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GitHub Codespaces

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Re: GitHub Codespaces

#211
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't we already solve this problem with containers?

You should read the article...nothing to do with containers...

The article has a lot to do with containers. When you spin up a code space, you get a containerized workspace for the current repository.

> Codespaces sets up a cloud-hosted, containerized, and customizable VS Code environment. After set up, you can connect to a codespace through the browser or through VS Code.

(But that wasn’t what the parent was referring to...)

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#212

So.. let's say I host my source code with MS (GitHub), I develop using their web ide (visual studio code space) and then I deploy to their cloud (azure). Give it a decade and you'll have Microsoft specific developers and organizations who are locked in beyond rescue. It's always a fragmentation vs defragmentation battle.

It's going to be ALL developers getting locked in. You're seeing a 5-10 year plan in action here.

1. Create a popular, locally run dev editor.

2. Shift it to the cloud.

3. Build all new features into the cloud version only.

4. Ignore the locally run version until it's obsolete.

5. Developers rent the cloud version forever.

The GitHub integration is going to be amazing for Microsoft because the allure of clicking a button and getting an instant development environment will be huge. Watch for a big campaign where popular frameworks start providing "Launch in Codespaces" or similar buttons.

We'll get to a point where new developers won't even know how to set up a local development environment. I'd bet a lot that Microsoft is envisioning a world where developers pay $1000+ per year for a combination of GitHub, Codespaces, Actions, Pipelines, etc..

The idea of paying cloud compute rates for things like build agents is crazy to me, but here we are.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#213

Typical Microsoft strategy: Embrace, extend and extinguish Soon the Platform will be renamed 'Microsost Visual Studio Github' or 'Microsoft team Github'. Then 'microsoft Visual studio hub'. Then at somme point, Github will be inside Visual studio code online and not anymore the other way around!

Just goes to show hard a reputation can be to let go of.

Different people, different leadership, different strategy and an entirely innocuous product offering.

But people still find a way to relate it to EEE.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While VS Code is definitely good in general, and first choice for languages like JavaScript, I find it really hard to compare it to JetBrains PyCharm and GoLand (understanding GoLand has no free version). The debugging and refactoring experiences for Go and Python in VSCode feel slow, awkward to set up and configure and just generally tacked-on. I have gotten the PyCharm professional and GoLand licensed through my em…

Even for C# VSCode is way less useful than VisualStudio, which also has a free version (though doesn't run on Linux)

While Visual Studio is powerful, I have ran into wierd behaviors within the IDE that just make it a chore to use. Personally, I've preferred C# on VSCode over Visual Studio so far.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, they could have totally released the source and it probably wouldn’t impact their bottom line at all.

It would make quite a dent in support contracts for their on-prem offering.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't. The mobile app isn't something that requires a ton of support anyway. What good would the source code do you in this case?

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#216
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup all the free stuff is ultimately to lead us into using and paying for Azure. Need an open source alternative to GitHub.

GitLab has been great for a while and actually had some features before GH.

Thanks for the mention. As for how the features today map:

1. GitHub Insights => GitLab Insights https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/insights/ Code Review Analytics https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/analytics/code_review_analyt... DevOps Score https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/instance_statistics/dev_ops_... and Value Stream analytics https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/analytics/value_stream_analy...

2. GitHub CodeScanning => GitLab SAST https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/sast/ and Secret Detection https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/application_security/sast/#s...

3. GitHub Codespaces => GitLab Live Preview with client side evaluation https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/web_ide/index.html#c... and upcoming server side evaluation https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/167 which would work both with on-premises Kubernetes clusters and in any cloud.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#217

This is pretty epic. VS Code has proven itself to be one of the best (if not the best) and feature-complete editor out there. It's basically an IDE of a ton of languages at this point, and it's completely free. Integrating it with GH is a no-brainer move from Microsoft's standpoint, to increase market share even further with more seamless integration. If they're able to do setup for Python, Go, Ruby, and JavaScript p…

While VS Code is definitely good in general, and first choice for languages like JavaScript, I find it really hard to compare it to JetBrains PyCharm and GoLand (understanding GoLand has no free version). The debugging and refactoring experiences for Go and Python in VSCode feel slow, awkward to set up and configure and just generally tacked-on. I have gotten the PyCharm professional and GoLand licensed through my em…

I think VSCode sets a really good level across all languages (even more esoteric ones like Idris) however it can't compete with IDEs essentially dedicated to a tech stack like PyCharm or Visual Studio.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#218

So.. let's say I host my source code with MS (GitHub), I develop using their web ide (visual studio code space) and then I deploy to their cloud (azure). Give it a decade and you'll have Microsoft specific developers and organizations who are locked in beyond rescue. It's always a fragmentation vs defragmentation battle.

It's going to be ALL developers getting locked in. You're seeing a 5-10 year plan in action here. 1. Create a popular, locally run dev editor. 2. Shift it to the cloud. 3. Build all new features into the cloud version only. 4. Ignore the locally run version until it's obsolete. 5. Developers rent the cloud version forever. The GitHub integration is going to be amazing for Microsoft because the allure of clicking a bu…

For me, the real appeal is to be able to share dev environments easily and make software development truly remote friendly.

In the end, it will come down to latency, usability and pricing. I do agree with you though - I'm not paying $2K+ for a macbook pro and then pay to run VSCode in the cloud -- something doesn't add up.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#219

Microsoft is really the best at the slow strategic burn. * You host your project in github * You fund your project using github sponsors * You develop your project using github codespaces * You compile, test and deploy using github actions * You cloud host on azure Each individual feature is definitely great. I'm not trying to be critical of Microsoft trying to turn their investment in github into a profitable busine…

As someone how really like github and really dislikes azure devops - and a corporate direction pushing us from the former to the later - any idea what their endgame is as these two converge?

Edit: I misunderstood your comment as about Azure generally and not Azure DevOps specifically. I see Azure DevOps as the “full service” version of GitHub’s slightly more “DIY” approach. DevOps can also be customized and sold by partners, consultants, I think. GitHub if anything, might move more to a “consultant network” approach. I think Microsoft is maintaining two district brands for developers, for the time being. I originally wrote:

I think there’s a clear benefit to Microsoft for GitHub to internally use Azure, but I think there’s a clear benefit to Microsoft’s developer community, GitHub and the Microsoft Partner ecosystem for GitHub to support AWS and GCP via open source, AWS Marketplace, Docker and anything else that helps ensure GitHub is useful independent of the rest of Microsoft’s services — GitHub being impartial is more important to Microsoft than the extra market share they might — might — get.

Re: GitHub Codespaces

#220
post #75

This is going to be great for open source—Being able to get a fully-configured dev environment at a click of a button greatly lowers the barrier to entry. I've had a few small OS contributions where the time to set up the environment was more than the time I spent programming! I could also see this being popular with engineering teams. No futzing with the new hire's computer, just have them open a web browser and the…

I'm not sure if this is really true. Why would you want to become a contributor to an OSS project if you can't bother to get it working on your machine? You actually learn quite a bit about the project by going through its dependency hell.

The only time I could see myself using this is in the following scenario;

1. Browsing repos.

2. See a quick fix I could make (like a typo)

3. Open up the code space view, make the change, add and commit it.

For my daily needs I would never replace an online IDE with my local IDE. I see no value in doing that. My concern would be for when github has a service outage. I am without my IDE until they resolve the issue? With a local IDE I can just continue to work on my branch and push it when GH comes back online.

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