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Not sure how profitable GitHub is, but there are users paying for private repositories or for the Enterprise version and the revenues thus far seem to be enough

Not sure how profitable GitHub is, but there are users paying for private repositories or for the Enterprise version and the revenues thus far seem to be enough to support the free users as well and to an outsider like me being a win-win situation, since GitHub is now the place to be on, with open-source projects giving them free exposure, with the Enterprise version starting to win against other established solutions because "everybody knows GitHub". I used to be a paying customer of GitHub, now I'm enjoying the free benefits and pushing for the Enterprise edition in my organization. Am I the product in this case? I do hate the "free to play (with gouging IAPs)" model and I actually prefer ads with an option to go ad-free. However even with this business model there are heroes. See for example Path of Exile, a free game in which the in-app purchases do not have an impact on your ability to win: https://www.pathofexile.com/ https://www.pathofexile.com/ I do agree with you, the chosen business model makes the difference. I do believe that ads aren't inherently evil, it's just the status quo that is. Yes, today ad-supported means that we are the product, but this product has a free will, a fact that some companies are forgetting. At the very least there are some signs of change. Google for example is at least trying to play it both ways - you can be a paying customer of Google Apps and they'll introduce subscriptions to YouTube for going ads free (with the ability to cache content for offline viewing on mobile devices being the incentive needed for regular folks).

pjc50 11y ago
Github are indeed the heroes of the day and have an enterprise revenue model. So far, so good. But Sourceforge is sixteen years old. Will Github still be the good guys in 2030? It's impossible to know.
- ksherlock 11y ago
  SourceForge used to have an enterprise revenue model, too. They bet the company (or at least the name) on it - VA Research -> VA Linux -> VA Software -> SourceForge -> GeekNet -> {Dice and HotTopic^WGameStop}. If Github ever pivots to selling t-shirts, run.
  - judofyr 11y ago
    http://github.myshopify.com/ http://github.myshopify.com/
    - yellowapple 11y ago
      Welp. Time to switch to BitBucket, then.
- Nelson69 11y ago
  SF/VA gave Linus and ESR stock. I believe ESR and several others were on some sort of community advisory committee to them. Part of SF's problem was that they didn't want to pick winners so much as create and facilitate "community" they had multiple choices for different tools they hosted. They had build servers and such as that seemed at the time like problem space (how do you know if your code runs on Itanium?) They made, what at the time was, an unprecedented effort to engage community and not be evil. Ultimately someone needs to pay some bills though, a few transactions later and this seems remarkably far from their start. It's embarrassing and shocking.

pjc50 11y ago

Github are indeed the heroes of the day and have an enterprise revenue model. So far, so good. But Sourceforge is sixteen years old. Will Github still be the good guys in 2030? It's impossible to know.

ksherlock 11y ago
SourceForge used to have an enterprise revenue model, too. They bet the company (or at least the name) on it - VA Research -> VA Linux -> VA Software -> SourceForge -> GeekNet -> {Dice and HotTopic^WGameStop}. If Github ever pivots to selling t-shirts, run.
- judofyr 11y ago
  http://github.myshopify.com/ http://github.myshopify.com/
  - yellowapple 11y ago
    Welp. Time to switch to BitBucket, then.
Nelson69 11y ago
SF/VA gave Linus and ESR stock. I believe ESR and several others were on some sort of community advisory committee to them. Part of SF's problem was that they didn't want to pick winners so much as create and facilitate "community" they had multiple choices for different tools they hosted. They had build servers and such as that seemed at the time like problem space (how do you know if your code runs on Itanium?) They made, what at the time was, an unprecedented effort to engage community and not be evil. Ultimately someone needs to pay some bills though, a few transactions later and this seems remarkably far from their start. It's embarrassing and shocking.