We realize this is not an easy task; GitHub is ubiquitous. Through their effective marketing, GitHub has convinced Free and Open Source Software -(FOSS) developers that GitHub is the best (and even the only) place for FOSS + (FOSS) developers that GitHub is the best (and even the only) place for FOSS development. However, as a proprietary, trade-secret tool, GitHub itself is the very opposite of FOSS. By contrast, Git was designed specifically to replace a proprietary tool (BitKeeper), and to make FOSS development distributed — using FOSS tools and without a centralized site. GitHub -has warped Git — creating add-on features that turn a distributed, +has distorted Git — creating add-on features that turn a distributed, egalitarian, and FOSS system into a centralized, proprietary site. And, all -those add-on features are controlled by a single, for-profit company. By +those add-on features are controlled by a single, for-profit company — Microsoft. By staying on GitHub, established FOSS communities bring newcomers to this proprietary platform — expanding GitHub's reach. and limiting the imaginations of the next generation of FOSS developers.
We know that many rely on GitHub every day. Giving up a ubiquitous, -gratis service that has useful (albeit proprietary) features is perennially +gratis service that has useful (albeit proprietary) features remains perennially difficult. For software developers, giving up GitHub will be even harder -than giving up Facebook! We don't blame anyone who struggles, but hope you +than giving up Facebook and Twitter/X! We don't blame anyone who struggles, but hope you will read the reasons and methods below to give up GitHub and join us in -seeking better alternatives! Also, please check back to this page regularly, -as we'll continue to update it throughout 2022 and beyond!
+seeking better alternatives!Copilot - is a for-profit product — developed and marketed by Microsoft - and their GitHub subsidiary — that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) - techniques to automatically generate code interactively for developers. - The AI model was trained +
Microsoft has escalated the incorporation of its for-profit
+ Copilot
+ product. The CoPilot bannernow incorporates many different, proprietary,
+ so-called “Artificial Intelligence” (AI)
+ products. However, the first CoPilot product was designed
+ to automatically generate code interactively for developers, and that
+ feature is still pushed on GitHub users.
+ CoPilot's AI model was trained
(according to GitHub's own statements) exclusively with
projects that were hosted on GitHub, including many licensed
under copyleft
- licenses. Most of those projects are not in the “public
+ licenses. (Microsoft even admits that there was one document that they
+ encountered (and ignored) a whopping 700,000 different times during
+ training &mdash: … the GNU General Public License
.
Most of those projects are not in the “public domain”, they are licensed - under FOSS licenses. These licenses + under FOSS licenses. These licenses have requirements including proper author attribution and, in the case of copyleft licenses, they sometimes require that works based on and/or that incorporate the software be licensed under the same copyleft license as the prior work. Microsoft and GitHub have been ignoring these license requirements for more than a year. Their only defense of these - actions was - a tweet by their former CEO, in which he falsely claims that + actions was + a still-unretracted statement by their former CEO, in which he falsely claims that unsettled law on this topic is actually settled. In addition to the legal issues, the ethical implications of GitHub's choice to use copylefted code in the service of creating proprietary software are grave.
GitHub differs from most of its peers in the FOSS project hosting industry, as GitHub does not even offer any self-hosting FOSS option. @@ -107,9 +125,13 @@ keynote on attacking copyleft and the GPL. This trickled down from the top. We've personally observed various GitHub employees over the years arguing in many venues to convince projects to avoid copyleft; we've even -seen a GitHub employee do this in a GitHub bug ticket directly.
GitHub is wholly owned by Microsoft, a company whose executives have historically repeatedly attacked copyleft licensing.
GitHub is now fully part of Microsoft — a company whose + executives have historically repeatedly attacked copyleft licensing + — ongoing regularly since 2001.
Long term, we'll develop this stable URL (that can always be reached +
Long term, we've been maintaining this stable URL (that can always be reached by GiveUpGitHub.org) to include links to resources to help everyone — from the most privileged developer to newcomers and members of underrepresented groups in FOSS — to give up @@ -179,6 +201,13 @@ list regularly as we find more resources. If you'd like to suggest a resource not yet listed, you can discuss it on the Give-Up-GitHub mailing list.
+ +Our primary recommendation at this time for self-hosting + is Forgejo, and if you would like a + hosted service, we recommend CodeBerg + (which is built on Forgejo). Below we include a list of various options + for both third-party hosting and self-hosting:
+Here are some ideas of how you can help raise the importance of this issue -even while you're still a GitHub user. (We'll publish longer tutorials in -future about these and other ways to help.) +
First of all, please promote our campaign by sharing + the GiveUpGitHub.org + URL widely, along with + the GiveUpGitHub + logo on public platforms like + the fediverse + / Mastodon.
+ + +Second, you can also raise the importance of this issue +even while you're still using GitHub.
Add this section to your README.md to share your concerns about GitHub
