Unlimited private repos was why at some point I used Gitlab, and why I was grateful that my email address from an old educational institution still worked. I'm glad that they're making this change.
Announcing unlimited free private repos
171–180 of 716 posts
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#172This makes me uncomfortable. Private subscriptions were a direct revenue stream for Github, and explained directly how they can afford the infrastructure that provides the service. Generally when previously paid stuff becomes free, it's because the paid service is no longer a product - it's now a tool to attract users. How will users be monetised now?
The private repositories are limited to three collaborators. I think most people who would pay for private repos rather than simply use them as a factor in selecting among free hosts are going to need more collaborators than that before long (if not immediately).
Meanwhile, if people that just don't want to share their solo tinkerings focus on Gitlab or Bitbucket free plans for the private repos, then when they are ready to move up, GitHub is in a worse position to try to monetize them than if they were already in the GH ecosystem.
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if they reached out to GitHub to see if they felt it was alright to keep this up? Might be good if the author could clarify! Either way, really cool news.
Definitely cool news, even if it is a max of 3 contributors. I'd have liked to seen that a little higher, but they surely know what they're basing that number on. It's not enough to pull me from GitLab just yet, but if I keep having 10MB+ issues there, I'll switch.
What issue are you having on GitLab? Do you mean the attachment limit? https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support-forum/issues/2654 How large is it on GitHub and BitBucket?
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually switched from Github to Gitlab about two months ago just for this reason. I bootstrap my company from my own pocket and wanted to save a few dollars every month. Really wish I knew this was coming before I deleted the repos and migrated everything. edit -- to everyone asking, I have no problems with Gitlab and I also have no strong preference Gitlab vs Github, they both perform the same role for me in exac…
Isn't a migration back just a git clone away? Assuming you're not using Issues or anything non-portable.
That would just be more time wasting. I think he is regretting ever spending time on that.
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Well, if true -- I'll be canceling my subscription :D > Thank you Github / Microsoft! What a weird way to thank a company. I get it, but still.
Did they just cut off a significant source of revenue, or do companies that subscribe to Enterprise make them so much more money that it doesn’t matter?
Microsoft's other git hosting offering, Azure DevOps, has had free, unlimited, private repos for a long time now so it's not really anything new for Microsoft; it's just extending that to more users.
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#176Nobody has mentioned the official GitHub announcement yet? https://blog.github.com/2019-01-07-new-year-new-github/
That was just posted (in response to this embargo break)
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#177I know the new Microsoft seems different (and I'm a fan), but I can't help but feel like we've seen this movie before.
Recall back when Internet Explorer was free and bundled with Windows, and there was a whole antitrust lawsuit over it by the Department of Justice. What was old is new again.
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#178This makes me uncomfortable. Private subscriptions were a direct revenue stream for Github, and explained directly how they can afford the infrastructure that provides the service. Generally when previously paid stuff becomes free, it's because the paid service is no longer a product - it's now a tool to attract users. How will users be monetised now?
They're now owned by Microsoft. Critical difference between Microsoft and Google - Microsoft makes all of their money from direct sales and enterprise contracts for their primary products, including Windows, Windows Server, SQL Server, ActiveDirectory, Office, etc, while Google makes their money from selling ads to you with as much targeting information as possible. So this is now a loss leader for Microsoft, primarily to draw your attention to their primary products, and any money it makes or loses is on too small of a scale for Microsoft to care probably.
There's plenty you can criticize Microsoft about for sure, but they aren't trying to gather boatloads of info about you, just keep you buying Microsoft software.
Now that I think about it like that, maybe Google is infact becoming more evil than Microsoft.
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#179This is a smart move. Gives developers who have small indy projects a reason to use Github rather than a competitor (I know I use gitlab precisely because it's free for my private one-off repos).
My move to Gitlab was basically "come for the free repos, stay for the rest of the amazing features". I will not be moving off it, and my new repos will keep being on Gitlab.
Same, especially the free built-in CI.
Re: Announcing unlimited free private repos
#180This is the main reason I used GitLab. Can't make student Git repositories public!
Students are usually eligible for free private repos. https://education.github.com/pack