Ask HN: If there're so many advanced vibecoders mad at GitHub, where's everyone?
The author reflects on their reduced reliance on GitHub, citing improved agent harnesses that make self-hosted solutions easier and less cumbersome than using GitHub. They argue that GitHub's value has diminished due to reliability issues and increased friction, despite its historical role in lowering barriers to source control adoption. The broader point is that organizations built around tools can decline when better alternatives emerge, even outside of computer science.
- ▪The author used GitHub primarily as a git host and not as a collaboration tool.
- ▪Agent harnesses now make self-hosted solutions easier and less troublesome than using GitHub.
- ▪GitHub is seen as less reliable and more cumbersome compared to previous years.
- ▪The decline of tool-dependent organizations is compared to Xerox's trajectory.
- ▪Open source projects gave GitHub its foundational tooling rather than the company developing it internally.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
my anecdote : I can have an agent harness run every tool that github provided an interface for on my own machines, and I used GH primarily as a git host rather than a collab tool.To be clear : I could have done this before -- the agent/harness make it seamless, integrated, easy. The same job GH did.GH was useful for me when it was less hassle than running git and friends. That is no longer the case , agent harnesses are less hassle -- so the friction of moving away from a Microsoft corp with terrible reliability is virtually non-existent.tl;dr : GH was popular because it lowered the barrier to entry for source control and was reliable enough to take serious.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Ycombinator.