how to run the tests can be found in the [development section of the GitLab Development Kit](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit#development).
