[HN Gopher] Gitpod shipped GitHub a launch cake for Codespaces
___________________________________________________________________
Gitpod shipped GitHub a launch cake for Codespaces
Author : ghuntley
Score : 183 points
Date : 2021-09-03 14:54 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.gitpod.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.gitpod.io)
| [deleted]
| illnewsthat wrote:
| The page title says "Page Not Found" which would make you think
| it's a 404, the page body says "500 Oh, no! Something went wrong
| on our side." But the actual HTTP response is 200 OK.
|
| The entire /blog section has a flash of content and then is
| replaced with the error message. If you view the source, you can
| still find the content.
|
| Oh, but if I turn off uBlock Origin and the analytics.js and
| newsletter-signup.js/css are allowed to load then the page loads
| fine. Interesting!
| hbn wrote:
| Do people really type like that normally? With emojis
| interspersed in the middle of sentences?
| moritonal wrote:
| Given the user ghuntley is claiming to be the author, and types
| with "<3" in their messages, it seems so?
|
| I feel like emoji's in conversation are a good middle ground
| for the lack of body-language?
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| Sigh, newspeak (yeah I'm abusing the term)... You even have
| uptalk in text with 2 sentences ending in "?". People are
| going to downvote this because I'm going to sound (and be)
| patronising, but drop it, uptalk makes you sound not
| confident.
|
| Some guy whose girlfriend I follow on Facebook posts updates
| with emojis next to words, something like "We went up
| [Mountain emoji] Mount Cook today", etc. It's excruciating,
| the last time I saw something like this was when I was doing
| fill-in-the-blanks in kindergarten, where we had to add the
| words next to the picture hints, so when people write like
| that, yeah I think they're kindergartners.
| hbn wrote:
| I'm not knocking emojis across the board, I use them plenty
| in text conversations. But with something like,
|
| > I've been scrolling through your facebook page and would
| love to work with you.
|
| HN doesn't show emojis but in his email he puts a heart after
| the word "love." Which seems redundant and breaks up the
| sentence awkwardly
| Smaug123 wrote:
| I dunno - I'm definitely a language purist, and even so, I
| will admit that the emoji is not redundant. It causes the
| emphasis of the sentence to fall on the word "love", rather
| than "work". It has a similar effect to "I would *love* to
| work with you", but without the awkward plain-text
| formatting.
| reilly3000 wrote:
| That's quite a cake, and a cheeky way to put themselves into the
| conversation. GitPod was and is a great service and I hope they
| find a sustainable path forward. Of course they can support other
| repo hosting services, but codespaces must have been a
| devastating blow. Best to them.
| manigandham wrote:
| On the contrary, the software engineering industry is massive
| and market validation with more competitors is a good thing.
| You can build a great business just dealing with companies that
| don't use Github.
| ghuntley wrote:
| Geoff here from Gitpod. Codespaces launching is _awesome_ and
| we have been waiting for this moment for so long (over 2
| years!) - now everyone is talking about improving developer
| experience.
|
| ps. If you run technical workshops I would <3 to speak with you
| https://www.gitpod.io/blog/workshops-as-code
| IshKebab wrote:
| Is it though? This totally sounds like "yeay... we love that
| you've ruined our business model, it's greeaaat!"
|
| Though I get that you can't really say that you're gutted.
| And at least they aren't giving Codespaces away for free, so
| you can at least compete.
|
| And I guess companies like Shazam and TomTom still exist,
| despite Google making way better free versions of their
| products.
| cube2222 wrote:
| Not affiliated with anything of this at all, but this can
| totally be a good thing for them.
|
| GitHub entering this space gives them additional validation
| of the existence of a market for this kind of product and
| gives a lot of additional exposure to the product idea as a
| whole.
|
| Even if they will now get a smaller percentage of
| developers using this kind of tool, the rise in the total
| number of developers using such tools will most probably
| make up for it.
| universa1 wrote:
| very nice gesture :-) greetings from kiel <3
| cknoxrun wrote:
| Personally, this post made me aware there are existing
| alternatives to Codespaces. Codespaces is very cool, but it
| also adds to an ever-growing single point of failure, which is
| dependence on Github for almost all of our tools and tooling.
| Using robust alternatives can help to spread that risk around.
| ghuntley wrote:
| Gitpod is open-source, accepts pull-requests and can be self
| hosted on your own infrastructure btw.
| epolanski wrote:
| The fact that free git platforms exists all around doesn't kill
| dozens of profitable alternatives.
|
| The same could be said about codespaces. In fact, more people
| getting into codespaces is great for platforms like gitpod that
| can fight and offer solid alternative experiences.
|
| The issue I believe for platforms like gitpod is to shift the
| mindset of many devs and companies that developing in a browser
| isn't merely a possibility but sometimes preferable.
| cxr wrote:
| Many of these platforms aren't really interested in shifting
| the _full_ development to the browser (although they could),
| since that would destroy the business position they're trying
| to establish for themselves. JS was created to be able to run
| in the browser, and yet most JS developers insist on still
| writing or relying on metatooling that can't actually run
| _in_ the browser, even if that tooling is already written in
| JS! It requires downloading and installing an SDK /runtime+
| like NodeJS, or relying on a service provider like GitPod to
| provide the analog (read: run the same tools, but on machines
| that they own and that you can communicate with via the
| browser viewport).
|
| If folks were really committed to improving the developer
| experience, then instead of what we do now and instead of
| what services like GitPod and Codespaces propose that we do,
| development would work like this:
|
| 1. Download the project source tree
|
| 2. Open README.html
|
| 3. Drag and drop the project source _onto_ README.html, which
| doesn't contain half explanations about setting up the
| appropriate development environment, so much as it contains
| an exact description (i.e. in executable code) of the build
| process--for the benefit of the machine that will perform it
| (along with these three steps--for the benefit of the
| human/prospective contributor)
|
| + See <https://www.colbyrussell.com/2019/03/06/how-to-
| displace-java...>
| ghuntley wrote:
| > preferable
|
| Pull up a chair for a moment and consider that in this moment
| of time you are an open-source maintainer or a team-lead who
| has to review the pull-requests in the video below. Each
| browser tab is a brand new development environment, the git
| branch is automatically cloned, all dependencies are restored
| and your software has already been compiled.
|
| Good? Now you understand what Gitpod is all about.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7BINiu_Rbo
| [deleted]
| sida wrote:
| I recently started using hosted codespaces (because I bought a
| apple M1 and ran into a lot of issues with compilation)
|
| I started with gitpod and then moved to GitHub codespaces after 1
| weeks.
|
| GitHub codespaces is just miles better in terms of features AND
| first class integration AND reliability (I gave up on gitpod
| after 2 consecutive nights of not being able to connect into my
| pod).
|
| While I hope gitpod all the best and want them to do super well.
| It is hard for me to imagine going back
| ozzydave wrote:
| Pretty curious why Facebook is listed as a customer - they built
| this internally ~5 years ago and wouldn't buy it in afaik.
| Sebb767 wrote:
| In a large organization, it's quite common that some division
| buys a tool on their own, without the other divisions knowing
| about it. Especially in a company as large as Facebook. So
| realistically this means someone from Facebook gave them money
| at least once, not that all of FB is a customer.
| up6w6 wrote:
| What are the key differences between Gitpod's vscode and Coder's
| code-server[1] ? It seems that competition would be a lot easier
| if Microsoft just adds codespace's features directly to vscode.
|
| [1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server
| [deleted]
| raybb wrote:
| I personally love using gitpod for open source work.
|
| I got it setup and working for open library
| (https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary) and I think some
| people have been quite happy to not have to download them many GB
| of docker images to their machine to be able to do small tweaks.
| bla3 wrote:
| That's a good-looking cake!
| ignoramous wrote:
| Ah, reminds me of the good ol' browser wars:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2358300 ( _From Redmond with
| Love - IE team sends cake for FF4_ , 2011)
| doctorhandshake wrote:
| My favorite part of this marketing stunt is how classy the author
| was about giving maximum shine to the baker. It is indeed an
| excellent-looking cake and she deserves it.
| lostintangent wrote:
| Agreed! Unfortunately, most of the Codespaces team aren't even
| in the SF area, in order to actually receive this cake (like
| most modern teams, we're heavily distributed). But I love that
| this gave awareness for Camisha, and her unbelievable cakes.
| tyingq wrote:
| That was nice. You can still see, though, the initial hesitancy
| to let the baker run with the idea. We're pretty funny as a
| group where we push back hard on our customers that want to
| peer into details. But we tend to not return the favor to other
| fields of expertise when we need their help. I've noticed
| physicians and pilots are often the same way.
| gffrd wrote:
| A lawyer friend used to say his worst customers were
| engineers and doctors, who would want to understand the
| entire legal system before being being comfortable with a
| legal position.
| enlightens wrote:
| > thus a lot of our employees are German. After an unfair vote,
| German Chocolate was declared the winner, but it wasn't without
| some office debate as to what German Chocolate tastes like
|
| It's not _from Germany_ , it's named after a guy named Samuel
| German
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake
|
| ... just like a French drain is named after Henry Flagg French
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drain
| belval wrote:
| Fun fact after that last one, while France will call a French
| drain a drain, Quebec (the French-speaking part of Canada)
| actually calls it a "drain Francais" due to the influence of
| English neighbours. We translated the guy's name.
| sergers wrote:
| Yea I have had heard disdain from born in France speakers who
| immigrated to Canada, about Quebecois or Canadian french.
|
| Alot is literal translation of English to French, not using a
| specific french term or word for an item.
|
| Example I always hear of: sour cream is translated to Creme
| Sure in Canada french.
|
| Where while not always identical in product, proper France
| French term is Creme fraiche
| belval wrote:
| Official French from Quebec has some pretty atrocious words
| that where forcibly "adapted". My favourite example is
| "mel" which is "mail" as-in email.
|
| Before you ask, no, no one uses that.
| wwalexander wrote:
| While they're similar, creme fraiche and sour cream are
| different foods. Sour cream usually has additional
| ingredients and is noticeably more viscous, and has a much
| more sour flavor. You wouldn't really want to put it on
| fruit or breakfast pastries like creme fraiche.
| disintegore wrote:
| There are multiple French-speaking parts of Canada
| belval wrote:
| Of course! I didn't mean to say that French is only spoken
| in Quebec, you can read my comment more as a one of the
| French-speaking province, didn't mean to exclude anyone :)
| robertlagrant wrote:
| Too late! Your comment commanded everyone else in Canada
| to speak English, and French is now excluded.
| dnautics wrote:
| is that like stop signs saying arret when in france they say
| "stop"?
| kzrdude wrote:
| I'm a bit interested in why all the European countries
| standardized on STOP for that sign. Apparently that's
| mandated by the convention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi
| enna_Convention_on_Road_Sign... which has wide support in
| Europe and sporadically other places.
|
| It's impressive/weird to me that the convention got all the
| countries to use the english word on the stop sign, for
| consistency.
| jorams wrote:
| While I don't know the answer, I would guess it has
| something to do with it not just being the English word.
| It's also the Dutch word (spelled exactly the same) and,
| based on some random clicking in Google Translate,
| Croation, Norwegian and Czech. It's a secondary
| translation in a bunch of other languages. I don't know
| how much of that changed after the road signs, but it
| looks like a good international basis.
| kzrdude wrote:
| it is not norwegian, as we would write STOPP in
| norwegian. In that sense, it's annoying, it's a word you
| understand, but the sign is also "misspelled".
| hnbad wrote:
| Same in German. I remember teachers lecturing us in
| school about this. "Stop" certainly has become an
| acceptable spelling in colloquial German for some people
| because of this, much to the despair of language purists.
| Even the Duden (German standard reference dictionary)
| seems to have adopted it even if with some caveats:
|
| https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/stop
| apocolyps6 wrote:
| > Even the Duden
|
| Good. The purpose of a dictionary is to record how
| language is used, not to gatekeep or social engineer what
| is "proper" language and what isn't.
|
| Linguistic prescriptivism is the purview of bigots and
| school teachers.
| belval wrote:
| Not quite, the stop/arret thing is because of a law that
| says our official language is French so everything HAS to
| be in French. If a product's packaging does not have a
| French side it simply cannot be sold in Quebec unless it
| has an exception of sorts.
| wwalexander wrote:
| In Montreal, there is a flashing neon sign on top of a
| former flour factory [1]. This sign originally read:
| FARINE FIVE ROSES FLOUR
|
| The first line is French for "flour", the second line is
| the brand name, and third line is, well, "flour" in
| English.
|
| When Bill 101 passed, they had to remove "flour" from the
| sign as it was an English word. However, they were
| allowed to keep "Five Roses", as opposed to "Cinq Roses",
| since it'a a brand name, so now it simply reads:
| FARINE FIVE ROSES
|
| The owners have apparently tried to take the sign down,
| since the brand has since been sold to their competitors,
| but capitulated to public outcry. Apparently, it's quite
| expensive to maintain, but I can see why locals don't
| want it to go. It adds a lot of character to the skyline.
|
| [1] https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/farine-five-
| roses-sign
| joemi wrote:
| There's a great bit about that in the movie Canadian
| Bacon where a police officer in Canada (not sure if it
| was actually in Quebec or not) catches some Americans
| writing anti-Canadian graffiti. The officer informs them
| that they need to have French translations and helps them
| add it, and then moves on.
| matrix2596 wrote:
| You must see the Latin correction in life of Brian then
| kzrdude wrote:
| Sounds very Pythonesque, indeed
| mrosett wrote:
| Off topic, but I got a good laugh when I learned that the
| French call French toast "Pain perdu Americain"
| Kydlaw wrote:
| I'm sorry to announce you that somebody fooled you. Source:
| I'm french, lived in many different regions and everybody
| called it simply "pain perdu". Moreover, french people
| usually do not add the origin of a recipe like american do
| on a regular basis.
| espadrine wrote:
| We only call it that when we visit the US though.
| tomnipotent wrote:
| Same for French dip.
| mlok wrote:
| This reminds me of the French Fries renamed Freedom Fries in
| the USA because of France opposition to the invasion of Iraq
| after 9/11.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fries
|
| The funny thing is that this name certainly has nothing to do
| with France :
|
| "The origin of the name French fries has nothing to do with
| France, the name comes from the Irish. In the old Irish
| language, the word french means chopped. At the beginning of
| the 20th century, Irish people immigrated to the United States,
| Canada, and other regions. These immigrants popularized the
| term french fries to other countries. Therefore, French fries
| originally meant frenched fries, cut into strips. Frenched
| strips are larger than julienned filaments, so this is why it
| is called French fries."
|
| (from https://www.potatochipprocessing.com/why-are-french-
| fries-ca... )
|
| See also "The French cut" a.k.a. "Julienning" :
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julienning
| hnbad wrote:
| I always assumed this was an American thing as most Europeans
| seem to regard "original" fries as Belgian (or Dutch).
| Interesting that it's not actually about the origin but the
| cut.
|
| FWIW thick cut fries are often sold as "Flamse Friets"
| (Flemish fries, in Dutch) or "Belgische Fritten" (Belgian
| fries, in German) so having "French fries" in English just
| felt consistently inconsistent.
| tbrownaw wrote:
| We (USA) also have "steak fries" which are much thicker
| than normal fries.
| wg0 wrote:
| GitPod is awesome and of course ahead of time. I for one, however
| find it heartwarming - groups of humans competing against each
| other and cheering for each other with sweets and cakes.
|
| We, probably at the same time can be the worst and the best
| creature on this planet.
| jdorfman wrote:
| Brilliant work Geoffrey.
| bsksi wrote:
| The post renders completely and correctly and is promptly
| replaced by a 500 error that is probably fake. Modern web
| development is hilarious.
| ghuntley wrote:
| Our fault, fix deployed. Thanks for letting me know.
| y4mi wrote:
| I'm still encountering the same issue though :)
| mikenikles wrote:
| That's on me, although I haven't quite figured out what
| causes it :). It's all static pages.
|
| I'm going to completely remove all Javascript on pages that
| don't need it, which is most of them.
|
| Investigation continues...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-09-03 23:02 UTC)