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> No lock-in. All data stored in GitHub issues. How is that not a proprietary lock-in if all your data is stored on a single company's servers? People keep on

> No lock-in. All data stored in GitHub issues. How is that not a proprietary lock-in if all your data is stored on a single company's servers? People keep on treating GitHub and other corporations as public services. They're not.

misnome 8y ago
> How is that not a proprietary lock-in if all your data is stored on a single company's servers? Even more than this, I'm a big fan but IIRC GitHub is pretty infamous for making it excessively hard to extract issue data/move to other platforms? (I think the wiki pages are available as a repo, so at least that's easy to get).
- ishitatsuyuki 8y ago
  Citation needed. Almost all issue data should be available from the API, and I have seen cases where issue contents are copied over with a bot from an obsolete repo to a new repo.
- cyphar 8y ago
  No, wiki pages are not available through git on GitHub. You're thinking of GitLab which does have this feature. EDIT: TIL, turns out they are. And the syntax (add .wiki to the repo name) is the same as GitLab.
  - diggan 8y ago
    Yes, they are. For example, the GitHub repository ethereum/wiki can be cloned by doing git clone https://github.com/ethereum/wiki.wiki.git You basically add `.wiki` after the repository name, and it's exposing a git repository you can clone.
- rsync 8y ago
  "(I think the wiki pages are available as a repo, so at least that's easy to get)." This is true, but other components of a github project, such as the issues, are not available as a git repo that you can clone, etc.
pavlov 8y ago
GitHub is at an interesting inflection point. Before the acquisition, VCs stoked the growth by giving away bandwidth and storage. Now that GitHub is a Microsoft property, the same continues because MS has been on a ten-year mission to build goodwill in the developer community. That may not last forever. The original GitHub people will gradually drift away once their vesting concludes. If overall growth stalls, Microsoft management may yet feel the temptation to start squeezing GitHub for cash. I suspect they'll acquire NPM along the way too, to have a better lock-in in place.
- jacobush 8y ago
  NPM could use some cleaning. It's a single point of failure without the governance, the worst of both worlds kind of thing.
- diggan 8y ago
  > I suspect they'll acquire NPM along the way too, to have a better lock-in in place. No matter if someone is going to acquire npm or not, npm registry is clearly degrading in value provided to users, while trying to earn a profit. I recently started a project to do something about it, called Open-Registry (https://open-registry.dev https://open-registry.dev). Basically, it's a new package registry compatible with npm (proxy to the npm inc registry) that is 100% community funded and has a explicit governance that the community owns it.
- NicoJuicy 8y ago
  Microsoft won't acquire npm for sure. I highly doubt MS will ever squeeze GitHub for cash also. It's about integration and azure. They have proved by now that they are not Oracle and they are doing the opposite of them. - making development more open ( .net core vs Java) - making tools more open ( eg. Sms vs MySQL, vscode, ...) Both have clouds. Microsoft is adding/creating more free tools/services as their onboarding funnel. Development ease is their motivation. Oracle buys popular things and starts licensing them. They try to force existing clients into their cloud ( MS makes it optional). Oracle's motivation is management influencing
  - 8y ago
52-6F-62 8y ago
> People keep on treating GitHub and other corporations as public services. They're not. Good point! Maybe there should be such a public service as an option.
- phoe-krk 8y ago
  Public services, as in, run by who exactly? There is no Internet government to run Internet public services.
  - 52-6F-62 8y ago
    Not sure. A start might be a standards body offshoot, or a similar organization. Maybe the UN? Maybe an org like IEEE? Seems like an interesting discussion topic.
    - TomMarius 8y ago
      How did people became so incapable in social interactions that they need a public service to share code they make together?
      - 52-6F-62 8y ago
        A public service is exactly people interacting. It just prioritizes posterity over profit.
        TomMarius 8y ago
        No, people interacting is people talking together and then doing things together. Please don't try to act like voting or otherwise going the political route is anything like that. I will believe you once there is no government in the middle. There is absolutely no need for a third party, especially given we're talking about code sharing and not about saving dying people.
        8y ago

misnome 8y ago

> How is that not a proprietary lock-in if all your data is stored on a single company's servers? Even more than this, I'm a big fan but IIRC GitHub is pretty infamous for making it excessively hard to extract issue data/move to other platforms? (I think the wiki pages are available as a repo, so at least that's easy to get).

ishitatsuyuki 8y ago
Citation needed. Almost all issue data should be available from the API, and I have seen cases where issue contents are copied over with a bot from an obsolete repo to a new repo.
cyphar 8y ago
No, wiki pages are not available through git on GitHub. You're thinking of GitLab which does have this feature. EDIT: TIL, turns out they are. And the syntax (add .wiki to the repo name) is the same as GitLab.
- diggan 8y ago
  Yes, they are. For example, the GitHub repository ethereum/wiki can be cloned by doing git clone https://github.com/ethereum/wiki.wiki.git You basically add `.wiki` after the repository name, and it's exposing a git repository you can clone.
rsync 8y ago
"(I think the wiki pages are available as a repo, so at least that's easy to get)." This is true, but other components of a github project, such as the issues, are not available as a git repo that you can clone, etc.

pavlov 8y ago

GitHub is at an interesting inflection point. Before the acquisition, VCs stoked the growth by giving away bandwidth and storage. Now that GitHub is a Microsoft property, the same continues because MS has been on a ten-year mission to build goodwill in the developer community. That may not last forever. The original GitHub people will gradually drift away once their vesting concludes. If overall growth stalls, Microsoft management may yet feel the temptation to start squeezing GitHub for cash. I suspect they'll acquire NPM along the way too, to have a better lock-in in place.

jacobush 8y ago
NPM could use some cleaning. It's a single point of failure without the governance, the worst of both worlds kind of thing.
diggan 8y ago
> I suspect they'll acquire NPM along the way too, to have a better lock-in in place. No matter if someone is going to acquire npm or not, npm registry is clearly degrading in value provided to users, while trying to earn a profit. I recently started a project to do something about it, called Open-Registry (https://open-registry.dev https://open-registry.dev). Basically, it's a new package registry compatible with npm (proxy to the npm inc registry) that is 100% community funded and has a explicit governance that the community owns it.
NicoJuicy 8y ago
Microsoft won't acquire npm for sure. I highly doubt MS will ever squeeze GitHub for cash also. It's about integration and azure. They have proved by now that they are not Oracle and they are doing the opposite of them. - making development more open ( .net core vs Java) - making tools more open ( eg. Sms vs MySQL, vscode, ...) Both have clouds. Microsoft is adding/creating more free tools/services as their onboarding funnel. Development ease is their motivation. Oracle buys popular things and starts licensing them. They try to force existing clients into their cloud ( MS makes it optional). Oracle's motivation is management influencing
- 8y ago

52-6F-62 8y ago

> People keep on treating GitHub and other corporations as public services. They're not. Good point! Maybe there should be such a public service as an option.

phoe-krk 8y ago
Public services, as in, run by who exactly? There is no Internet government to run Internet public services.
- 52-6F-62 8y ago
  Not sure. A start might be a standards body offshoot, or a similar organization. Maybe the UN? Maybe an org like IEEE? Seems like an interesting discussion topic.
  - TomMarius 8y ago
    How did people became so incapable in social interactions that they need a public service to share code they make together?
    - 52-6F-62 8y ago
      A public service is exactly people interacting. It just prioritizes posterity over profit.
      - TomMarius 8y ago
        No, people interacting is people talking together and then doing things together. Please don't try to act like voting or otherwise going the political route is anything like that. I will believe you once there is no government in the middle. There is absolutely no need for a third party, especially given we're talking about code sharing and not about saving dying people.
        8y ago