2 ms·

I don't think Git/GitHub is really all that big of a lock-in in practice for most projects. IMO Git is not an unassailable juggernaut - I think if a new SCM ca

I don't think Git/GitHub is really all that big of a lock-in in practice for most projects. IMO Git is not an unassailable juggernaut - I think if a new SCM came along and it had a frontend like GitHub and a VSCode plugin, that alone would be enough for a many users to adopt it (barring users who are heavy customers of GitHub Actions). It's just that nobody has decided to do this, since there's no money in it and most people are fine with Git.

charcircuit 8mo ago
The wall of getting buy in for switching your company over to a new SCM is much higher if you need to move everything over to a new system and switch over all of your developers onto new software at the same time. And if things don't work out you have to do the same expensive process in reverse. On the other hand if you have git compatibility you can start with a small group of developers being able to try out the tool first and see if it is actually beneficial and work your way spreading it through the company. If it turns out the new thing isn't good it is trivial to go back to your old tools since you did not have to do expensive migrations.
- conartist6 8mo ago
  I think you're right that this dynamic will exist of being harder to get buy-in all at once, but git faced that dynamic when competing against earlier VCS systems and still won the market. The dynamic that I think balances this out is the "inherited expectations" dynamic. You'll end up winning a lot of people by offering them easy migration, but then you'll find it difficult or impossible to satisfy them because they just want the exact same product they were using but somehow magically cheaper and better. My goal is to avoid the violent, priority-changing growth that comes with direct interoperability, and just ride the regular bell-shaped adoption curve. Right now I want to connecting with early adopters who are eager to look at a new technology precisely because they're crashing up against the more immovable limitations of the old and so who are willing to seek out and accept new things, even if it means accepting change. But that acceptance of change is key to creating expectations I can actually satisfy so that my growth actually drives more growth

charcircuit 8mo ago

The wall of getting buy in for switching your company over to a new SCM is much higher if you need to move everything over to a new system and switch over all of your developers onto new software at the same time. And if things don't work out you have to do the same expensive process in reverse. On the other hand if you have git compatibility you can start with a small group of developers being able to try out the tool first and see if it is actually beneficial and work your way spreading it through the company. If it turns out the new thing isn't good it is trivial to go back to your old tools since you did not have to do expensive migrations.

conartist6 8mo ago
I think you're right that this dynamic will exist of being harder to get buy-in all at once, but git faced that dynamic when competing against earlier VCS systems and still won the market. The dynamic that I think balances this out is the "inherited expectations" dynamic. You'll end up winning a lot of people by offering them easy migration, but then you'll find it difficult or impossible to satisfy them because they just want the exact same product they were using but somehow magically cheaper and better. My goal is to avoid the violent, priority-changing growth that comes with direct interoperability, and just ride the regular bell-shaped adoption curve. Right now I want to connecting with early adopters who are eager to look at a new technology precisely because they're crashing up against the more immovable limitations of the old and so who are willing to seek out and accept new things, even if it means accepting change. But that acceptance of change is key to creating expectations I can actually satisfy so that my growth actually drives more growth