GitHub Free Users Now Get Unlimited Private Repositories (techcrunch.com)

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GitHub Free Users Now Get Unlimited Private Repositories (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Monday January 7, 2019 @10:00PM from the free-of-charge dept.

GitHub has always offered free accounts, but users were forced to make their code public. To get private repositories, you had to pay. Now, as TechCrunch reports, "Free GitHub users now get unlimited private projects with up to three collaborators." From the report: The amount of collaborators is really the only limitation here and there's no change to how the service handles public repositories, which can still have unlimited collaborators. This feels like a sign of goodwill on behalf of Microsoft, which closed its acquisition of GitHub last October, with former Xamarin CEO Nat Friedman taking over as GitHub's CEO.

Talking about teams, GitHub also today announced that it is changing the name of the GitHub Developer suite to 'GitHub Pro.' The company says it's doing so in order to "help developers better identify the tools they need." But what's maybe even more important is that GitHub Business Cloud and GitHub Enterprise (now called Enterprise Cloud and Enterprise Server) have become one and are now sold under the 'GitHub Enterprise' label and feature per-user pricing. In response, GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij said: "GitHub today announced the launch of free private repositories with up to three collaborators. GitLab has offered unlimited collaborators on private repositories since the beginning. We believe Microsoft is focusing more on generating revenue with Azure and less on charging for DevOps software. At GitLab, we believe in a multi-cloud future where organizations use multiple public cloud platforms."

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IT'S A TRAP!!! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 22:18 · Score: 1, Funny

Run! Rabbit! Run!
$oft by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 22:39 · Score: 0, Funny

Micro$oft is happy to just peak at the code ... and copy-paste the idea
Screw github, gitlab, etc... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 22:40 · Score: 0

Private self-hosting and much simpler setup than any of the alternatives: gogs.io
No PR review integration yet, but easy mirroring of foreign repos. If you see something missing, contribute! It's got a lot of potential.
1. Re: Screw github, gitlab, etc... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 22:46 · Score: 0
  
  And with the oh-so-trustworthy .io domain name (that are totally not half owned by Chinese) you can rest assured the little man is on your side! Avoid the big evil corps, come give us your code!
2. Re: Screw github, gitlab, etc... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 23:08 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  .io comes from a crown dependency in the middle of the indian ocean, whose only occupants are british and american military. the cctld is administered by a british company.
  yup. totally owned by the chinese.
3. Re:Screw github, gitlab, etc... by bill_mcgonigle · 2019-01-08 04:39 · Score: 1
  
  Gitlab has a nice self-hosted open source project with federation and moderately-mature UI.
  Nobody is going to trust some kids' project when they get a .io and post as AC on /. trashing other open source projects.
  
  --
  My God, it's Full of Source!
  OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Re:Self hosted collaborative tools. by wolfheart111 · 2019-01-07 22:50 · Score: 1

Find it on github.

--
[($)]
Pro by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 22:56 · Score: 0

Good moves by Microsoft overall. But the Pro nomenclature is tainted by Windows 10 (not) Pro.
Hopefully, pull requests don't inject adware and XBOX plugs!
1. Re:Pro by easyTree · 2019-01-08 03:15 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Your repo must be rebooted to an earlier state to make it more awesome.
  Your preference:
  [ ] Now
  [x] Later
  Thank you.
  Choosing random commit and rebooting Now!
  
  --
  Requiem for the American Dream
Maybe avoid by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 22:59 · Score: 0

Private repos on someone elses server, by a technology company specialising in selling software.
Read: We'll host your private code for free. It'd be nice to see what you're working on, for market research for our own products....
Nothing is free.
1. Re:Maybe avoid by AmiMoJo · 2019-01-07 23:49 · Score: 1, Troll
  
  Their competitors offer free private repos, and it's one of the major reasons people use GitLab and BitBucket. Those platforms are not as nice as GitHub, but private repos are free.
  So they get increased market share from this.
  Obviously if you idea is super secret you don't want to use this.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
2. Re:Maybe avoid by ledow · 2019-01-08 01:29 · Score: 1
  
  If you're big enough to care or be of interest to Microsoft, you're big enough to run "apt-get install git" and configure it yourself on your own server.
  If you're a hobbyist programmer, writing open-source, etc, want to pull in "unofficial" patches to projects, but don't want to embarrass yourself to the world, a free, unlimited and private repo isn't something to be sniffed at.
  No different to Google Code (which I think is dead now?). I used to host all my own code - that nobody would ever care about, contains nothing secret, is highly-specialised to my preferences, etc. - on Google Code because it was cheaper and "safer" than renting a server to do so.
  If you just want a server to push patches to, that you can access from anyway, and don't want to have it publicly searchable, in full view of everyone, or don't want to work under an OS licence, or you just want a backup of your own repos, something like this is fine. And literally doesn't affect their core customers - such people wouldn't pay for external hosting either. But if you can accustom them to your product then when they *do* decide to turn their hobby code into a business app, they may well pay you just to keep things simple.
3. Re:Maybe avoid by Chewbacon · 2019-01-08 01:44 · Score: 1
  
  Can do the same at home with a VPN/SSH tunnel and it IS private.
  
  --
  Chewbacon
  The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
4. Re:Maybe avoid by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 02:13 · Score: 0
  
  Nothing is free.
  Yet if it were anyone else other than "M$". Slashdot would be tripping over themselves to brag about the power of FOSS.
5. Re:Maybe avoid by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 09:25 · Score: 0
  
  You can do the same at home with any folder of any drive of your choice. They're called Git local repositories. No VPN or SSH connection required.
A move to win users from bitbucket by m.alessandrini · 2019-01-07 23:04 · Score: 3, Informative

Bitbucket is the place you go if you want a free private git repository on the cloud, so this is simply competition, not goodwill.
1. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by h33t+l4x0r · 2019-01-07 23:05 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Bitbucket is such a turd though. I welcome this change in a big way.
2. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by jonwil · 2019-01-07 23:35 · Score: 1
  
  Gitlab also offers free private repos without restrictions (I administer one myself)
3. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by AmiMoJo · 2019-01-07 23:54 · Score: 1, Troll
  
  In response, GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij said: "GitHub today announced the launch of free private repositories with up to three collaborators. GitLab has offered unlimited collaborators on private repositories since the beginning. We believe Microsoft is focusing more on generating revenue with Azure and less on charging for DevOps software. At GitLab, we believe in a multi-cloud future where organizations use multiple public cloud platforms."
  Translation:
  "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk we just lost the only reason people were using us!"
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
4. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 00:43 · Score: 0
  
  Not really much different than github when it comes to small private teams. The real difference is automation with jenkins vs bamboo.
  Also Atlassian = australian company. Where is your data hosted today?
  I've used both, think the permissions on Bitbucket are more detailed and I have a feeling security is probably a bit tighter in general due to historical focus of Atlassian and their enterprise customer base.
  But for the average 3 person dev team who needs a private solution, BitBucket is just fine, and so is Github. Github wins the opensource project repo battle simply for the amount of 3rd party projects that support it directly vs bitbucket *but in the end, git is git amirite
5. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by coofercat · 2019-01-08 01:35 · Score: 1
  
  Personally, I use gitlab for such things, but I'd love to know how big github is now that the dust has settled on the MS deal. I mean, a load of people went to gitlab (and presumably bitbucket), but how many (genuinely active) repos are left on Github? It's still got to be comfortably the biggest, but I wonder how much it hurt them. Evidently enough that they need to do this...
6. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by drinkypoo · 2019-01-08 01:45 · Score: 0
  
  "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk we just lost the only reason people were using us!"
  I for one went to gitlab when Mickeysoft acquired github, so there are at least two reasons.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
7. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 01:54 · Score: 0
  
  Because GitLab is less likely to do something illegal than a company that constantly has lawmakers looking for the slightest edge to sue them out of existence.
8. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 02:22 · Score: 0
  
  Same size they were before the Microsoft deal. The big move off github was mostly just talk, no action.
9. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by m.alessandrini · 2019-01-08 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  Presumably many people keep or contribute to public projects on github because it's the most used one, and keep their private stuff on bitbucket or gitlab because it's free, so offering them a chance to unify everything in one place could actually be a huge win for github.
10. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by 93+Escort+Wagon · 2019-01-08 02:44 · Score: 1
  
  I’m not sure GitLab is that concerned about someone else drawing off some of their non-paying customers.
  
  --
  #DeleteChrome
11. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by AmiMoJo · 2019-01-08 02:56 · Score: 1
  
  They have the free offering because it often leads to paying customers. If people use the free version and get used to it they may then suggest that their company adopts it. That's what happened at my current and last employer.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
12. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by drinkypoo · 2019-01-08 03:48 · Score: 1
  
  Because GitLab is less likely to do something illegal than a company that constantly has lawmakers looking for the slightest edge to sue them out of existence.
  It's called history, sport. Learn from it.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
13. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 04:02 · Score: 0
  
  I hardly think that's "the only reason" people (like me) use gitlab. I can't set up a git repository at home in my Raspberry pi with github, for example. My organisation could not host its own gitlab repository for research groups either.
14. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by nine-times · 2019-01-08 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  I don't think anyone was banking on Microsoft to be acting purely out of good will. At best, it's marketing that hopes to produce good will from us.
  But I don't care much. My question would be, is it good? Or maybe instead I can ask, given this new offering, is this a better deal than what BitBucket or Gitlab are offering?
15. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by ceoyoyo · 2019-01-08 08:10 · Score: 1
  
  Yes... although the 3 collaborators restriction is still pretty annoying. I host private repos on gitlab and push public releases to github. Works fine, and also makes it a little harder to screw up and publish something sensitive.
16. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 18:55 · Score: 0
  
  Anything from Atlassian is garbage. JIRA is a steaming pile.
  I fail to understand how that company has become so apparently successful or why people seem to like its products.
17. Re:A move to win users from bitbucket by petermgreen · 2019-01-09 23:36 · Score: 1
  
  Github's advantage is it is the largest and best known of the git collaboration sites, so it is where you and your potential collaborators are most likely to already be set-up rather than creating yet more accounts on yet more sites.
  The main downside of github's new free repos seems to be the collaborator limit, gitlab offers unlimited collaborators. Bitbucket seems to count any user you give access to a private repo as part of your "team" for the purpose of account limits (free accounts are limited to 5 "team members").
  All these companies have to strike a balance, giving stuff away for free is how they attract new users, but if they give too much away for free then those users will never upgrade to become paying customers. Getting the balance right is tricky, especially as charging for functionality that used to be free is likely to get you conversions in the short term, but also get you a bunch of bad PR, so any changes to what is included in the free tier need to be very carefully thought through.
  
  --
  note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Your still giving your code to Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 23:10 · Score: 1

So No thanks.
Real programmers don't use GitHub. by LordHighExecutioner · 2019-01-07 23:28 · Score: 0

Since their code is by definition always correct, they store software versions to /dev/null.
1. Re:Real programmers don't use GitHub. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 23:35 · Score: 0
  
  You're not as funny as you think you are.
2. Re:Real programmers don't use GitHub. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 00:01 · Score: 0
  
  But you are exactly as funny as you think you are.
3. Re:Real programmers don't use GitHub. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 00:45 · Score: 0
  
  How Fucking funny would funny fucking fuck if fucking funny could fuck funny?
Good move by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 23:32 · Score: 0

This was precisely the reason that my code is on TFS.
Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-07 23:36 · Score: 0

I still don't get how a "pro" isn't capable of self-hosting a git repo. Perhaps souped-up with {gitolite,gitlab,gitea,...}.
Perhaps these are MCSE pros, then I'd understand.
1. Re:Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 00:05 · Score: 1
  
  I still don't get how a "pro" isn't capable of self-hosting a git repo. Perhaps souped-up with {gitolite,gitlab,gitea,...}.
  Perhaps these are MCSE pros, then I'd understand.
  The reason people pay for hosting things is that... people don't want to host things themselves. Being pro or not has nothing to do with it. Personally, I'd rather spend time working on my project than working on potential security issues that keep popping up with self-hosted stuff.
  Some people even lease cars, instead of buying them.
2. Re:Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 01:24 · Score: 0
  
  So, if you buy the "Pro" package of a git hosting service it should... not feature git hosting???
  WTF are you talking about.
3. Re:Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 01:34 · Score: 0
  
  Some people even lease cars, instead of buying them.
  Well, yes, and some people send the money to that Nigerian prince, too. Terrible example.
4. Re:Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 01:41 · Score: 0
  
  I host gitlab myself, but I mirror my repo's to gitlab.com, github.com, and bitbucket.com. You can never have too many backups. [And yes, I backup my self-hosted gitlab installation/data too as I would any other server.]
5. Re:Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 01:45 · Score: 0
  
  He's saying anyone that needs Pro, should have the technical knowledge to be able to host git repos themselves.
6. Re:Pro my ass. by tepples · 2019-01-08 03:07 · Score: 1
  
  I still don't get how a "pro" isn't capable of self-hosting a git repo.
  Say you want to install Gitea, a self-hosted Git server, and make it visible to your remote collaborators. First you have to buy a domain name. Then you have to subscribe to a VPS because your ISP bans running an Internet-visible server on your plan or its carrier-grade NAT won't forward you an inbound port.
7. Re:Pro my ass. by dbrueck · 2019-01-08 03:08 · Score: 1
  
  A real "pro" is also always conscious of costs vs benefits in how and where they spend their time.
8. Re:Pro my ass. by jareth-0205 · 2019-01-08 03:20 · Score: 1
  
  I mean also how much developer time can you buy for $14/ month or whatever it is. You only have to waste 30 minutes faffing about and you're immediately making a bad choice financially. I *can* self-host, but I'm an app developer, I'm probably better off improving the product instead.
9. Re:Pro my ass. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 04:05 · Score: 0
  
  I don't know what you're talking about. Of course I have a server "out there". Of course my ISP doesn't ban anything (otherwise I'd just switch), but the bandwidth "out there" is just two orders of magnitude better. And of course I've a (wildcard) domain.
  I thought being "pro" just involves that?
10. Re:Pro my ass. by tepples · 2019-01-08 05:42 · Score: 1
  
  Of course I have a server "out there".
  Many don't. And for some that do, such as myself, the server that we are leasing is restricted to run only web hosting because it is shared hosting, not a (more expensive) VPS.
  
  Of course my ISP doesn't ban anything (otherwise I'd just switch)
  Switching from one ISP that serves a given city to the other ISP that serves the same city doesn't work for everyone. Some countries have such a small allocation of IPv4 addresses that all ISPs in those countries have made it a standard practice to put a whole neighborhood behind one IP address. To upgrade to a static IP, you have to incorporate a business in order to qualify for a business-class line and then lease static IPs for a substantial extra monthly fee. (Source: comment by Bert64) Is switching worth emigrating from your home country?
"Private" is in air quotes by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 00:06 · Score: 1

Private... right...
"unlimited" by kbg · 2019-01-08 00:25 · Score: 0

I wonder what "unlimited" actually means with GitHub. I am pretty sure you can't actually create "many" repositories without GitHub shutting you down.
What if I wanted for example to use GitHub as my personal file backup? And just created one repository for each file and split the file up into multiple repositories for files over 1GB. I am pretty sure I could not do that even if it's "unlimited".
1. Re:"unlimited" by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 02:25 · Score: 0
  
  While yes, you are probably right; I don't think you would hit an intentional limit. It would be much more likely that the developers who wrote the repo management code never considered that someone would want to create a millions of repos. After creating enough repos something will just break.
2. Re:"unlimited" by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 02:58 · Score: 0
  
  https://xkcd.com/1499/
3. Re:"unlimited" by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 08:11 · Score: 0
  
  I would assume the TOS say you can only use it to store code, not as a personal file backup.
"Private" by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 00:33 · Score: 0

Since Microsoft bought GitHub, no data is private in there anymore.
I saved so much money I nearly went broke by raymorris · 2019-01-08 00:59 · Score: 2

At a company I ran in 1990s we self-hosted version control, email, everything. We assembled our own servers, we wrote out own highly secure password manager. We did everything ourselves. We saved a lot of money vs buying. We also spent so much time and attention on handling our own infrastructure that we had little energy left to put toward our actual business, building our customer base, our brand, etc.
If I run a company again, I may let someone else worry about some of infrastructure while we worry about the things our business does.
1. Re:I saved so much money I nearly went broke by parkinglot777 · 2019-01-08 05:01 · Score: 1
  
  At a company I ran in 1990s we self-hosted version control, email, everything. We assembled our own servers, we wrote out own highly secure password manager. We did everything ourselves. We saved a lot of money vs buying. We also spent so much time and attention on handling our own infrastructure that we had little energy left to put toward our actual business, building our customer base, our brand, etc.
  If I run a company again, I may let someone else worry about some of infrastructure while we worry about the things our business does.
  In other words, time has changed. Back then, letting someone else taking care of hosting cost a lot more money than you do it yourself. Nowadays, it is the opposite. That's the advantage of doing so (ignoring any security issues that may arise).
Three collaborators by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 01:46 · Score: 0

Three collaborators per private repository or three collaborators in total between all private repositories? If the former then that puts it a step above BitBucket, if the latter then the same.
Either way, as good as GitHub is when paid-for or being used for public repos, this isn't enough to compete with GitLab for free private repos.
"First taste is free!" by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 02:11 · Score: 0

Suckers..
Not private by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 02:57 · Score: 1

We know how Microsoft handles "private" user data it has access to.
But CI is equally as important as private repos by nickjj · 2019-01-08 03:29 · Score: 2

Having private repos is nice and all but CI is equally as important.
With that said, Gitlab + Gitlab CI is free to use and is a perfect match for solo developers or small teams with private projects, without having to invest in any additional services or infrastructure.
Where as on Github, if you have private repos, you can't use Travis CI for free, so now you have to choose between Azure pipelines (which is more limiting than Gitlab CI) or use some other free service like CircleCI which is also more limiting than Gitlab CI and in both cases you need to integrate third party tools into Github where as on Gitlab, it's all bundled in and ready to go.
I am really curious why the Gitlab CEO didn't talk about that. Any developer deploying web apps knows that CI is an essential tool.
Never accuse a company of goodwill by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 03:59 · Score: 1

> "This feels like a sign of goodwill on behalf of Microsoft"
Translation: "Microsoft has decided to kill BitBucket."
Private? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 04:29 · Score: 0

Private git is what you do with your own filesystem
Excellent! Stay Away! by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 05:26 · Score: 0

Now just how difficult is it to set up my own personnel repo. on my own hosted server?
Guessing not that difficult, but will be happening soon...
Anyone know when I can convert to the new plan by bigmike_f · 2019-01-08 06:24 · Score: 1

I'm currently paying the small fee a month for private repos. (My plan cost is on the order of Netflix and Hulu and the like, something like under 10$ a month.) I'd really like to switch to this new plan, but don't want to lose my current private repos in the process. Any ideas when this will be available on the site, or how to configure your account with this free plan?
1. Re:Anyone know when I can convert to the new plan by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 09:34 · Score: 0
  
  You must be new here. Welcome to /. where nobody ever answers questions in a useful manner, they just bitch about the latest moves from Oracle and Microsoft.
2. Re:Anyone know when I can convert to the new plan by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 10:03 · Score: 0
  
  You must be new here. Welcome to /. where nobody ever answers questions in a useful manner, they just bitch about the latest moves from Oracle and Microsoft.
  Self fulfilled that proficiency, nicely done AC.
already on gitlab so don't care by Anonymous Coward · 2019-01-08 11:07 · Score: 0

I moved everything to Gitlab years ago after Github started worshipping at the SJW altar and joining the witch hunts of the modern day.
Gitlab already had unlimited private repos years ago and has a much nicer UI to boot.
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