6 ms·

I expected better from GitHub, disappointed!

by jalan 13y ago

zeckalpha 13y ago
GitHub itself isn't open source, nor are its desktop clients, so it is par for the course. On the other hand, if this was from Gitorious...
- 3825 13y ago
  In an article aptly titled "Open source (almost) everything", GitHub co-founder and current president Tom Preston-Werner writes[0], "Don't open source anything that represents core business value." He specifically mentions two examples of what not to open source: Core GitHub Rails app (easier to sell when closed) The Jobs Sinatra app (specially crafted integration with github.com) Now, I'd find the argument really stretched thin if you were to tell me that a text editor is your core selling point. Where does a text editor fit into GitHub's overarching mission? [0] http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everything.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everyth...
primitivesuave 13y ago
GitHub gives away an incredibly powerful service (hosted version control) for free. While hosting it may not be in itself a considerable expense, personnel and R&D is. They have all the rights to recover their costs in some way. At the end of the day, they are a business.
- mempko 13y ago
  Making the service free for open source and free software was a strategic business decision. Services like github make money from private repos and a good advertisement for the service is to allow open software to use it for free. Nobody asked them to spend their money creating an editor. It was their decision. They have been profitable for a while now and deciding to make an editor, charging for it, is not recouping costs for their existing service...
  - watty 13y ago
    How do you know what their business plan is? They're a big boy company, they can make decisions based off of their own financial analysis. They decided that charging for this editor was more profitable for them as a company. Expecting something to be open source is like expecting McDonald's to give away cheeseburgers.
    - zeckalpha 13y ago
      McDonald's does give away straws, however.
      - stock_toaster 13y ago
        And ketchup.
        eru 13y ago
        In Germany they charge for the ketchup.
        primitivesuave 13y ago
        This is actually standard practice in airport McDonalds in many places of the world.
kcbanner 13y ago
Why did anyone expect this to be open source? I don't understand this entitled attitude at all.
- yarou 13y ago
  How is expecting something to be open source an entitlement? I guess in your world view, it's an entitlement to be free and alive.
  - watty 13y ago
    It's an entitlement because developing something like this requires an absurd amount of time and money. Why should they work for free. Do you work for free? Would you consider your boss entitled if he expected you to work for free? What's my view of OSS? I'm thankful for it. Yes, it's free work - they're working (although doing it for pleasure) and giving it away as a gift. I guess that's the difference, I view it as a gift, others seem to think it's immoral to work for pay. Edit: Please enlighten me, what exactly is immoral about charging for software that takes thousands of man hours to create?
    - rodgerd 13y ago
      Did they have to build git? Did they pay for it? What about ruby? No? Rails?
      - watty 13y ago
        I don't get what point you're trying to make. Is it wrong to sell software that has some piece of open source in it? It's not like they cobbled a bunch of open source projects and placed a license check on it. Do you realize that virtually every application uses some open source library?
      - rimantas 13y ago
        Funny, Rails was born as side product of closed source software.
    - 13y ago

I expected better from GitHub, disappointed!

by jalan 13y ago

I expected better from GitHub, disappointed!

GitHub itself isn't open source, nor are its desktop clients, so it is par for the course. On the other hand, if this was from Gitorious...

3825 13y ago
In an article aptly titled "Open source (almost) everything", GitHub co-founder and current president Tom Preston-Werner writes[0], "Don't open source anything that represents core business value." He specifically mentions two examples of what not to open source: Core GitHub Rails app (easier to sell when closed) The Jobs Sinatra app (specially crafted integration with github.com) Now, I'd find the argument really stretched thin if you were to tell me that a text editor is your core selling point. Where does a text editor fit into GitHub's overarching mission? [0] http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everything.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2011/11/22/open-source-everyth...

primitivesuave 13y ago

GitHub gives away an incredibly powerful service (hosted version control) for free. While hosting it may not be in itself a considerable expense, personnel and R&D is. They have all the rights to recover their costs in some way. At the end of the day, they are a business.

mempko 13y ago
Making the service free for open source and free software was a strategic business decision. Services like github make money from private repos and a good advertisement for the service is to allow open software to use it for free. Nobody asked them to spend their money creating an editor. It was their decision. They have been profitable for a while now and deciding to make an editor, charging for it, is not recouping costs for their existing service...
- watty 13y ago
  How do you know what their business plan is? They're a big boy company, they can make decisions based off of their own financial analysis. They decided that charging for this editor was more profitable for them as a company. Expecting something to be open source is like expecting McDonald's to give away cheeseburgers.
  - zeckalpha 13y ago
    McDonald's does give away straws, however.
    - stock_toaster 13y ago
      And ketchup.
      - eru 13y ago
        In Germany they charge for the ketchup.
        primitivesuave 13y ago
        This is actually standard practice in airport McDonalds in many places of the world.

kcbanner 13y ago

Why did anyone expect this to be open source? I don't understand this entitled attitude at all.

yarou 13y ago
How is expecting something to be open source an entitlement? I guess in your world view, it's an entitlement to be free and alive.
- watty 13y ago
  It's an entitlement because developing something like this requires an absurd amount of time and money. Why should they work for free. Do you work for free? Would you consider your boss entitled if he expected you to work for free? What's my view of OSS? I'm thankful for it. Yes, it's free work - they're working (although doing it for pleasure) and giving it away as a gift. I guess that's the difference, I view it as a gift, others seem to think it's immoral to work for pay. Edit: Please enlighten me, what exactly is immoral about charging for software that takes thousands of man hours to create?
  - rodgerd 13y ago
    Did they have to build git? Did they pay for it? What about ruby? No? Rails?
    - watty 13y ago
      I don't get what point you're trying to make. Is it wrong to sell software that has some piece of open source in it? It's not like they cobbled a bunch of open source projects and placed a license check on it. Do you realize that virtually every application uses some open source library?
    - rimantas 13y ago
      Funny, Rails was born as side product of closed source software.
  - 13y ago