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>Having a web interface

It's not the interface, it's the web hosting. People want a free destination server that's up 24/7 to store their repository.

If it was only the web interface, people could locally install GitLab or Gitea to get a web browser UI. (Or use whatever modern IDE code editor to have a GUI instead of a CLI for git commands.) But doing that still doesn't solve what GitHub solves: a public server to host the files, issue tracking, etc.

Before git & Github, people put source code for public access on SourceForge and CodeProject. The reason was the same: a zero-cost way to share code with everybody.



It was both.

A 24/7 repository and a 24/7 web URL for the code. Those two features together let devs inspect and download code, and open and discuss issues.

The URL also let automated tools download and install packages.

Familiar UI, network effects made the rest.


Exactly. The UI needs to live wherever the canonical home for the project is, at least until we have a federated solution.

I'm really looking forward to federated forges.


No, actually it's the interface. Many companies would totally host it themselves, but the interface is what gives GH value.


GitLab is around a decade old, is a solid enterprise product and has always had a very similar interface to GitHub, at times even drawing criticism for being too similar. There's more to it than that.


GH is essentially an unlimited storage space. There are countless scripts which makes it possible to even use it as an unlimited mounted storage


And then one day orange gets pissed of at yet another country and it (the repo) is gone


orange ?


The convicted felon.


GitHub and the others also handle user authentication and issue tracking, which aren’t part of Git itself.




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