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Why I've built an alternative to Github

blog.codeplane.com

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Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#171

Post by scorpion032 »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #102

I don't understand this use case: These projects are mainly side projects, or small freelance jobs I've done through the years, and I want to save them for posterity; who knows when I'll need them, right? My solution to this problem is called tar . Just clone the Git repos to /tmp, tar up the results, and push the tarball to S3. Done. Archived for posterity for a few cents per month. This isn't SVN anymore: It doesn'…

Sounds to me like a service that "archives" your github projects on to S3 and "activates it" back to github would be of particular interest.

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#172

Post by masnick »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #102

I don't understand this use case: These projects are mainly side projects, or small freelance jobs I've done through the years, and I want to save them for posterity; who knows when I'll need them, right? My solution to this problem is called tar . Just clone the Git repos to /tmp, tar up the results, and push the tarball to S3. Done. Archived for posterity for a few cents per month. This isn't SVN anymore: It doesn'…

The killer feature of codeplane is cheap shared private git repositories. If you are the only person using your git repo, there is no reason you wouldn't store your remote on some random webhost (you can do this at http://nearlyfreespeech.net for essentially free).

If you want to collaborate with this setup, you would need to create a system-level account for every collaborator on your VPS (ugly) or install something like gitolite (https://github.com/sitaramc/gitolite).

The downside to gitolite is then you are running your own VPS, i.e. are responsible for security, updates, config, etc. It seems codeplane takes care of all the nonsense for you so you can get on with your real project.

As someone who had to set up gitolite because of this exact need, I can attest to the need for a service like codeplane.

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#173

Post by asymmetric »

xbryanx wrote: post #64
mrcharles wrote: post #22

I just use bitbucket.org + Mercurial. More than enough for personal projects, or more, given that it's unlimited. The only limit is amount of users. Switching to Hg was a bit of work, but I've actually learned to like it more than Git. Really though, it's the same kind of thing and I just use both. So I ended up at bitbucket for the same reasons OP built a new site. My way was quicker though.

So wish I could use bitbucket, but switching off Git isn't an option for our team.

You can try hg-git[1] to keep using git, and then push to a hg repo[2].

[1]: http://hg-git.github.com/ [2]: http://traviscline.com/blog/2010/04/27/using-hg-git-to-work-...

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#174

Post by tptacek »

true_religion wrote: post #138
evlapix wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, yes.. waving your command line wand IS a solution. But also, technically, there isn't any reason why you shouldn't be able to keep 100+ small remote git repositories active for less than $100/month. Also, Github doesn't require you to know how to use tar, S3, or have any other Linux experience. So why should this particular use case? Why wouldn't a business be able to cater to that market? This is a busi…

> Github doesn't require you to know how to use tar ... or have any other Linux experience You don't need tar to package a git versioned project. All you need is some kind of zip program, and every major OS has one built in. The difference knowledge it requires to just zip up a directory and send it in an email, versus running a github connection is so minimal its laughable that anyone suggests that you need some kin…

Doesn't "git bundle" already do exactly this?

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#175

Post by cool-RR »

M1573RMU74710N wrote: post #168
cool-RR wrote: post #82

I think that anyone who complains about GitHub's price has gotten way too spoiled, or perhaps underestimates the amount of effort required to maintain a service of that quality and reliability. I find this to be another symptom of HN tunnel vision.

I don't think anybody is "complaining about GitHub's prices" per se...at least not the way you are implying. That is, I don't think anyone is saying GitHub is greedy, or not worth it ever or something like that.... However, the fact of the matter is they have a particular pricing plan, and that pricing plan is such that for certain people it becomes not worth it. When you go to a fast food place, they generally offer…

"Sure, the large may be a very good deal, but that's completely besides the point. It's more soda than they really need, and they are wasting money by buying it."

You actually put your finger right on the fallacy. It feels that you're wasting money by buying a GitHub account with 100 private repos when your repos are largely inactive. But the way to make smart economic decisions is not by measuring hypothetical waste (i.e. how much of the account you are using) but by comparing the options side by side. You pay more for GitHub, yes, and you pay for stuff you might not use, but if it saves you a few hours per month then it's a better choice than going for a service like CodePlane.

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#176

Post by teyc »

fnando wrote: post #97
sktrdie wrote: post #59

how do these startups get beautiful page designs? hiring those level of designers would require lots of $$ if you ask me.

Actually, I did it by myself. I have a BS, but I always liked design and I've being doing my own designs through the years! ;)

It is stunningly beautiful. Can you sell it as a theme, on Themeforest? say?

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#177

Post by fnando »

teyc wrote: post #176
fnando wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I did it by myself. I have a BS, but I always liked design and I've being doing my own designs through the years! ;)

It is stunningly beautiful. Can you sell it as a theme, on Themeforest? say?

I don't think I wanna do that! :)

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#178

Post by M1573RMU74710N »

cool-RR wrote: post #175
M1573RMU74710N wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anybody is "complaining about GitHub's prices" per se...at least not the way you are implying. That is, I don't think anyone is saying GitHub is greedy, or not worth it ever or something like that.... However, the fact of the matter is they have a particular pricing plan, and that pricing plan is such that for certain people it becomes not worth it. When you go to a fast food place, they generally offer…

"Sure, the large may be a very good deal, but that's completely besides the point. It's more soda than they really need, and they are wasting money by buying it." You actually put your finger right on the fallacy. It feels that you're wasting money by buying a GitHub account with 100 private repos when your repos are largely inactive. But the way to make smart economic decisions is not by measuring hypothetical waste…

>, but if it saves you a few hours per month then it's a better choice than going for a service like CodePlane.

...and that's the hole in your reasoning. That is not a forgone conclusion at all...in fact it's a non-sequiter.

In the analogy these people aren't getting ANYTHING for paying the 1$ per cup (vs paying 50 cents for the actual soda used)...there is a theoretical benefit of free refills, or it being a reasonable price for the cup of soda...and for the people who use it, it's great.

...but the whole entire premise of this discussion is that for some people that's no benefit at all since they're not using it.

We've already eliminated all the people who are getting their money's worth out of Github, that's the premise of the conversation....we're talking about a service that is designed to cater to people for whom Github's pricing plan doesn't work for their needs.

Additionally, to argue that these people don't exist is a specious argument. I think it's an incredibly dubious proposition that there is ANY service which precisely fits the needs of it's entire target market.

>. But the way to make smart economic decisions is not by measuring hypothetical waste (i.e. how much of the account you are using) but by comparing the options side by side

Yes, precisely.

You make smart decision by weighing your own personal needs against your options. Everyone has different needs, and while Github works for many people, it does not work for everyone.

Again, I'm not prepared to say codeplane represents a solution for all these people...many will simply go to bit-bucket, handle it themselves, etc... but I think it works for at least some of them.

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#179

Post by pjhyett »

mrcharles wrote: post #113
cool-RR wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who think that Bitbucket is on par with GitHub are the same kind of people who said that StackOverflow could be cloned in a week. You focus on features but fail to see all the painstaking attention to detail that went into creating these sites.

IF you use the web-interface consistently. If you don't use the web interface much, or use it for simple text diffs, bitbucket is perfectly viable. One funny thing about github is they put so much effort in to being able to diff images and other files, yet their space limits are too low for private repos, if you are versioning anything other than just text files.

All of GitHub's space limits are soft limits to prevent abuse.

Re: Why I've built an alternative to Github

#180

Post by flocial »

I've always wondered about this. The real expenses are disk space and bandwidth. I don't understand how they can't just provide a space-based plan (oh yeah, that would cut into high margins).

It's a wonderful service and they've done so much to keep many open source projects from stagnating. They outshine SourceForge and Google Code by a large margin. Still, if BitBucket was git, I might migrate my stuff.

The thing is "social coding" isn't that big of a plus for your own private stuff. I definitely see value in a service like this.

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