The reason I don't use Github is Microsoft's hatred stance on open source.
Anyone remember Microsoft calling Linux a "cancer"? Or Microsoft threatening open source developers for violating 200 patents? Or their official stand where they whould threaten and fear Linux devs? The secretly funded lawsuits against Linux? They even threatened lawsuits at companies for just using Linux.
This company is rotten by the executive level.
I think the reasons mentioned in the article are to be taken seriously (unlike some of the other commenters here). Historically, Microsoft has shown itself as "not an ally to Open Source" to put it mildly. And there is a real tie-in to Github-the-platform (issues, workflows, etc) despite the fact that git repos themselves can be migrated away trivially (by design).
Having said that, the alternatives they mention aren't realistic. Precisely those things that make GitHub dangerous, are the things that make it worth choosing. In particular: network effects, issue tracking and PRs.
23:59: “No one donates money to OSS”
00:00: “You must leave the world’s biggest software website to go to this random Germanic non-profit because MS was bad 20 years ago”
I would suspect that if something is exclusively on GitHub, then it's not important.
There are many important Free Software projects such as GNU and Linux, and they've always stayed away from GitHub.
Funny timing.
I just had my GH account "flagged" (basically all interaction over web or API is locked, all open PRs wiped). No explanation.
Opening a support ticket is blocked by SMS verification. Which 429s. No idea if and how this will be sorted. Trust with some collaborators will definitely be hurt after the ban/flag even if lifted.
Really should have worked more on assigning another owner to the managed org...
So yeah, in case anyone who cares at GH sees this, account name profile.
To quote Joel Spolski, has anyone using a distributed VCS lost any significant amount of code?
If github annoys you you can concievably create a new repo elsewhere, change origin locally, push.
The real question is how long until they annoy you. And how easy it would be to set up an automatic mirror beforehand.
Capitain Obvious.
More than ever since github broke for good noscript/basic (x)html support under the guidance of... msft not that long ago (I am a noscript/basic (x)html user).
This will attract the fire of msft "trolls" (AIs or humans)... strap on for impact...
One thing that I haven't quite understood is why more projects don't host their own git services on their own project website. Are there any specific challenges or is it just because of the maintenance overhead?
Good article.
It highlights an impact of concentrated wealth on technological development in general, the third option: If a competing technology can't just be ignored, or crushed, the final veto is to simply purchase it.
Which is what M$ has been doing for the last 1/2 decade due to the ever increasingly crappy nature of their OS product.
To slightly modify the article's conclusion: no one should host anything on github...
Of these alternative forges I actually came across notabug first. I however was never able to establish how it is funded and who the people behind it are. Yes, The Peers Community", I followed that link too.
Related:
- Lessons from open source in the Mexican government [1]
- Europe as a software colony (documentary) [2]
The TL;DR is: If a diplomat from the US is at your doorstep and wants to doxx, eh... talk to, your CEO, you're doing exactly the right thing.
What I haven't seen in this post is the description of _real threat_, which comes from M$ owning GitHub.
By no means I would call them "good", but what they can do?
Delete your repo? Firstly, why would they do that? Secondly, just a backup.
>Selfhost your repo, that's not that hard.
Maybe this was true a few years ago (spoiler: no), but now, in the era of AI, shitstorm it became extremely hard.
Crawlers will constantly DDoS your servers and AI-powered not will continuously try to register to your platform.
See, for example, this: https://outage.sr.ht/ or this: https://drewdevault.com/2025/03/17/2025-03-17-Stop-externali...
Linus Torvalds (Git was originally created by him) seems to be actively contributing in GitHub for the Linux kernel repository (also created by him): https://github.com/torvalds/linux Anyone has seen his position on this topic?
I don't believe there's any major harm in using Github for most projects.
Maintaining my own servers and chasing ideological purity doesn't improve my project. Any time I dedicate to setting up infrastructure is time I'm not dedicating to making the code better.
The nature of Git means Microsoft can't really do much harm. Every developer and contributor has a copy of the repo, should the worst happen setting up home elsewhere isn't that difficult. But until it is, why spend time on it?