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@ -15,25 +15,26 @@ GitHub</strong>. </p>
</div>
<p>We realize this is not an easy task; GitHub is ubiquitous. Through their
effective marketing, GitHub has convinced Free and Open Source Software
(<abbr>FOSS</abbr>) 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 <a href="http://www.h-online.com/open/features/The-saga-of-Git-Lightning-does-strike-twice-1051559.html">specifically
to replace a proprietary tool (BitKeeper)</a>, and to make FOSS development
distributed &mdash; using FOSS tools and without a centralized site. GitHub
has distorted Git &mdash; creating add-on features that turn a distributed,
has warped Git &mdash; 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 &mdash; Microsoft. By
those add-on features are controlled by a single, for-profit company. By
staying on GitHub, established FOSS communities bring newcomers to this
proprietary platform &mdash; expanding GitHub's reach. and limiting the
imaginations of the next generation of FOSS developers.</p>
<p>We know that many rely on GitHub every day. Giving up a ubiquitous,
gratis service that has useful (albeit proprietary) features remains perennially
gratis service that has useful (albeit proprietary) features is perennially
difficult. For software developers, giving up GitHub will be even harder
than giving up Facebook and Twitter/X! We don't blame anyone who struggles, but hope you
than giving up Facebook! 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!</p>
seeking better alternatives! Also, please check back to this page regularly,
as we'll continue to update it throughout 2022 and beyond!</p>
<h2>Why Give Up GitHub?</h2>
@ -41,52 +42,33 @@ seeking better alternatives!</p>
the most important ones:
<ul>
<li><p>Microsoft has escalated the incorporation of its for-profit
<a href="https://github.com/features/copilot" rel="nofollow">Copilot
product</a>. The Copilot banner now incorporates many different, proprietary,
so-called &ldquo;Artificial Intelligence&rdquo; (<abbr>AI</abbr>)
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
<li><p><a href="https://github.com/features/copilot" rel="nofollow">Copilot
is a for-profit product</a> &mdash; developed and marketed by Microsoft
and their GitHub subsidiary &mdash; that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI)
techniques to automatically generate code interactively for developers.
The AI model was trained
(<a href="https://github.blog/2021-06-30-github-copilot-research-recitation/"
rel="nofollow">according to GitHub's own statements</a>) exclusively with
projects that were hosted on GitHub, including many licensed
under <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/glossary.html#copyleft">copyleft</a>
licenses. (Microsoft even admits that there was one document that they
encountered (and ignored) <q>a whopping 700,000 different times during
training &mdash; &hellip; the GNU General Public License</q>.</p>
<p>Most of those projects are not in the &ldquo;public
licenses. Most of those projects are not in the &ldquo;public
domain&rdquo;, they are licensed
under <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses"><acronym title="Free and Open Source Software">FOSS</acronym> licenses</a>. These licenses
under <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses"><acronym title="Free and
Open Source Software">FOSS</acronym> licenses</a>. These licenses
have <em>requirements</em> including proper author attribution and, in
the case of <a href="https://copyleft.org/"><em>copyleft</em>
licenses</a>, 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 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210709181805/https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1409914420579344385">was
a still-unretracted statement by their former CEO</a>, in which he falsely claims that
actions <a href="https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1409914420579344385">was
a tweet by their former CEO</a>, in which he falsely claims that
unsettled law on this topic is actually settled. In addition to the legal
issues,
the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/feb/03/github-copilot-copyleft-gpl/">ethical
implications of GitHub's choice to use copylefted code</a> in the service
of creating proprietary software are grave.</p> </li>
<li>Along with the crescendo of &ldquo;AI&rdquo; ballyhoo, Microsoft has rolled out more
products that include these technologies into GitHub. Microsoft's Copilot
is <a href="https://mastodon.social/@glyph/114995950245874315">now
generating issues and pull requests and GitHub users <strong>cannot opt
out</strong></a>. This use is unconscionable and is reason enough alone
to <cite>Give Up GitHub</cite>. Microsoft shamelessly promotes this
force-feeding of these dubious technologies to all GitHub users; so much so
that
Microsoft <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2025/github-will-join-microsofts-coreai-group-with-departure-of-ceo-thomas-dohmke/">fully
incorporated GitHub to be a mere division of its &ldquo;CoreAI&rdquo;
division. GitHub users and their work are merely willingly offered input
to that division's work!</li>
<li id="ICE-contract-details"><p>In 2020, the community discovered that
GitHub <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/ice-contract-github-sparks-developer-protests/604339/">has
a for-profit software services contract with the USA Immigration and Customs
@ -105,7 +87,7 @@ problematic. Regardless of your views on ICE and its behavior, GitHub's
employees to sometimes contribute FOSS to upstream projects, but our
community has been burned so many times before by companies that claim to
support FOSS, while actively convincing the community to rely on their
proprietary software. We shouldn't let GitHub burn us in this same way!</p></li>
proprietary software. We won't let GitHub burn us in this same way!</p></li>
<li><p>GitHub differs from most of its peers in the FOSS project hosting
industry, as GitHub does not even offer any self-hosting FOSS option.
@ -114,7 +96,7 @@ complaints about GitLab's business model of parallel &ldquo;Community&rdquo;
and &ldquo;Enterprise&rdquo; editions, at least GitLab's Community Edition
provides basic functionality for self-hosting and is 100% FOSS. Meanwhile,
there are <em>non-profit</em> FOSS hosting sites such
as <a href="https://codeberg.org">Codeberg</a>, who develop their platform
as <a href="https://codeberg.org">CodeBerg</a>, who develop their platform
publicly as FOSS.</p></li>
<li><p>GitHub has long sought to discredit copyleft generally. Their various
@ -125,13 +107,9 @@ keynote on attacking copyleft and the GPL</a>. 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 <a href="https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation/issues/2#issue-46911010">even
seen a GitHub employee do this in a GitHub bug ticket directly</a>.</p>
seen a GitHub employee do this in a GitHub bug ticket directly</a>.</p></li>
</li>
<li><p>GitHub is now fully part of Microsoft &mdash; a company whose
executives have historically repeatedly attacked copyleft licensing
&mdash; ongoing regularly since 2001.</p></li>
<li><p>GitHub is wholly owned by Microsoft, a company whose executives have historically repeatedly attacked copyleft licensing.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>How Do I Give Up GitHub?</h2>
@ -175,7 +153,7 @@ rather than GitHub. If you're an individual contributor who feels powerless
to leave GitHub, read our (growing) list of recommendations below on how to
take the first steps.</p>
<p>Long term, we've been maintaining this stable URL (that can always be reached
<p>Long term, we'll develop this stable URL (that can always be reached
by <a href="https://GiveUpGitHub.org">GiveUpGitHub.org</a>) to include links
to resources to help everyone &mdash; from the most privileged developer to
newcomers and members of underrepresented groups in FOSS &mdash; to give up
@ -201,45 +179,28 @@ list regularly as we find more resources. If you'd like to suggest a
resource not yet listed, you can discuss it on
the <a href="https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/give-up-github">Give-Up-GitHub
mailing list</a>.</p>
<p>Our primary recommendation at this time for self-hosting
is <a href="https://forgejo.org/">Forgejo</a>, and if you would like a
hosted service, we recommend <a href="https://codeberg.org">Codeberg</a>
(which is built on Forgejo). Below we include a list of various options
for both third-party hosting and self-hosting:</p>
<ul>
<li>Alternative Hosting Services:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://codeberg.org">Codeberg</a></li>
<li><a href="https://codeberg.org">CodeBerg</a></li>
<li><a href="https://sourcehut.org/">SourceHut</a></li>
</ul>
<li>Self-Host (or join a group that self-hosts). A few options:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://forgejo.org">Forgejo</a></li>
<li><a href="https://gitea.io">Gitea</a></li>
<ul><li><a href="https://gitea.io">Gitea</a></li>
<li> <a href="https://gitlab.com/rluna-gitlab/gitlab-ce">GitLab
Community Edition</a> (note, the GitLab Enterprise Edition, which is
provided to the public on gitlab.com, is (like GitHub) trade-secret,
proprietary, vendor-lock-in software)</li>
<li><a href="https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sourcehut/">SourceHut</a></li>
</ul></li>
(We'll be adding tutorials soon on how to self-host!)
</ul></p>
<h2>Ways To Help Even <em>Before</em> You Give Up GitHub</h2>
<p>First of all, please promote our campaign by sharing
the <a href="https://giveupgithub.org"><strong>GiveUpGitHub.org</strong></a>
URL widely, along with
the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/img/GiveUpGitHub.svg">GiveUpGitHub
logo</a> on public platforms like
the <a href="https://floss.social/@downey/110657456122551808">fediverse
/ Mastodon</a> &mdash; using the hashtag #GiveUpGitHub.</p>
<p>Second, you can also raise the importance of this issue
even while you're still <em>using</em> GitHub.
<p>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.)
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/SupportGiveUpGitHub-README-snippet.md">Add
this section to your README.md</a> to share your concerns about GitHub