GitHub's “pull request” is proprietary lock-in (was: We will be moving to GitHub)

[Ben Finney]

Michael Torrie <torriem at gmail.com> writes:

> On 01/02/2016 12:02 AM, Ben Finney wrote:
> > GitHub's “pull request” workflow is entirely proprietary and can
> > only be done within GitHub.
>
> Really?  This seems like an entirely artificial github requirement.

Yes, it is.

> There's absolutely no reason why github couldn't do a pull request from
> any arbitrary, valid git url.

Right. The proprietary GitHub “pull request” has many more features
(including a code review tool and discussion thread that are
automatically tied to the pull request) which make it attractive.

The fact these features (unlike Git) are wholly proprietary, and the
valuable processes and data they generate cannot be exported and
continued easily in another instance when a community chooses, are what
makes GitHub's “pull request” an attractive nuisance.

That and other vendor-locked workflow aspects of GitHub makes it a poor
choice for communities that want to retain the option of control over
their processes and data.

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Ben Finney