I have been a member of Github since like 2008 – a long time. I have not been as active as I wanted to. Probably due to lack of time. Well that might be an excuse, but it is obvious that I have had other priorities than just working on code. Another excuse would be the fact, that I develop code for a living and at work we are not using git/github. So too much computer for me during the day to keep coding at night, too!? Lots of excuses, but this post is on a different topic

Github for the non-users

As not everyone uses git (Git), though the number of users is increasing daily, I will try to explain what git and github is about:

• Git is a Git a free & open source, distributed version control system, which means that users have a local repository on their computer, which they will sync with a server repository. So a local user can commit code (or whatever else) to their local repository before pushing it to the server.
• Github currently has around 2 million code repositories and is the largest source code host in the world. It offers a free service and several paid plans ranging from $7 to $22 per month. The free one is just for public repositories. With the paid plans you get private repositories and collaborators, too.

As it is free and you want to give git / github a try, you can just try it out for free.

What makes github special

What I find interesting about github is neither their use of git nor github. It is more about the history of the company. It is not that I know too much about it, but the stuff that is available to the public is interesting. A nice little fact that can not be underestimated is viewable on the About page

And no – I don’t meen the fact that they have 4 delicious beers on tap (though it’s a fun fact to know)! Check out their VC funding. It is at $0.00, nada, niente, nothing, null. In times when startups are happy to release VC round numbers or receive the money, I think the fact that a company is not taking any VC money adds value to the company, too. Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t think VC money is bad, I just think that companies not taking VC money and growing organically are to be respected, too.

The perfect startup to work for

Another fact that can be taken from the about page is how they think about working and their employees. An no – it is not the beer fact that I am talking about again. It is one thing though that one could take into consideration when applying. But rather than the beer fact, it is this sentence I think is really interesting for employees:

''GitHub is headquartered in San Francisco with team members working remotely from all around the world.’'

Nowadays office are not that important anymore. One can work from home and use the internet and/or telephone to communicate with their co-workers. They currently have 123 job openings in a lot of different areas.

Update: Those job offerings are not at github. It is their job board where companies can posts jobs they offer. It is a service offered by github – not for jobs working at github. Thanks @tekkub

What this post is not

After rereading this post it kinda feels like I advertising for them or getting people to apply for a job there, so I wanted to state that I am not working for github and I don’t get paid to post this or anything like that. I just find it interesting to know.

Feedback

What do you think about github? Are you using it? If no, what do you use and why? Please feel free to contact me via @skohler.