GitHub

GitHub is a special website for people who write computer programs. It helps people keep track of their code, work together, and share their projects.

It uses a tool called Git to manage changes and keep things organized.

Many people use GitHub to share free software projects, called open source. GitHub is based in San Francisco and has been part of the big company Microsoft since 2018.

About

GitHub started on October 19, 2007, and launched in April 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, and Scott Chacon. It was made to help people store and share their code easily.

GitHub began as a small company where people picked their own projects. It grew into a big business. In 2018, Microsoft bought GitHub, but it kept working the same way. Today, GitHub helps millions of people work together on their projects.

GitHub’s symbol is an octopus-like character named Mona, or Octocat. It was made by a designer and is now a fun part of GitHub’s brand.

Services

GitHub helps people work on projects using regular commands. You can see public repositories on the website. GitHub has tools that work with Git, and it has features like updates and followers, similar to social networks.

Anyone can view and download public repositories, but you need an account to add to them. With an account, you can talk, manage projects, add to others' projects, and see changes to code. GitHub offers free private repositories and many tools for software development.

GitHub also has a simpler service called Gist for sharing small pieces of code. In 2019, GitHub launched mobile apps for iOS and Android.

GitHub also has a program called GitHub Sponsors, where people can donate monthly to projects they support.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to help people write software. It started in 2021 for users of VSCode and used a special system called Codex made by OpenAI.

Now, GitHub Copilot can be used on the GitHub website, from the command line, and in many different software programs for writing code, called IDEs. Users can choose from several smart systems, known as LLMs, for some of its features.

Some users have wanted to turn off Copilot features, and this has been a popular topic for discussion on GitHub’s community page for the past year. These questions have not yet been answered, and some users and projects have started using different options from open source alternatives, like Codeberg.

GitHub Archive Program

In July 2020, GitHub saved a big collection of code and put it in an old mountain mine in Svalbard, Norway. This place is part of the Arctic World Archive and is close to a special vault that keeps seeds safe. The saved code included public projects and important older projects. The data filled 21TB of space and was stored on special film reels that look like tiny pictures.

GitHub is working with other groups on a new project called Project Silica. This project aims to save public code for up to 10,000 years by changing the code into patterns inside quartz glass using a very fast laser. The laser pulses a quadrillion times every second, making the saved code very durable.

Controversies

In March 2014, a GitHub worker said the company's founder did something wrong, and she left. GitHub said this was true and the founder left. GitHub promised to make changes to help workers.

In July 2019, GitHub stopped some people from certain countries from using parts of its service because of rules from the United States. GitHub said it still wants to be a place for developers everywhere.

Sometimes, countries have blocked GitHub. For example, Russia blocked it for a short time because of things users posted. Other times, GitHub was attacked by people trying to stop it from working.

GitHub had an agreement with a U.S. government group, which made some workers unhappy. The company said the money from this agreement was small and promised to give it to groups helping immigrants.

In January 2021, GitHub had to fix a mistake after firing a worker who talked about safety after a big event in the United States.

In 2023, some parts of another company’s computer code showed up on GitHub without permission. The company asked GitHub to help find who did this.

Reception

In 2012, Linus Torvalds, who created Git, liked GitHub for helping people share open source projects. He said GitHub did a good job with hosting. But he did not like how GitHub handled pull requests, saying it was not as good as the tools that come with Git. He thought GitHub was great for hosting but not for managing project changes online.