Indeed competition is good, and I'm sure github is watching their potential competitors and customer actions like a hawk (despite their huge presence, github is

Indeed competition is good, and I'm sure github is watching their potential competitors and customer actions like a hawk (despite their huge presence, github is definitely not stodgy and slow-moving). Github charges as they do because they have so much mindshare—for now, at least, github is the place to be, and the default choice for many—that they can charge that much, even if it's painful for some. That's probably only going to change if their paying customers start moving elsewhere in significant numbers. Of course there are very poor startups etc that want private repos, but cannot afford github, and that clearly represents a niche and an opportunity for their competitors. That's a good thing, and will tend to keep github honest. Github's appeal will in turn motivate their competitors to improve and innovate. Win-win! That said, the article title (I'm not going to give them a pageview) is nothing but trolly flamebait, and never should have made it to HN. [EDIT: I notice they've tried to tone down the title since the original posting...]