[mbreese]

Is this the start of a more frequent code-migrations out of Github?

For years, the best argument for centralizing on Github was that this was where the developers were. This is where you can have pull requests managed quickly and easily between developers and teams that otherwise weren't related. Getting random PRs from the community had very little friction. Most of the other features were `git` specific (branches, merges, post-commit hooks, etc), but pull requests, code review, and CI actions were very much Github specific.

However, with more Copilot, et al getting pushed through Github (and now-reverted Action pricing changes), having so much code in one place might not be enough of a benefit anymore. There is nothing about Git repositories that inherently requires Github, so it will be interesting to see how Gentoo fares.

I don't know if it's a one-off or not. Gentoo has always been happy to do their own thing, so it might just be them, but it's a trend I'm hearing talked about more frequently.

[JoshTriplett]

I'm really looking forward to some form of federated forking and federated pull requests, so that it doesn't matter as much where your repository is.

[holysoles]

For those curious, the federation roadmap is here: https://codeberg.org/forgejo-contrib/federation/src/branch/m...

I'm watching this pretty closely, I've been mirroring my GitHub repos to my own forgejo instance for a few weeks, but am waiting for more federation before I reverse the mirrors.

Also will plug this tool for configuring mirrors: https://github.com/PatNei/GITHUB2FORGEJO

Note that Forgejo's API has a bug right now and you need to manually re-configure the mirror credentials for the mirrors to continue to receive updates.

[mikepurvis]

GitLab has been talking about federation at least between instances of itself for 8+ years: https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/16514

Once the protocols are in place, one hopes that other forges could participate as well, though the history of the internet is littered with instances where federation APIs just became spam firehoses (see especially pingback/trackback on blog platforms).

[bsimpson]

I use GitHub because that's where PRs go, but I've never liked their PR model. I much prefer the Phabricator/Gerrit ability to consider each commit independently (that is, have a personal branch 5 commits ahead of HEAD, and be able to send PRs for each without having them squashed).

I wonder if federation will also bring more diversity into the actual process. Maybe there will be hosts that let you use that Phabricator model.

I also wonder how this all gets paid for. Does it take pockets as deep as Microsoft's to keep npm/GitHub afloat? Will there be a free, open-source commons on other forges?

[rtpg]

I just want a forge to be able to let me push up commits without making a fork. Do the smart thing for me, I don't need a fork of a project to send in my patch!

[okanat]

I would love git-bug project[1] to be successful in achieving that. That way Git forges are just nice Web porcelain on top of very easy to migrate data.

[1] https://github.com/git-bug/git-bug

[angus-g]

That's kind of the way Tangled works, right? Although it's Yet Another Platform so it's still a little bit locked in...

[pocksuppet]

So... git's original design

[Duplicake]

Have you seen https://tangled.org/

[LtWorf]

Microsoft won't have it.

[toastal]

Coincidentally, my most-used project is on Codeberg, & is a filter list (such as uBlock Origin) for hiding a lot Microsoft GitHub’s social features, upsells, Copilot pushes, & so on to try to make it tolerable until more projects migrate away <https://codeberg.org/toastal/github-less-social>.

[VorpalWay]

Arch Linux have used their own gitlab instance for a long time (though with mirrors to GitHub). Debian and Fedora have both run their own infra for git for a long time. Not sure about other distros. I was surprised Gentoo used GitHub at all.

Pretty sure several of these distros started doing this with cvs or svn way back before git became popular even.

[Pay08]

Both GitHub and now Codeberg are mirrors of a self-hosted cgit repository of Gentoo.

[Foxboron]

I mean, gitlab is only from ~2019.

The first hit I could find of a git repository hosted on `archlinux.org` is from 2007; https://web.archive.org/web/20070512063341/http://projects.a...

[tiffanyh]

I really like @mitchellh perspective on this topic of moving off GitHub.

---

> If you're a code forge competing with GitHub and you look anything like GitHub then you've already lost. GitHub was the best solution for 2010. [0]

> Using GitHub as an example but all forges are similar so not singling them out here This page is mostly useless. [1]

> The default source view ... should be something like this: https://haskellforall.com/2026/02/browse-code-by-meaning [2]

[0] https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2023502586440282256#m

[1] https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2023499685764456455#m

[2] https://x.com/mitchellh/status/2023497187288907916#m

[Starlevel004]

Person who pays for AI: We should make everything revolve around the thing I pay for

[resonious]

The stuff he says in [1] completely does not match my usage. I absolutely do use fork and star. I use release. I use the homepage link, and read the short description.

I'm also quite used to the GitHub layout and so have a very easy time using Codeberg and such.

I am definitely willing to believe that there are better ways to do this stuff, but it'll be hard to attract detractors if it causes friction, and unfamiliarity causes friction.

[rtpg]

I really don't get this... like you're a code checkout away from just asking claude locally. I get that it is a bit more extra friction but "you should have an agent prompt on your forge's page" is a _huge_ costly ask!

I say this as someone who does browse the web view for repos a lot, so I get the niceness of browsing online... but even then sometimes I'm just checking out a repo cuz ripgrep locally works better.

[hparadiz]

This looks like a confusing mess to me.

[blibble]

for [1] he's right for his specific use case

when he's working on his own project, obviously he never uses the about section or releases

but if you're exploring projects, you do

(though I agree for the tree view is bad for everyone)

[crabmusket]

Hrm. Mitchell has been very level-headed about AI tools, but this seems like a rare overstep into hype territory.

"This new thing that hasn't been shipped, tested, proven, in a public capacity on real projects should be the default experience going forwards" is a bit much.

I for one wouldn't prefer a pre-chewed machine analysis. That sounds like an interesting feature to explore, but why does it need to be forced into the spotlight?

[bastardoperator]

Crazy... https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty

[Rapzid]

Oh FFS. Twitter really brings out the worst in people. Prefer the more deeply insightful and measured blog posting persona.

[pojntfx]

Aren't they literally moving off GitHub _because_ of LLMs and the enshittification optimising for them causes? This line of thinking and these features seem to push people _off_ your platform, not onto it.

[jruz]

I would say started with Zig.

For us Europeans has more to do with being local that reliability or copilot.

[encom]

>code-migrations out of Github

I hope so. When Microsoft embraced GitHub there was a sizeable migration away from it. A lot of it went to Gitlab which, if I recall correctly, tanked due to the volume.

But it didn't stick. And it always irked me, having Microsoft in control of the "default" Git service, given their history of hostility towards Free software.

[wongarsu]

At the time I (and many others) had a much more positive view of Microsoft. In 2018 Nadella was bringing a lot of positive change to Microsoft. The release of VSCode and WSL among the more visible trends that signaled a new direction. A world in which Microsoft wasn't the preferred owner of Github, but could at least be a good steward and an open-source friendly company.

Now in 2026 things look different. While the fears that Microsoft would revert to 90s Embrace, Extend, Extinguish mostly haven't come to pass, their products are instead all plagued by declining quality and stability, and a product direction that seems to willfully ignore most of the user base

[kpcyrd]

I moved one of my projects from Github to codeberg because Github can't deal with sha256 repositories, but codeberg can.

[surfaceofthesun]

What's the benefit of using sha256 for a repository?

[Brian_K_White]

And the forks network display.

Find a project, find out if it's the original or a fork, and either way, find all the other possibly more relevant forks. Maybe the original is actually derelict but 2 others are current. Or just forks with significant different features, etc. Find all the oddball individual small fixes or hacks, so even if you don't want to use someone's fork you may still like to pluck the one change they made to theirs.

I was going to also say the search but probably that can be had about the same just in regular google, at least for searching project names and docs to find the simple existence of projects. But maybe the code search is still only within github.

[shevy-java]

I hope so. Ever since Trump and the US corporations declared software-war against Europeans, I want to reduce all dependencies on US corporations as much as possible. Ideally to zero. Also hardware-wise. This will take a long time, but Canadians understood the problem domain here. European politicians still need to understand that Trump and his cronies changed things permanently.

[shmerl]

It's been going on for a while. Recent AI craze just accelerates it.

[onli]

Yes, you are right. I read a lot about European FOSS projects (and my own blog is member of a planet for german Foss articles). Migrating away from github has been a topic for a while in that scene now. First just because github is not Foss, then accelerated because of Microsoft, and Microsoft now mismanaging Github with ai bullshit accelerated it even more. Plus the push for independence of us services, Trumps imperialism is a big factor as well.

So absolutely not the start of the movement, but it seems to be accelerating more and more.

[sathish316]

It might also be a reflection of the number of frequent outages of GitHub under Microsoft recently and GitHub Copilot push

[ori_b]

No, the start was a lot time ago.

[matltc]

I get the sense that this is true for many enshittified services. See anything Microsoft. The FOSS movement seems to be gaining some traction again.

My guess is it's driven by very poor user experience coupled with worse product.

Technical leople who care about privacy/surveillance at least a little bit need take one look at the current state of tech and US govt to see how fucking fast dystopia is becoming reality. See discord/openai writeup that came out, ads literally everywhere, flock and ring cameras wide open and passively performing recon, routers doing the same... it's like snow crash out here

Makes perfect sense that those who know would say fuck this, im out. Convenience isn't worth it anymore