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You do not need github to do that. You just need git and any git hosting. Forking is just a clone, you push in your hosting (whatever it is) and ask the guy on

by Loic 16y ago

You do not need github to do that. You just need git and any git hosting. Forking is just a clone, you push in your hosting (whatever it is) and ask the guy on the other end to pull. No centralized control, real distributed development. Linux is developed like that every day. My own forge software http://indefero.net http://indefero.net is also developed like that, with forks on github, on other instances of Indefero or just on 'hand rolled git hosting'. So, the title should really be "Git (or any good distributed SCM) is the best thing ever".

ajtaylor 16y ago
True, you don't need github. But it's killer feature is that provides the initial grease on the rails so that Joe Blow can come along to quickly and easily add a feature or fix a bug. As someone who just this week made some doc contributions to 2 different projects on GH, I can tell you the feeling is addictive. That's why Github is cool.
- Loic 16y ago
  It is totally true (as I said, I am using github too), but take it as a reminder that git itself provides all the machinery to allow you to fork, share with pull request etc. independently of any provider. You do not need a forge hosting like Indefero or Github or you name it, to use it. What I really like for example, is that I can pull a project from anywhere, be stuck on a local network with other developers, work on the code with branch/commit/pull in all the directions and then later, push back the results without the fear of losing something in the merge. Git is great and more of it cannot hurt.
tlrobinson 16y ago
Yes, but git itself does not provide the discoverability, one click forking, or pull requests that makes this workflow so easy and fun.
raganwald 16y ago
Think of Github as a discoverable user interface for git. It has visible affordances. Github is to Git as OS X is to Unix.
- JadeNB 16y ago
  > It's the OS X of Unixes. Sorry, but I think you mean that OS X is the OS X of Unixes, and GitHub is the OS X of DVCSs.
  - raganwald 16y ago
    See how a web-based discoverable text editor makes collaborative editing easy? :-) Thanks!!!
- herdrick 16y ago
  Actually I think GitX (note: you want the Brotherbard fork of it) is that. I haven't learned much about Git from using Github, but GitX is great for that.

by Loic 16y ago

ajtaylor 16y ago

True, you don't need github. But it's killer feature is that provides the initial grease on the rails so that Joe Blow can come along to quickly and easily add a feature or fix a bug. As someone who just this week made some doc contributions to 2 different projects on GH, I can tell you the feeling is addictive. That's why Github is cool.

Loic 16y ago
It is totally true (as I said, I am using github too), but take it as a reminder that git itself provides all the machinery to allow you to fork, share with pull request etc. independently of any provider. You do not need a forge hosting like Indefero or Github or you name it, to use it. What I really like for example, is that I can pull a project from anywhere, be stuck on a local network with other developers, work on the code with branch/commit/pull in all the directions and then later, push back the results without the fear of losing something in the merge. Git is great and more of it cannot hurt.

tlrobinson 16y ago

Yes, but git itself does not provide the discoverability, one click forking, or pull requests that makes this workflow so easy and fun.

raganwald 16y ago

Think of Github as a discoverable user interface for git. It has visible affordances. Github is to Git as OS X is to Unix.

JadeNB 16y ago
> It's the OS X of Unixes. Sorry, but I think you mean that OS X is the OS X of Unixes, and GitHub is the OS X of DVCSs.
- raganwald 16y ago
  See how a web-based discoverable text editor makes collaborative editing easy? :-) Thanks!!!
herdrick 16y ago
Actually I think GitX (note: you want the Brotherbard fork of it) is that. I haven't learned much about Git from using Github, but GitX is great for that.