swoon
Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
21–30 of 77 posts
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#22Congrats to the Github team for this. I'd say it's a pretty huge endorsement, regardless of whether Linus intended it that way or not.
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, except that storage is a commodity which you need to get pretty large scale to turn a decent profit, code is fairly light on on space. Github is able to charge a very large premium on it because of the unique service that they supply.
GitHub is certainly overpriced for its private plans, but I don't think releasing the source would destroy their profitability. Once the ball gets rolling on something like GitHub, network effects play a major role in its continued usage and popularity. Good support and constant evolution of the platform also encourage users to pay for your hosted service even if the code is available elsewhere. GitHub's features lik…
I'm not sure I buy the network effects argument. It makes sense for repositories for open projects, but for private repositories I don't see where network effects come into play.
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
GitHub is certainly overpriced for its private plans, but I don't think releasing the source would destroy their profitability. Once the ball gets rolling on something like GitHub, network effects play a major role in its continued usage and popularity. Good support and constant evolution of the platform also encourage users to pay for your hosted service even if the code is available elsewhere. GitHub's features lik…
I'm not sure I buy the network effects argument. It makes sense for repositories for open projects, but for private repositories I don't see where network effects come into play.
Convenience comes into play so you only have to deal with one interface to manage all your projects.
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with Github being completely open source is that no one would pay for the service part of it, which is the only way it can exist.
I don't understand your point. Surely people do pay for hosted storage, even when the code is available?
Looked at from the point of view of for-pay hosted storage, Github is astoundingly expensive. I have 94 megabytes of git repositories at work. Github would want $100/month to host that.
If their software was all available and open source, I could host their software and my repositories on an $11/month Rackspace virtual machine, and still have about 7 gigabytes left over (or more realistically just stick it on a vhost on some machine I've already got on the internet and host it essentially for free).
This is the brilliance of Github. They have found a way to sell storage at several orders of magnitude over the going rate--all because they have coupled it with some attractive proprietary software. Their value is entirely in that proprietary software.
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#26It'd've been advantageous to see this go on a purely open service like Gitorious instead. They often provide similar features as GitHub and could definitely use the exposure of Linus's account. I use and enjoy GitHub, so this definitely isn't a personal gripe, I'd just like to see the competition in that space heat up a bit, and there'd be bonus points if we could simultaneously promote a completely open platform.
Why github Linus? "[...] it was just the first one that came up when I googled for "git hosting". I've not tried any of the hosting places before, so it was a random choice." (I don't know how to link a comment in google+, it's in https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/PVZDD2N3... )
You can link to comments, but you have to go source-diving for the containing div's ID; it doesn't appear to be exposed in the interface anywhere:
https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/PVZDD2N3...
Edit: I take it back. It's completely screwed. There's a # in the ID, and it though it works when you add the fragment to the URL in the address bar while you're viewing the page, visiting the link afresh makes it explode.
Nice work, chaps. :-|
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#27The "torvalds" github account claims to have been created today. Did github have reserve that account name for Linus or did they boot a squatter? I see there dubious accounts registered for "linustorvalds", "billgates", and "stevejobs" but not "billg" or "sjobs". btw stevejobs uploaded Windows 8 source code in 2009! Bill, you might want to give Steve a call. ;)
If you look towards the end of the comment thread on https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/PVZDD2N3..., he created the account since kernel.org is down
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you explain what exactly is closed with github that is open with gitorious? (I confess lack of familiarity with both)
Gitorious's web front-end is entirely open source (but a huge pain to setup) but Github's web front-end is proprietary (although they open source many of their backend libraries).
It's not that big of a pain to set up. It took me just under 2 hours to get it all set up and functioning on Ubuntu Server.
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#29It'd've been advantageous to see this go on a purely open service like Gitorious instead. They often provide similar features as GitHub and could definitely use the exposure of Linus's account. I use and enjoy GitHub, so this definitely isn't a personal gripe, I'd just like to see the competition in that space heat up a bit, and there'd be bonus points if we could simultaneously promote a completely open platform.
The problem with Github being completely open source is that no one would pay for the service part of it, which is the only way it can exist.
Which is why they charge insanely exorbitant prices for simple git hosting.
Re: Linus Torvalds now on GitHub
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with Github being completely open source is that no one would pay for the service part of it, which is the only way it can exist.
Which is why they charge insanely exorbitant prices for simple git hosting.
$7/mo is exorbitant? Even the biggest plan at $200 is essentially nothing for a small company. I have my complaints about github, but "exorbitant" isn't even close. They're a bargain.