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Ask HN: How can I browse public GitHub repos on 128kbps connection?
I am stuck on 128kbps connection for a while. The only website that loads without the server timing out is HackerNews.
I cannot even click on the commit history of a GitHub repo on the web, it seems to be some sort of bloated react interface for what amounts to an excruciatingly slow `git log`.
Cloning the entire repo is not feasible unless I know in advance that the repo is small, but I cannot know that unless I browse the log and directory beforehand.
I cannot search Google for advanced git commands, as Google times out 90% of the time, while 9% of the time it sends me to a captcha which is even more bloated to load and times out again.
- epirogov 2y agoI checked Lynx and it doesn't work, but Elinks and Links works in terminal with GitHub, so you can use a very thin device and a little bandwidth to go to an online repo. elinks https://github.com/arise-project https://github.com/arise-project
- dudus 2y agoHow can you be stuck at 128kbps in 2025? Are you in jail? I'm very intrigued.
- rl1987 2y agoAny kind of ship is a plausible explanation.
- pizza 2y agoYou might be able to try the lynx terminal web browser
- serendipty01 2y agoAlternate front-end: https://gothub.lunar.icu/ https://gothub.lunar.icu/
- xeonmc 2y agoThanks for that, though unfortunately it’s missing the ability to see commit history
- rl1987 2y agoI would run this on VPS and use it via SSH: https://github.com/fathyb/carbonyl https://github.com/fathyb/carbonyl
- sandreas 2y agoIs starlink an Option?(in case you did not know)
- xeonmc 2y agoNo, but Starbucks is an occasional option though not always available 24/7.
- sandreas 2y agoHow about these: - github cli (https://cli.github.com/manual/ https://cli.github.com/manual/) - github tui (https://github.com/chshersh/github-tui https://github.com/chshersh/github-tui) - another github tui (https://github.com/skanehira/github-tui https://github.com/skanehira/github-tui) - github cli extension (https://github.com/jrnxf/gh-eco https://github.com/jrnxf/gh-eco) Or you could build a custom one with the github api: https://docs.github.com/en/rest https://docs.github.com/en/rest Hope you find a solution.
- Locutus_ 2y agoProvision a VPS/VM/Cloud instance/etc, install your dev tools on it and use it over mush. And remember for things like looking up git commands or even a lot of your dependency documentation, you do not need a web browser. Git comes with manpages, many libraries will have docs in .md or whatever in them.
- Rounin 2y agoPerhaps something like this to get just one commit with no large files: git clone --depth 1 --filter=blob:limit=100k
- Rounin 2y agoFor looking at the commit history rather than the files, apparently one can use git-ls-remote .
- codingdave 2y agoTimeouts over TCP/IP do not happen due to a lack of bandwidth, they happen when individual packets fail to get acknowledged. You will need to have patience, but that connection should not break the ability to use the web. I've seen problems like this quite a few times, and resolved them by working with the ISPs to actually trace the connection and find the problem router/hardware. As often as not, they'd find some old failing hardware on a telephone pole somewhere near the end user who was reporting such problems.