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by cortesoft 3556 days ago
I think the model of "keep our core business software proprietary and open source all non-core software" is a good one, and one we should encourage all companies to share.

If they open sourced their core site, how would they make any money?
3 comments
the_duke 3556 days ago
Agreed.

Considering the amazing value Github provides for the IT world, I really don't care if they release their code.

Isn't it enought that they have revolutionized development workflows, project hosting and made contributing and collaborating so much easiert?

(to be clear, GH wasn't the first site of it's kind, but the network effect of having one site that that basically every developer uses daily -and be it just via one of the documentation site on GH pages- really was revolutionary)

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fps 3556 days ago
I use github every day for professional and personal projects, and typically like what they've done, but Sourceforge.net was the github of the early 2000's, where almost every developer had an account and where you could get free development and distribution tools for your project. Look at what it is now (or was before it was re-opened a few months ago.) People's open source projects were being leveraged to push malware on unsuspecting users. We might not think it's so great to have all this centralized code storage in a few more years when the new hotness replaces github and everyone's zombie products are being used maliciously again.
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the_duke 3556 days ago
Mhm, I used Sourceforge from time to time back then.

But I remember it as always clumsy (even before they got bought and started the ad craziness), and only a small subset of projects was on Sourceforge, in my experience at least.

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fps 3556 days ago
It would eat into their enterprise "behind the firewall" sales, but github.com's biggest asset is that it's where people already have accounts and already have development tools integrated to. That doesn't change when you open source your platform.
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tadelle 3556 days ago
Just the same way GitLab makes money. Sells enterprise version of their software and support. Community version could be good...
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