Welcome to a bonus blog in our #90DaysOfDevOps series. Today, we'll be looking into the history of GitHub. While it's not always necessary to understand the complete history of a platform to use it effectively, having a grasp of its journey can provide insights into its evolution and why it's become such a cornerstone of modern development.
Early Years (2008 - 2012):
Founding of GitHub: GitHub was founded in April 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, and PJ Hyett. It was initially launched as a platform for hosting and collaborating on Git repositories. Git, developed by Linus Torvalds, had become the preferred version control system for developers.
Bootstrapped Beginnings: GitHub was a bootstrapped company, which means it was self-funded by its founders. This approach allowed them to build the platform without external investment.
Growth and Open Source: GitHub quickly gained popularity in the open-source community. Many open-source projects, including Ruby on Rails and jQuery, adopted GitHub as their platform for collaboration. This played a significant role in GitHub's early growth.
Introduction of GitHub Pages: GitHub Pages, a feature that allows users to host static websites directly from their GitHub repositories, was launched. This feature contributed to GitHub's appeal for both code hosting and web hosting.
Mid-2010s (2012 - 2016):
Venture Capital Investment: In 2012, GitHub received its first significant venture capital investment, with Andreessen Horowitz leading a $100 million funding round. This marked a shift from being a bootstrapped company to one with external investment.
Further Growth: GitHub continued to grow, reaching millions of users and hosting a wide range of projects, from small personal repositories to large enterprise codebases.
GitHub Enterprise: GitHub introduced GitHub Enterprise, a self-hosted version of the platform tailored for enterprise customers. This allowed organizations to use GitHub's services within their own data centers.
Introduction of Atom: GitHub launched Atom, a hackable text editor, to provide developers with a highly customizable and open-source code editor.
Late 2010s (2016 - 2019):
Microsoft Acquisition: One of the most significant events in GitHub's history occurred in 2018 when Microsoft announced its acquisition of GitHub for $7.5 billion. Despite initial concerns from some in the open-source community, Microsoft pledged to maintain GitHub as an open platform.
GitHub Actions: GitHub introduced GitHub Actions, a robust continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) platform, allowing developers to automate their workflows directly on the platform.
Recent Years (2020 and Beyond):
GitHub Copilot: In June 2021, GitHub unveiled GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered coding assistant built in collaboration with OpenAI. It provides code suggestions and autocompletions, making it easier for developers to write code efficiently.
Sustainability Initiatives: GitHub has also been working on sustainability initiatives, including the GitHub Arctic Code Vault, which archives open-source code in a secure location in the Arctic.
Ongoing Growth: GitHub continues to grow, with a massive user base and a strong developer community. It remains a central platform for collaboration, version control, and open-source development.
The history of GitHub is a testament to the power of open-source collaboration and the importance of platforms that facilitate software development. It has significantly shaped the DevOps and software development landscape, providing tools and resources that empower developers worldwide.
Enjoy this bonus insight into GitHub's journey as you continue your #90DaysOfDevOps adventure.
Thank you for reading!
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