StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
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StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
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Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#2From one response:
Github offers hosting of closed source projects, while Gitorious is all FOSS
Seems like a no-brainer to me. How many people develop absolutely nothing but open source projects that share 100% of their code from day zero? It stands to reason that a lot of programmers don't fall into that category.
(And even if I were paid to develop nothing but open-source software, I would occasionally want private repositories. I don't want to continuously display 100% of my prerelease code to the whole world. Looks like Gitorious has finally started to figure this out, years late: http://www.mail-archive.com/gitorious@googlegroups.com/msg01...)
And who wants to set up two Git hosts when one will do? (Even if Git does make it really easy to use more than one?)
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#3From one response: Github offers hosting of closed source projects, while Gitorious is all FOSS Seems like a no-brainer to me. How many people develop absolutely nothing but open source projects that share 100% of their code from day zero? It stands to reason that a lot of programmers don't fall into that category. (And even if I were paid to develop nothing but open-source software, I would occasionally want private…
For me it seem that the difference between these two hosts is probably more about mentality rather than if their source code is all open.
The github guys want to make money with git and gitorious people, well, just want an easy to host git repositories.
The project is supported by a company alright, but it seem to be more of a subsidiary rather than as a way to make money.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#4From one response: Github offers hosting of closed source projects, while Gitorious is all FOSS Seems like a no-brainer to me. How many people develop absolutely nothing but open source projects that share 100% of their code from day zero? It stands to reason that a lot of programmers don't fall into that category. (And even if I were paid to develop nothing but open-source software, I would occasionally want private…
For me it seem that the difference between these two hosts is probably more about mentality rather than if their source code is all open. The github guys want to make money with git and gitorious people, well, just want an easy to host git repositories. The project is supported by a company alright, but it seem to be more of a subsidiary rather than as a way to make money.
I, personally, want companies to profit from open source as directly as possible. It gives me comfort that Github is trying to turn a profit.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#5From one response: Github offers hosting of closed source projects, while Gitorious is all FOSS Seems like a no-brainer to me. How many people develop absolutely nothing but open source projects that share 100% of their code from day zero? It stands to reason that a lot of programmers don't fall into that category. (And even if I were paid to develop nothing but open-source software, I would occasionally want private…
Point taken, but I assume that those guys that want to protect their code from the outside might want to go for a complete in-house solution as well, instead of storing it in the cloud (I know that this is the big thing now and all, but let's assume that I'm not the only one that likes to have local storage, local backup and local basic/essential services).
Those can grab gitorious and set it up locally. Takes (depending on experience with linux, rails etc) half a day for your first installation and you have the same thing running in your office/vpn. With all your closed source precious projects.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#6From one response: Github offers hosting of closed source projects, while Gitorious is all FOSS Seems like a no-brainer to me. How many people develop absolutely nothing but open source projects that share 100% of their code from day zero? It stands to reason that a lot of programmers don't fall into that category. (And even if I were paid to develop nothing but open-source software, I would occasionally want private…
Point taken, but I assume that those guys that want to protect their code from the outside might want to go for a complete in-house solution as well, instead of storing it in the cloud (I know that this is the big thing now and all, but let's assume that I'm not the only one that likes to have local storage, local backup and local basic/essential services). Those can grab gitorious and set it up locally. Takes (depen…
That's a heavy assumption. If you're wrong, the result is that Gitorious doesn't fit for potentially a large number of developers.
In my experience, sampling developers with whom I speak on a regular basis (and myself), private repos on GitHub are very popular. This is especially the case for web developers, as open sourcing web apps is less common. It's nice to have all of my open source stuff in the same place as my closed source stuff, such that I (and anyone I deem worthy) can interact with both in the same way.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#7There's also more book that talk about github.. or the book that I have actually read talk about github and not other services. Also, in the same idea, github has a better marketing visibility.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#8I really think the answer has to do with Github's take on what a "public" view looks like. They focus on the actual files (which is the primary use case of a repo host) and then they focus on the README file (the WHAT), and finally focuses on the contributors (the WHO). It's not as pretty as Gitorious, but it is functional and clear and it gives me a clear indication of what I'm getting out of the site and why I should care.
The ability to link to the Github 'public page' also helps make it go viral -- I never actually ended up in Github's homepage until today, I always ended up there because of a link I followed for an open source project, and then was upsold to sign up and set up a private repository.
On the other hand, Gitorious doesn't make it obviously easy to find the public repositories, makes their front page look like yet another project management site and even when you click on one of the obscure links for a public repo, you're shown a bunch of Activity feeds which doesn't mean anything to the typical visitor.
I think the hardest thing to do with WebApps is to show the user what a "humming" version of the app looks like, how a productive user of the site can use the WebApp. Github does this excellently while Gitorious does not.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#9Gitorious needs a "documentation" link on its front page leading to at least "overview" and "getting started" docs.
Also, as an aside, Gitorious should consider switching to a new logo, or none at all, and then choose a lighter colorscheme for the site. The current theme reminds me of a hospital room at night.
Seriously; if you ask around and find that people really can't seem to come up with a good reason why they use Github instead of Gitorious, this is why.
Re: StackOverFlow: Why is Github more popular than Gitorious?
#10From one response: Github offers hosting of closed source projects, while Gitorious is all FOSS Seems like a no-brainer to me. How many people develop absolutely nothing but open source projects that share 100% of their code from day zero? It stands to reason that a lot of programmers don't fall into that category. (And even if I were paid to develop nothing but open-source software, I would occasionally want private…
Point taken, but I assume that those guys that want to protect their code from the outside might want to go for a complete in-house solution as well, instead of storing it in the cloud (I know that this is the big thing now and all, but let's assume that I'm not the only one that likes to have local storage, local backup and local basic/essential services). Those can grab gitorious and set it up locally. Takes (depen…
I've tried this route and the problem is that my company wants some open-source stuff and some closed source stuff. So a private Gitorious setup isn't great because we can't put our open-source stuff there.
If self-hosted Gitorious allowed for private & public projects then I could let it face the internet and have the perfect solution. I've seen a few implementations of private projects with merge requests, but sadly the Gitorious team has largely ignored them.