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GitLab is fantastic, but GitHub has the most eyeballs and best discoverability features. As long as that remains true, GitHub will remain a better place to laun

GitLab is fantastic, but GitHub has the most eyeballs and best discoverability features. As long as that remains true, GitHub will remain a better place to launch an open source product than alternatives.

enriquto 7y ago
You can use any old git repo as your main source, and "dump" every commit into github for visibility. Any issues and pull request into the github site are replied by an automatic answer to use some other site.
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  ... which diminishes the likelihood volunteers will join your project, because now they have to go learn another site.
  - vetinari 7y ago
    Is it really a thing, to have to learn another site? If you know the basic functionality of Github, do you really have to learn to use similar functionality of Gitlab, Gitea, etc? Is it not enough to be familiar with the concepts?
    - jan6 7y ago
      well, the UI is different, so you have to learn to use that... the concepts can be quite similar, but execution, isn't
      - vetinari 7y ago
        Sure, but the difference isn't that big. Just like when people were switching from the blue e to firefox/chrome: these were different browsers, with different UI, but the concept of browsing the internet was the same. So in the end, the different UI didn't matter.
    - shadowgovt 7y ago
      Having to set up a new account, complete with a new username and password, is by itself sufficient to drive away a staggering amount of adoption / conversions according to several UX studies.
      - mappu 7y ago
        Gitea supports "log in with GitHub" if the site-owner has enabled it; and the UI is immediately familiar.
        derefr 7y ago
        Now you've got me wondering whether you can still "Log in with GitHub" if your GitHub account is Iranian, or whether that gets disabled too.
- chatmasta 7y ago
  Not a bad idea. But I haven’t seen it work in practice with strong usability. The fact of the matter is, if you ask developers where they discovered software, “GitHub” would rank higher than GitLab. This is due not only to higher traffic numbers, but also more features revolving around discoverability. GitLab could build those features too, but it’s difficult to overcome the network effect driving GitHub’s momentum. It’s especially hard because even the people who did migrate to GitLab mostly did so for the free private projects and CI. It’s unlikely many will move public repositories to GitLab now that GitHub nears feature parity in CI.
  - solveit 7y ago
    > But I haven’t seen it work in practice with strong usability. The Linux kernel does this (with a mailing list, no less!). I agree with the main thrust of your post and I suppose strong usability is arguable but I thought it would be good to throw out a (very) notable example regardless.
    - chatmasta 7y ago
      You’re right, strong usability is arguable. Very arguable. But you’ve got a good point that they make it work. It’s certainly possible. (And obviously Linux is an exceptional example, let’s not forget it shares a creator with git.)
- mroche 7y ago
  For my GitLab repos (where I maintain source/workflow) I use the mirror functionality to automatically push any and all all commits to GitHub. I configure the GitHub mirror with a link to the official repo and disable issues. Unfortunately, you can’t outright disable GitHub’s pull requests. I’ve seen plenty of orphaned PRs on repos that do tracking/review elsewhere and people just don’t read (or actively ignore) the provided contributor guidelines.
  - brodock 7y ago
    looks like you can use Actions for that: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/close-pull-request https://github.com/marketplace/actions/close-pull-request
    - mroche 7y ago
      Interesting. I haven't looked at Actions at all yet but this is nifty. Previously I had seen people write their own GitHub bots to handle this sort of thing.
  - chatmasta 7y ago
    Worth noting, it’s also possible (and quite easy) to do this vice versa. When you want a private fork of a public repo on github, it can be useful to mirror it to a private repository on GitLab. GL will keep all commits up to date for you. (Ironically, there is nothing comparable on GitHub’s platform. You cannot make a fork that keeps itself up to date, for example.) Here is how to do it: https://gist.github.com/milesrichardson/b00e2623e5f4427ec192b1f632c3c7dc https://gist.github.com/milesrichardson/b00e2623e5f4427ec192...
    - mroche 7y ago
      Very interesting use case for the mirroring feature. It really is super helpful and powerful. Though currently pull mirrors show as activity contributions, so if you mirror a large, active project your commit activity graph will go through the roof (if you care about that sort of thing).
echelon 7y ago
> GitHub has the most eyeballs You're being downvoted for a true statement. There is a lot of GitLab zealousness at HN. Please don't downvote simply because you disagree over product favoritism and outlook. Offer a refutation.
- dang 7y ago
  Comments like this break the site guidelines. Would you mind reviewing them? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html One reason we ask users not to go on about downvotes is that users frequently come along and add corrective upvotes, but comments like this don't garbage-collect themselves. They start as off-topic and end by being off-topic and false.
  - echelon 7y ago
    Thanks, understood.
miracle2k 7y ago
Note that Gitlab hosts on Google Cloud, which blocks all traffic from sanctioned countries on a network level. No IP packages from US sanctioned countries reach any service hosted on Google Cloud, including OpenSource gitlab repos.
- shadowgovt 7y ago
  Yep. Sum it all up, and the easiest way to not be disadvantaged on the Internet is to not be in a sanctioned country. Which is, well, rather the point of the sanctions.
  - SahAssar 7y ago
    No, the point of sanctions is to hurt the leaders of a country, not their citizens. That's why sanctions are applied to specific goods and not across the board.

enriquto 7y ago

You can use any old git repo as your main source, and "dump" every commit into github for visibility. Any issues and pull request into the github site are replied by an automatic answer to use some other site.

shadowgovt 7y ago
... which diminishes the likelihood volunteers will join your project, because now they have to go learn another site.
- vetinari 7y ago
  Is it really a thing, to have to learn another site? If you know the basic functionality of Github, do you really have to learn to use similar functionality of Gitlab, Gitea, etc? Is it not enough to be familiar with the concepts?
  - jan6 7y ago
    well, the UI is different, so you have to learn to use that... the concepts can be quite similar, but execution, isn't
    - vetinari 7y ago
      Sure, but the difference isn't that big. Just like when people were switching from the blue e to firefox/chrome: these were different browsers, with different UI, but the concept of browsing the internet was the same. So in the end, the different UI didn't matter.
  - shadowgovt 7y ago
    Having to set up a new account, complete with a new username and password, is by itself sufficient to drive away a staggering amount of adoption / conversions according to several UX studies.
    - mappu 7y ago
      Gitea supports "log in with GitHub" if the site-owner has enabled it; and the UI is immediately familiar.
      - derefr 7y ago
        Now you've got me wondering whether you can still "Log in with GitHub" if your GitHub account is Iranian, or whether that gets disabled too.
chatmasta 7y ago
Not a bad idea. But I haven’t seen it work in practice with strong usability. The fact of the matter is, if you ask developers where they discovered software, “GitHub” would rank higher than GitLab. This is due not only to higher traffic numbers, but also more features revolving around discoverability. GitLab could build those features too, but it’s difficult to overcome the network effect driving GitHub’s momentum. It’s especially hard because even the people who did migrate to GitLab mostly did so for the free private projects and CI. It’s unlikely many will move public repositories to GitLab now that GitHub nears feature parity in CI.
- solveit 7y ago
  > But I haven’t seen it work in practice with strong usability. The Linux kernel does this (with a mailing list, no less!). I agree with the main thrust of your post and I suppose strong usability is arguable but I thought it would be good to throw out a (very) notable example regardless.
  - chatmasta 7y ago
    You’re right, strong usability is arguable. Very arguable. But you’ve got a good point that they make it work. It’s certainly possible. (And obviously Linux is an exceptional example, let’s not forget it shares a creator with git.)
mroche 7y ago
For my GitLab repos (where I maintain source/workflow) I use the mirror functionality to automatically push any and all all commits to GitHub. I configure the GitHub mirror with a link to the official repo and disable issues. Unfortunately, you can’t outright disable GitHub’s pull requests. I’ve seen plenty of orphaned PRs on repos that do tracking/review elsewhere and people just don’t read (or actively ignore) the provided contributor guidelines.
- brodock 7y ago
  looks like you can use Actions for that: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/close-pull-request https://github.com/marketplace/actions/close-pull-request
  - mroche 7y ago
    Interesting. I haven't looked at Actions at all yet but this is nifty. Previously I had seen people write their own GitHub bots to handle this sort of thing.
- chatmasta 7y ago
  Worth noting, it’s also possible (and quite easy) to do this vice versa. When you want a private fork of a public repo on github, it can be useful to mirror it to a private repository on GitLab. GL will keep all commits up to date for you. (Ironically, there is nothing comparable on GitHub’s platform. You cannot make a fork that keeps itself up to date, for example.) Here is how to do it: https://gist.github.com/milesrichardson/b00e2623e5f4427ec192b1f632c3c7dc https://gist.github.com/milesrichardson/b00e2623e5f4427ec192...
  - mroche 7y ago
    Very interesting use case for the mirroring feature. It really is super helpful and powerful. Though currently pull mirrors show as activity contributions, so if you mirror a large, active project your commit activity graph will go through the roof (if you care about that sort of thing).

echelon 7y ago

> GitHub has the most eyeballs You're being downvoted for a true statement. There is a lot of GitLab zealousness at HN. Please don't downvote simply because you disagree over product favoritism and outlook. Offer a refutation.

dang 7y ago
Comments like this break the site guidelines. Would you mind reviewing them? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html One reason we ask users not to go on about downvotes is that users frequently come along and add corrective upvotes, but comments like this don't garbage-collect themselves. They start as off-topic and end by being off-topic and false.
- echelon 7y ago
  Thanks, understood.

miracle2k 7y ago

Note that Gitlab hosts on Google Cloud, which blocks all traffic from sanctioned countries on a network level. No IP packages from US sanctioned countries reach any service hosted on Google Cloud, including OpenSource gitlab repos.

shadowgovt 7y ago
Yep. Sum it all up, and the easiest way to not be disadvantaged on the Internet is to not be in a sanctioned country. Which is, well, rather the point of the sanctions.
- SahAssar 7y ago
  No, the point of sanctions is to hurt the leaders of a country, not their citizens. That's why sanctions are applied to specific goods and not across the board.