HACKER Q&A
📣 mortallywounded

How safe is GitHub for private repositories?


I used Github in the past (was a paid customer). However, due to some drama (such as: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118) I decided to abandon ship.

I began self hosting my private code on my own server using bare git repositories. I still have a Github account for making contributions to other projects that use the platform, but I don't host anything on it.

I'm reviewing my decisions and considering shutting down my personal server and moving back to Github. The primary motivation is simplicity-- one less thing to manage and think about followed by discoverability/collaboration. People don't really go to your personal site, download your code, submit patches, etc. Nearly everyone uses Github (this is a problem in my opinion).

However, I still have a number of concerns regarding Github:

1. It's a dominate force and even if you don't host your code there it seems you still need an account for contributing to other projects. If you host code elsewhere you _still_ need to manage/secure a Github account.

2. Github has had more drama since I left (co-pilot, renaming master, Microsoft acquisition, etc).

3. As a person that has received cease and desist letters from Microsoft due to my products, what kind of risk is there hosting said code on their platform?

4. By contributing to Github's monopoly, are we making the problem worse?


  👤 jjgreen Accepted Answer ✓
Maybe give GitLab a look then?