website/conservancy/content/GiveUpGitHub/index.html

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<h1>Give Up GitHub!</h1>

<p>On Wednesday 29 June 2022, we <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/jun/30/give-up-github-launch/">began
calling on all FOSS developers</a> to <strong>give up on
GitHub</strong>. </p>

<div class="picture-small right">
<img src="{% static 'img/GiveUpGitHub.svg' %}" alt="A parody of the GitHub logo, walling off user rights and demanding payment"/>
</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
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,
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
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
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
will read the reasons and methods below to give up GitHub and join us in
seeking better alternatives!</p>

<h2>Why Give Up GitHub?</h2>

<p>There are so many reasons to give up on GitHub, but we list here a few of
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 bannernow 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
    (<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
    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
    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
    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 “AI” 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>.  This users 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
Enforcement (ICE)</a>.  Activists, including some GitHub employees, have been
calling on GitHub for two years to cancel that contract.  GitHub's primary
reply has been that their parent company, Microsoft, has sold Microsoft Word
for years to ICE without any public complaints.  They claim that this somehow
justifies <em>even more</em> business with an agency whose policies are
problematic.  Regardless of your views on ICE and its behavior, GitHub's
        ongoing <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-06-12/github-ceo-black-lives-matter-employees-demand-end-ice-contract">dismissive and disingenuous</a> responses to the activists who raised this important issue show that GitHub puts its profits above concerns from the community.</p></li>

<li><p>While GitHub pretends to be pro-FOSS
  (like <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/17822/">SourceForge before
    them</a>), their entire hosting site is, itself, proprietary and/or
  trade-secret software.  We appreciate that GitHub allows some of its
  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>

<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.
Their <em>entire</em> codebase is secret.  For example, while we have our
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
    publicly as FOSS.</p></li>

<li><p>GitHub has long sought to discredit copyleft generally.  Their various
CEOs have often spoken loudly and negatively about copyleft, including their
founder (and former CEO)
devoting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAAlPXB2-c">his OSCON
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>

</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>
    </ul>

<h2>How Do I Give Up GitHub?</h2>

<p>The reason that it's difficult to leave GitHub is a side-effect of one of
the reasons to leave them: proprietary vendor lock-in.  We are aware that
GitHub, as the &ldquo;Facebook of software development&rdquo;, has succeeded
in creating the most enticing walled garden ever made for FOSS developers.
Just like leaving Facebook is painful because you're unsure how you'll find
and talk with your friends and family otherwise &mdash; leaving GitHub is
difficult because it's how you find and collaborate with
co-developers. GitHub may even be how you find and showcase your work to
prospective employers.  We also know that some Computer Science programs
even <em>require</em> students to use GitHub.</p>

<div class="picture-small left">
<img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/GiveUpGitHub.svg" alt="A parody of the GitHub logo, walling off user rights and demanding payment"/>
</div>

<p>Accordingly, we call first on the most comfortably-situated developers
among you &mdash; leaders of key FOSS projects, hiring and engineering
managers, and developers who are secure in their employment &mdash; to take
the first step to reject GitHub's proprietary services.  We recognize that
for new developers in the field, you'll receive pressure from potential
employers (even those that will otherwise employ you to develop FOSS) to
participate on GitHub.  Collective action requires the privileged developers
among us to lead by example; that's why we're not merely asking you leave
GitHub, but we're spearheading an effort to help everyone give up GitHub over
the long term. You can help protect newcomers from the intrinsic power
imbalance created by GitHub by setting the agenda for your FOSS project and
hosting your project elsewhere.</p>

<p>As such, we're speaking first to the hiring managers, community leaders,
and those in other positions of power that encourage the use of GitHub to new
contributors and existing communities. Once someone in power makes the choice
to host a project on GitHub, the individual contributors have little choice
but to use these proprietary and damaging products. If you are making
decisions or have political power within your community and/or employer, we
urge you to use your power to center community efforts through FOSS platforms
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
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
on GitHub.  If you don't feel that you or your project can yet leave GitHub,
we ask that you raise awareness
by <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/SupportGiveUpGitHub-README-snippet.md">adding
this section to your README.md</a> to share your concerns about GitHub with
your users.  If you're ready to leave GitHub, you
can <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/GiveUpGitHub-README.md">use this
README.md template</a> to replace your current one.</p>

<p>
<blockquote><p>千里之行始於足下<br/>The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.</p></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: right"><p> &mdash; <cite>老子 (Lao Tsu) in Chapter 64
      of 道德经 (Tao Te Ching)</cite>
</p></div>
</p>

<h2>Resources to Give Up GitHub</h2>

<p>Here are some resources to help you quit GitHub.  We'll be expanding this
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://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>
        <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>
    </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://fedi.copyleft.org/@bkuhn/115011409937801978">fediverse
  / Mastodon</a>.</p>


<p>Second, you can also raise the importance of this issue
even while you're still <em>using</em> GitHub.
<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
  with your users.</p></li>

<li><p>Respectfully and kindly ask, before you contribute to a project on
  GitHub, if they could provide alternative means to contribute other than
    using GitHub.</p></li>

<li><p>Explain to your employer the dangers of relying on GitHub's proprietary
    vendor lock-in products.</p></li>

<li><p>Join
  the <a href="https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/give-up-github">give-up-github
  mailing list</a> and start threads about your difficulties leaving GitHub.
  This will help us explore solutions with you and add material to this
    page.</p></li>
</ul>
</p>


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