What do Linux developers think of Git and GitHub?
The popularity of Git and GitHub among Linux developers is well established. But what do developers think of them? And should GitHub really be synonymous with Git itself? A Linux redditor recently asked about this and got some very interesting answers.
Dontwakemeup46 asked his question:
I am learning Git and Github. What I am interested in is how these two are viewed by the community. That git and github are used extensively, is something I know. But are there serious issues with either Git or Github? Something that the community would love to change?
His fellow Linux redditors responded with their thoughts about Git and GitHub:
Derenir: ”Github is not affliated with Git.
Git is made by Linus Torvalds.
Github hardly supports Linux.
Github is a corporate bordelo that tries to make money from Git.
https://desktop.github.com/ see here no Linux Support.”
Bilog78: ”A minor update: git hasn't been “made by Linus Torvalds” for a while. The maintainer is Junio C Hamano and the main contributors after him are Jeff King and Shawn O. Pearce.”
Fearthefuture: ”I like git but can't understand why people even use github anymore. From my point of view the only thing it does better than bitbucket are user statistics and the larger userbase. Bitbucket has unlimited free private repos, much better UI and very good integration with other services such as Jenkins.”
Thunger: ”Gitlab.com is also nice, especially since you can host your own instance on your own servers.”
Takluyver: ”Lots of people are familiar with the UI of Github and associated services like Travis, and lots of people already have Github accounts, so it's a good place for projects to be. People also use their Github profile as a kind of portfolio, so they're motivated to put more projects on there. Github is a de facto standard for hosting open source projects.”
Tdammers: ”Serious issue with git would be the UI, which is kind of counterintuitive, to the point that many users just stick with a handful of memorized incantations.
Github: most serious issue here is that it's a proprietary hosted solution; you buy convenience, and the price is that your code is on someone else's server and not under your control anymore. Another common criticism of github is that its workflow isn't in line with the spirit of git itself, particularly the way pull requests work. And finally, github is monopolizing the code hosting landscape, and that's bad for diversity, which in turn is crucial for a thriving free software community.”
Dies: ”How is that the case? More importantly, if that is the case, then what's done is done and I guess we're stuck with Github since they control so many projects.”
Tdammers: ”The code is hosted on someone else's server, "someone else" in this case being github. Which, for an open-source project, is not typically a huge problem, but still, you don't control it. If you have a private project on github, then the only assurance you have that it will remain private is github's word for it. If you decide to delete things, then you can never be sure whether it's been deleted, or just hidden.
Github doesn't control the projects themselves (you can always take your code and host it elsewhere, declaring the new location the "official" one), it just has deeper access to the code than the developers themselves.”
Drelos: ”I have read a lot of praises and bad stuff about Github (here's an example) but my simple noob question is why aren't efforts towards a free and open "version" ?”
Twizmwazin: ”GitLab is sorta pushing there.”
DistroWatch reviews XStream Desktop 153
XStreamOS is a version of Solaris created by Sonicle. XStream Desktop brings the power of Solaris to desktop users, and distrohoppers might be interested in checking it out. DistroWatch did a full review of XStream Desktop 153 and found that it performed fairly well.
Jesse Smith reports for DistroWatch:
I think XStream Desktop does a lot of things well. Admittedly, my trial got off to a rocky start when the operating system would not boot on my hardware and I could not get the desktop to use my display's full screen resolution when running in VirtualBox. However, after that, XStream performed fairly well. The installer works well, the operating system automatically sets up and uses boot environments, insuring we can recover the system if something goes wrong. The package management tools work well and XStream ships with a useful collection of software.
I did run into a few problems playing media, specifically getting audio to work. I am not sure if that is another hardware compatibility issue or a problem with the media software that ships with the operating system. On the other hand, tools such as the web browser, e-mail, productivity suite and configuration tools all worked well.
What I appreciate about XStream the most is that the operating system is a branch of the OpenSolaris family that is being kept up to date. Other derivatives of OpenSolaris tend to lag behind, at least with desktop software, but XStream is still shipping recent versions of Firefox and LibreOffice.
For me personally, XStream is missing a few components, like a printer manager, multimedia support and drivers for my specific hardware. Other aspects of the operating system are quite attractive. I like the way the developers have set up LXDE, I like the default collection of software and I especially like the way file system snapshots and boot environments are enabled out of the box. Most Linux distributions, openSUSE aside, have not caught on to the usefulness of boot environments yet and I hope it is a technology that is picked up by more projects.
Street Fighter V and SteamOS
Street Fighter is one of the most well known game franchises of all time, and now Capcom has announced that Street Fighter V will be coming to Linux and SteamOS in the spring. This is great news for Linux gamers.
Joe Parlock reports for Destructoid:
Are you one of the less than one percent of Steam users who play on a Linux-based system? Are you part of the even smaller percentage of people who play on Linux and are excited for Street Fighter V? Well, I’ve got some good news for you.
Capcom has announced via Steam that Street Fighter V will be coming to SteamOS and other Linux operating systems sometime this spring. It’ll come at no extra cost, so those who already own the PC build of the game will just be able to install it on Linux and be good to go.
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