
Improved User Profiles - gilrain
http://blog.bitbucket.org/2012/12/20/improved-user-profiles/
======
eliben
I'm happy that BitBucket keeps evolving as a viable alternative to Github.
Alternatives are good. Competition is good and healthy. I personally prefer BB
because I like Mercurial more than I like Git. IMHO it provides all the same
benefits with a _much saner_ interface. Bitbucket also seems to provide all or
almost all the nice features Github has.

And, the biggest boon of BB vs. Github is free private repositories.

~~~
StavrosK
The VCS software thing is really much less of an impediment now. Both hg and
bzr (yes, I actually like bzr most of the three) export to git. I'd be using
bzr for all my repos, if it didn't have a bug where "push" meant "push
--force". I should look and see if they fixed it.

~~~
Cogito
And in case you have missed it, there is work going on _right now_ to add hg
and bzr remote-helper support to git. In particular, if you look at the latest
RC announcement[1] for git v1.8.1 we see

* _A new remote-helper interface for Mercurial has been added to contrib/remote-helpers._

and in the most recent "What's cooking"[2] (dev updates) we see

* _fc/remote-bzr (2012-12-13) 10 commits

[snipped]

New remote helper for bzr (v3). With minor fixes, this may be ready for
'next'._

A big hats off to Felipe Contreras[4] who has done a lot of work to get these
updates rolled out. Not sure how many others have been involved, but thanks!

The latest RC is available from the usual places, for example [3].

[1] <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1410998>

[2] [http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-
control.git/21202...](http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-
control.git/212021)

[3] <https://github.com/gitster/git/tree/v1.8.1-rc2>

[4] <https://github.com/felipec>

~~~
StavrosK
Very nice, thank you. I'll see if the git bug has been fixed in bzr and
probably switch to it. I love how user-friendly it is.

------
dkhenry
Bit bucket is making real progress, but I still don't think I can drop GitHub
all together for them. I actually like them better, but almost every open
source project I use is on GitHub and only one is one BitBucket. Its almost at
the point where GitHub own so much of the ecosystem that its hard to
collaborate without them. Keep on chugging BitBucket, everything you have done
so far has been for the better.

~~~
MatthewPhillips
For me it's as simple as open source projects go on GitHub, private projects
go on Bitbucket.

~~~
joeblossom
This. I switched from github to bitbucket in all of about 10 minutes a weekend
ago for my private repos. $7/month more in my pocket.

I did find it interesting that when I canceled with Github they killed my
"paid account" status right away, rather than let me have the rest of the
month.

~~~
paulgb
I wish GitHub would offer unlimited private repos and just charge for
collaborators. I don't mind paying $12/month for 10 repos, but I've gotten to
the point where I have old projects sitting around that I still want access to
but can't make public.

~~~
kmfrk
I wish there were a way to make a repo an archive, an inactive repo, so it
doesn't count towards your private repo count. The same goes for deprecated
repos.

I still have some older repos I keep around because they show how (poorly) I
coded way back when, and I don't plan on showing that to potential employers
perusing my account. :P

------
sergiotapia
BitBucket just keeps getting better! Thank you so much for letting single
freelance developers host their projects in private for free unlike Github.
You guys are better than Github in my opinion.

Keep on going on!

------
Surio
This is a personal opinion, so please ignore if you do not agree. I feel there
is too much adulation (perhaps bordering on unhealthy, even) around github and
its services. So, _every thriving alternative_ (to github) is very welcome in
my view.

(git is a great VCS, etc., etc. But other VCS' are not exactly unworkable, you
know)

This might be OT but, I am genuinely curious.

Why not SourceForge (<http://sourceforge.net/>)? They are the _grand-daddy_ of
free and open hosting. They have been around for ages and providing free
hosting services to all and sundry for as long as I can recall. I for one, am
very grateful for their support of all the various open projects and the FOSS
community support, before FOSS took off like it took off now. I have
benefitted and continue to benefit from many a project even to this day -- and
I am sure many of you all do use SF hosted projects too. One example, all the
portable apps for example, are hosted with Sourceforge. So, why not use them
and show your support? (Vote with your purse, etc., etc.)

P.S:- I don't have anything to do with SF. I am just interested in other
thoughts and views.

EDIT: And Sourceforge actually allow you to host binaries unlike the recently
inexplicable github rule of _we will allow you to upload large, cutesy cat
photos in comments, but disable hosting of binaries_

Am I the only one who also enjoyed SF's newly revamped UI to keep with the
times?

EDIT 2: They have recently started a monthly campaign called "Featured
Projects" on their blog to highlight projects that don't have active work
being done on them. So if one is interested one can "adopt a project" and
nurture it back to health and relevance. E.g.:
<http://sourceforge.net/blog/featured-projects-2012120/>

And then there is the "Project of the month"
<http://sourceforge.net/blog/potm/>

EDIT 3: In case others are interested (or may not be aware, as the case may
be), there are also other VCS and free around those VCS repositories. Sharing
it out of interest.

E.g.: <https://launchpad.net/bzr>

<https://launchpad.net/>

~~~
grandalf
When I see a project on SourceForge I assume it's over 10 years old and
unmaintained.

For years, SourceForge has been among the ugliest, least usable sites on the
internet, and now it has massive amounts of ad spam all over it.

One of the reasons Github grew so quickly was simply b/c of the better UX. Git
is marginally better than other version control systems, but the major void
that Github filled was that it offered a nice looking, usable place to put
open source code.

~~~
Surio
Have you visited them lately?

Their UX/sign-in etc., is now on par with github and others.

They got rid of the ads also. Also I have adblockers installed. If you/your
audience are the type frequenting HN and working on code by and large, you'll
also have some kind of adblocker installed on the browsers? Aren't ads a non-
issue under these circumstances?

>> When I see a project on SourceForge I assume it's over 10 years old and
unmaintained

Hmmm.. I don't even know where or how to address that strong an opinion (I'm
not even sure I want to, TBH). Let's just say, that's not a correct statement.

P.S: Github (blog) also carries job ads on the sides, so does SO. At times,
ads are a necessary evil of the internet ecosystem, specially when it comes to
(largely) free services

~~~
ksec
While they have definitely make jumps in their UI and UX. It is Definitely NOT
on par with GitHub.

And they didn't get rid of Ads. There are simply less of them. Not that i have
a problem with earning money from Ads, but from a limited UI point of view we
already have too many info we want and need.

Has SourceForge done this years earlier it may still have a fighting chance
against Github. Now the only contender left is BitBucket.

------
bloc
As mentioned bitbucket has free private reos, and it's great to have more
competition.

On a side note, the main reason I moved was because of github username
policies.

You can have your username given to another person organization for a
ambiguous policy of 'not being active'. This occurs at the discretion of the
github admin on hand. I logged in probably every 4-5 months to peruse other
repos, but that was not enough. I even got a 'password' change request that I
ignored because I didn't request it. I assume that shortly after that my
account was given away.

Sure usernames are part vanity and part pride, but they also identify you
among your communities. Being an early adopter of github in august 2008, you
would also hope they would give you a little more respect.

What about asking me to pay $ cause I would have. Oh well, I'm on bitbucket
and enjoy it.

From a strategic standpoint, I would suggest bitbucket start asking major
projects to move their repos over.

------
sebkomianos
Any significant reasons on why bitbucket is so behind github? I mean, "open
source projects are in github" might be an answer but my question is "why are
open source projects in github and not in bitbucket?".

~~~
TillE
BitBucket only supported Mercurial for a long time. That's fine with me, but
if you prefer Git, it wasn't an option.

~~~
kmfrk
I think that was what put me off at first. I think git was just more popular
around the time I looked into using a VCS.

------
swlkr
bitbucket's unlimited free private repositories are amazing

------
gary4gar
WoW...this is nice. Now, only if they could fix their source code browser
which si really slow compared to github's.

