If everyone hosts on GitHub and it goes away like Google's source code repository or codeplex then a big chunk of the internet goes away. Especially when it comes to old abandoned repos. Not only that but we could end up with another story like the SourceForge story.
Also if GitHub goes down and everything is hosted there then the internet stops working as well. Remember how broken the internet was when that DNS outage happened a few months ago?
This is a bit alarmist. If github went away or became like Sourceforge of old then we could just move to something else or do self-hosting again. Lose a chunk of the internet by moving popular software like Handbrake to GitHub? how could that happen? Most multiplatform open source software like this have copies of their source code across thousands of linux distribution mirrors.
Also, google code never went away. It just stopped working as an active platform, but Google still keeps the archive of what already existed there, to this day:
At that time, CodePlex.com will start serving a read-only lightweight archive that will allow you to browse through all published projects – their source code, downloads, documentation, license, and issues – as they looked when CodePlex went read-only. You’ll also be able to download an archive file with your project contents, all in common, transferrable formats like Markdown and JSON. Where possible, we’ll put in place redirects so that existing URLs work, or at least redirect you to the project’s new homepage on the archive. And, the archive will respect your “I’ve moved” setting, if you used it, to direct users to the current home of your project.
If there is anything to lose after GitHub's shutdown at some distant point in the future, it probably won't be something people cared for.
"Don't use a very valuable, and more secure service, because of possible distant future, very tiny harm" doesn't sound like a convincing argument. You take "risks" every day in your life. Driving your car is a risk. In the US there's 12 deaths per 100k people per year on the roads, and that's only counting deaths, not crippling injuries. But it's valuable enough that you end up taking it, as living without a car is difficult in many places. Life is about calculated risks and using GitHub is not exactly at the top of the risk pyramid.
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Go on?
If everyone hosts on GitHub and it goes away like Google's source code repository or codeplex then a big chunk of the internet goes away. Especially when it comes to old abandoned repos. Not only that but we could end up with another story like the SourceForge story.
Also if GitHub goes down and everything is hosted there then the internet stops working as well. Remember how broken the internet was when that DNS outage happened a few months ago?
This is a bit alarmist. If github went away or became like Sourceforge of old then we could just move to something else or do self-hosting again. Lose a chunk of the internet by moving popular software like Handbrake to GitHub? how could that happen? Most multiplatform open source software like this have copies of their source code across thousands of linux distribution mirrors.
Also, google code never went away. It just stopped working as an active platform, but Google still keeps the archive of what already existed there, to this day:
https://code.google.com/archive/
Microsoft is doing the same after shutting down their Code Plex because of moving toward GitHub:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/bharry/2017/03/31/shutting-...
If there is anything to lose after GitHub's shutdown at some distant point in the future, it probably won't be something people cared for.
"Don't use a very valuable, and more secure service, because of possible distant future, very tiny harm" doesn't sound like a convincing argument. You take "risks" every day in your life. Driving your car is a risk. In the US there's 12 deaths per 100k people per year on the roads, and that's only counting deaths, not crippling injuries. But it's valuable enough that you end up taking it, as living without a car is difficult in many places. Life is about calculated risks and using GitHub is not exactly at the top of the risk pyramid.