Well handled, minus the unicorns. Tangentially relevant: I just wish Github offered some sort of an academic plan for students, no private repo means that I cannot use Github at all not because I'm building closed-source software, but because I (obviously) can't put my assignment work for public viewing before the assignment deadline. So I've been using Bitbucket, which is fine and all, but I would have loved to be a part of Github community.
They do offer a free plan for students. I get 5 free private repos.
I can't get the link now since GitHub is down ha, but when it's back up, just have a quick google and you'll find a quick form to fill in and voila. It's great.
Once the current issues are resolved, students can sign up for a free GitHub micro account (5 free private repositories with unlimited collaborators) via https://github.com/edu. You just need a verified, valid-looking email address i.e. joe@stanford.edu, jim@strath.ac.uk, etc.
It's actually a discount. That way you can have a better account for $5 less each month. Although I should probably go turn that off having just graduated.
If you want free Git hosting, you can DIY with Gitlab [1] if you want a web-based GUI like Github's.
If you prefer command-line usage, I'd recommend Gitolite [2]. It allows you to give people access to git and only git (as opposed to git's built-in system, which requires granting ssh shell access); and it only uses one OS-level user/group regardless of how many people it's managing.
Either of the above solutions are for your compsci professors who are clued-in enough to be comfortable with CLI in general and Git in particular.
If you're trying to give files to technically clueless humanities professors, I'd suggest only using Git privately, to develop your paper or whatever, then using a plain old email attachment, or hosting on an HTTP server, to submit the assignment. Or going really old-school by printing out an old-fashioned dead-tree hardcopy.
Of course, all of these solutions (except email attachments and printouts) require running your own server, which is actually a great learning experience. I'd recommend prgmr.com for hosting; their smallest plans should be able to fit even an undergrad's budget, and you have full root access to your (Xen VM) system, so you can do all kinds of fun and exotic experiments. It's not necessary for basic usage, but you can install any version of any Linux distro, use LVM, even use a custom-compiled kernel or FreeBSD (the only requirement is guest Xen patches). It's great because if you have problems, they give you access to an ssh-based out-of-band console, rebooter, and rescue image so you can fix them yourself. (By contrast, many other hosts require you to make changes through some half-baked web UI that lacks half the tools you need, require you to install only approved distros and only do OS upgrades on an approved schedule, and require you to file tickets with lengthy turnaround times and/or fees in order to do the most routine troubleshooting or maintenance tasks.)
Disclaimer: My only relationship with prgmr.com is that I've been their hosting customer for a long time (and very happy with them given the nonsense I've had to put up with from other hosts, in case you couldn't figure that part out from my above rant).
My only relationship with Gitolite is a project user. (I've created and maintained three small-scale Gitolite installations.)
I haven't used Gitlab, but I've heard good things about it.
> Either of the above solutions are for your compsci professors who are clued-in enough to be comfortable with CLI in general and Git in particular.
I'm a visual design student, and most of my professors are clued in enough to know how to handle git. I'm lucky on that regard.
>Of course, all of these solutions (except email attachments and printouts) require running your own server, which is actually a great learning experience.
I do have my own VPS, Amazon AWS. I just dumped in an ubuntu server image, LAMP stack and python, and it's just vanilla unix after that—it's great. I'll check prgmr out though, thanks for the recommendation.
Gitlab looks good, but I almost exclusively use git CLI, so I don't need a fancy interface. I'll take a look at gitolite. Thanks!
How fitting that one of the links you've posted is unavailable at the moment due to the very downtime that caused this discussion! Evidence of our over-reliance on GitHub in the open source community, perhaps.
Here I took it as evidence of Github's generous-to-the-point-of-being-ridiculously-foolish attitude toward their customers: They'll even give free public Git hosting to products that directly compete with their core business at a lower price point (free)!
Even if you Do No Evil (R), some people will still complain about you.
That being said, Git hosting would be better for everyone if Github had a bigger competitor in their niche.
> unless you are providing paid accounts and expensive enterprise solutions with support, you are not competing with them in any way.
Yes, you are. If you would have bought their product (paid Git hosting), but you used somebody else's product instead (Gitolite), then that other product (Gitolite) is competing with Github for your business.
I agree that there is a subset of the market that (a) won't or can't figure out Git hosting on their own, or (b) decides that paying for a Github account will actually be less expensive. But I never said that Gitolite will ever replace Github.
BitBucket. It's essentially the same service as GitHub, but allows private repositories for free. And with an academic .edu email you get unlimited collaborators. Much simpler than running your own git server as others have suggested I think.
> BitBucket. It's essentially the same service as GitHub, but allows private repositories for free. And with an academic .edu email you get unlimited collaborators. Much simpler than running your own git server as others have suggested I think.
> So I've been using Bitbucket, which is fine and all, but I would have loved to be a part of Github community.
I already have Bitbucket edu plan, as I've said. It's pretty great, but it lacks community.
Ah missed that, or an edit, either way.
Yeah there's not the community because it's used for more private projects. GitHub has the community because it's focused towards open source and all the sharing and cooperation that OSS entails.
Yeah, I agree. One interesting thing is that their JIRA is really popular as an issue tracker to the point that more than a few organisations I've seen are using JIRA as a tracker and github:enterprise as repo. Github really needs to up their game on this part.
Odds are the orgs in question were using Jira long before they were using GitHub. Pretty sure it's Atlassian feeling the pressure here and not GitHub; given the existence of Stash.
Github does have academic plans. When I signed up, it was 2 years of a free Micro plan (5 private repos) if you signed up with a verified school email address. When they're back up, check out: https://github.com/edu
GitHub do provide Edu accounts, I have one! I guess I went to github.com/edu or /education or something but it gave me the form at /contact, you say what your up to, where you go and such and they put a coupon on your account to give you a free micro plan.
