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GitHub supports open source provisions in National Defense Authorization Act

9 points by joeyespo 9y ago

freedomben 9y ago
I completely agree with this blog post, but every time I hear these sorts of things from Github it always begs the same question: If you believe in open source so much, why is Github a closed-source product? Many businesses, particularly SaaS businesses, have managed to be hugely profitable while making their code open source, so I don't accept the argument there. And considering that the choices of many open source projects to host there and standardize on the Github ecosystem were a big factor in enabling GH to become what they are today, at some point I would feel an obligation. It's their business and they can run it how they see fit, but it's something that has always bothered me.
- zanedb 9y ago
  While I agree with your sentiment, I think it would be difficult for GitHub to open-source their product. The limitation for them is obviously their enterprise offerings, which would be far less profitable if businesses could just roll their own GitHub instance. I thought about it and couldn't come up with many SaaS companies that are open-source. Especially not with the same business model as GitHub. I too would love an open-source version, but for the reasons above I doubt it will happen.
- knownothing 9y ago
  Does a company have to open source their entire product to meet with your approval? It sounds like you're completely unaware they do open source large internal projects and hire people from community projects. EDIT: also, Git is completely open source, and all of the data stored on GitHub can be exported. A lot of other tools even import data directly from GitHub. There's literally nothing stopping people from moving except that they want to use it.
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    > Does a company have to open source their entire product to meet with your approval? Not OP, but it does seem a little hypocritical to demand others completely open source their projects while still holding onto proprietary software.
    - knownothing 9y ago
      I'm not sure how GitHub demands that you open source anything. You can keep projects private if you want to keep them private.
mankash666 9y ago
Disagree. Maybe other federal agencies have nothing to lose by open sourcing their code, but the DoD should NOT open anything. If the nation's security is entrusted to the DoD, their software shouldn't be publicly available for potential intruders to study and exploit.
- majewsky 9y ago
  Yeah, because everyone knows that Security by Obscurity has a perfect track record. /s

9 points by joeyespo 9y ago

I completely agree with this blog post, but every time I hear these sorts of things from Github it always begs the same question: If you believe in open source so much, why is Github a closed-source product? Many businesses, particularly SaaS businesses, have managed to be hugely profitable while making their code open source, so I don't accept the argument there. And considering that the choices of many open source projects to host there and standardize on the Github ecosystem were a big factor in enabling GH to become what they are today, at some point I would feel an obligation. It's their business and they can run it how they see fit, but it's something that has always bothered me.

zanedb 9y ago
While I agree with your sentiment, I think it would be difficult for GitHub to open-source their product. The limitation for them is obviously their enterprise offerings, which would be far less profitable if businesses could just roll their own GitHub instance. I thought about it and couldn't come up with many SaaS companies that are open-source. Especially not with the same business model as GitHub. I too would love an open-source version, but for the reasons above I doubt it will happen.
knownothing 9y ago
Does a company have to open source their entire product to meet with your approval? It sounds like you're completely unaware they do open source large internal projects and hire people from community projects. EDIT: also, Git is completely open source, and all of the data stored on GitHub can be exported. A lot of other tools even import data directly from GitHub. There's literally nothing stopping people from moving except that they want to use it.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  > Does a company have to open source their entire product to meet with your approval? Not OP, but it does seem a little hypocritical to demand others completely open source their projects while still holding onto proprietary software.
  - knownothing 9y ago
    I'm not sure how GitHub demands that you open source anything. You can keep projects private if you want to keep them private.

mankash666 9y ago

Disagree. Maybe other federal agencies have nothing to lose by open sourcing their code, but the DoD should NOT open anything. If the nation's security is entrusted to the DoD, their software shouldn't be publicly available for potential intruders to study and exploit.

majewsky 9y ago
Yeah, because everyone knows that Security by Obscurity has a perfect track record. /s