back to article Closed source? Pull the other one... We love open source, but not enough to share code for our own app, says GitHub

GitHub's mobile app for developers and other team members working on projects in GitHub repositories is now generally available for users of iOS and Android. The app was announced in November 2019 by Ryan Nystrom, director of engineering, at the Universe event and has been in beta since then, initially for iOS only, but now GA …

  1. jake Silver badge

    "Yet this mobile app is not open source"

    And so it begins.

    1. Arctic fox
      Happy

      RE: "And so it begins."

      I can think of one or two respectable reasons why they would not want world+wife+dog spannering their own ap.

      1. Robert Grant

        Re: RE: "And so it begins."

        Better not allow any app dev tools to be used by the general public, then!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Yet this mobile app is not open source"

      Now it begins? The GitHub website has never been open-source, so there's no rational reason for anyone to expect them to make the apps open-source either.

      "Open source has won" is a great sentiment espoused by many companies (eg. GitHub, Microsoft more generally, Google) who continue to make the bulk of their money from closed-source proprietary software.

    3. GrahamRJ

      Re: "Yet this mobile app is not open source"

      If you're putting together a proof-of-concept which is still in active development, why on earth would you want to share the source until you'd got it all tidied up and stable? Everything anyone could possibly do with that source would be detrimental to you and to whatever they do with it. They can't usefully give you issue reports. They can't usefully review the code. They can't even do anything productive by forking from your source, because whatever you do later will very likely break their fork. You would need to be terminally stupid to even consider it.

  2. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Terminator

    Open Source Won ... and you lost.

    While I have always supported Open Source applications and made a lot of my code available, the end result of open source is that when you release the application, you don't make any money anymore - everyone respects you, thanks you (and occasionally criticizes you) but in the end it's just hari-kari, the application environment cannot be reincarnated - you have to move on to another dimension in time and space, if you want to eat.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Open Source Won ... and you lost.

      Someone doesn't like your answer, even though it's correct. It's undeniably true that at least 99.99% of OSS will never return a penny to the author. I think some people still try to argue the "free spirit" notion, but back in the early 2000's when large corps. started "supporting" OSS, we all saw the hijack coming. Amazon is an example of OSS abuse to the max. Once the word profit hits the mix, that's what it becomes about, regardless of anyone's free spirit notion.

      Making money in the OSS realm is about as probable as making money in professional billiards. There's so many fat vultures surrounding the road of OSS that it makes you wondering if crossing that road is really the best direction.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @overunder - Re: Open Source Won ... and you lost.

        Offering your code under an open source license and then complaining you don't make money is like hitting your jaw with a brick and complaining about toothache.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Version 1.0 - Re: Open Source Won ... and you lost.

      So what's stopping you from offering your code under a proprietary closed license ? It's not like you don't have a choice. What is so special about this open source thingy ?

  3. whoseyourdaddy

    How do you get an open-source app on iOS? Asking for a friend. Why would anyone expect a phone app to be open source?

    1. jake Silver badge

      "How do you get an open-source app on iOS?"

      Ask the developers of these

      apps, just for a start. I'm sure they will be more than happy to share.

  4. J27

    I'm not coding on a machine with a screen less than 10 inches and a keyboard is essential. So i guess this is aimed primarily at iPad Pros? What else is out there that makes sense for this and also can't run desktop apps? Being able to code in a pinch is most of the reason I went with a Surface Go over and iPad. I'm not sure this app changes that, but maybe it makes sense?

    1. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

      "So i guess this is aimed primarily at iPad Pros?"

      That's still iOS, isn't it? Are there even decent development tool chains that run on that system? Never mind the developer-unfriendly interface.

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