Farewell GitLab…Hey GitHub <sigh>
Today’s GitLab crash was the final nail in the coffin. We moved to GitHub. But I’m sad.
I came into my office this morning like any other day. Very excited to get started coding a brilliant idea I had last night. Opened my MacBook, went into the terminal, typed in
>$ git pu
to pull last nights changes from our git code repository (side note - if you’re not using this alias you should have a look at this post) and bursted out in tears!
GitLab was down…again! Today’s breakdown was actually way more substantial than I had thought initially. Somehow they managed to delete production data and had to run an emergency restore from backup. (https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/01/gitlab-suffers-major-backup-failure-after-data-deletion-incident/)
This had been the third major breakdown in a month. The other two weren’t quite as substantial. One was a version upgrade, the other a database maintenance. But the problem of course is that Git is such a foundational piece of software for modern developers, that not being able to push and pull code for an hour is like going back to the dark ages for…ages!
So to protect our developers from insanity, we had to make the decision to switch our git repository over to GitHub in the hope that their maturity can keep our git addiction supplied with fresh push and pull. So in this post I wanted to give GitLab a proper farewell. Reminisce over some of the good times we had. And also give GitHub a very stern look…don’t f*ck this up!
So why didn’t you go with GitHub in the first place you idiot!
I made my decision to go with GitLab over GitHub 1,5 years ago. And for the most part I have been very happy with my choice for the underdog. The three main reasons for me at the time were:
1. It’s free baby!
I’m Dutch…and without mentioning too many stereotypes…we Dutchies like getting free stuff! GitLab offers unlimited private repositories, free unlimited team members, free Docker image repositories, free CI builders, free everything! For a long time I wondered if it was too good to be true. But no, they make their money with enterprise (although in hindsight maybe not enough)…you as a startup/SMB can nerd out as much as you want!
2. Betting on Docker
I made a bet very early on that Docker (or containers in general…I’m actually pretty impressed by Rkt) were going to be Hughe! And GitLab seemed to back me on that bet. For instance, very early on they introduced Docker image hosting. Something that costs me $15/month on Docker hub. And it is AWESOME! They soon integrated it with their build tools and even containerised their build workers. This means you can run autoscaling builds in your own infrastructure. In the latest release they even fully integrated it with Kubernetes/Google Container Engine. Since our entire infrastructure is beautifully crafted on Docker/Kubernetes these feature releases would give me a nerd-gasm every time! Which brings me to my final point…
3. Like Avis…“They Try Harder”
I felt like being the underdog GitLab was trying harder. They were pushing amazing new features every month. Building integrations, building communities. And their vision really started appealing to me. They’re so much more than just a git repository. They’ve managed to include a Trello like issue tracker, commenting, pull-request management, locked branches and loads of /slash commands to automatically make pull-requests or even do time tracking. And all of these features actually work really well! With GitHub…all of these require a myriad of plugins. Some paid…some shit.
But…Features Don’t Matter if Your Foundations Crumble
But having said that…the most important thing is that we have a reliable Git repository. Period. And three +1hour outages in a month is…
We could have hosted GitLab ourselves on our own infrastructure but it goes against my rule on spending time/resources on things outside of your core business.
Luckily the transition to GitHub was really smooth, it didn’t take more than 2 hours. And actually I now noticed how slow GitLab’s system was. Pressing a button feels like Windows 95 compared to GitHubs lightning fast workflow.
And now we can finally open-source some of our projects knowing that there’s a massive community of developers that will actually find, use and contribute.
But GitHub…you better watch out! Don’t you go crashing on me too. And for god’s sake…make an effort! Don’t just give me page after page of minor improvements and tweaks (https://github.com/blog/category/ship) be visionary. Create some Docker integrations. Allow me to change the theme to Pink. Give me a Batman Slaps Robin meme if someone pushes shit code. Just don’t be that company that kills all the underdogs…but also kills all the innovation.
