Git at Scale (by cursor) has been one of the most interesting blog posts i've read in a while. It came right when I was frustrated with Shopify's internal git system.
As an exercise, I've implemented it over the weekend as open source. It's a single rust binary that you can point at any S3 type object store. It uses WAL and CAS primitives and requires no other data store.
It also implements bundle-uri so large git repos (like our mono) are very fast to download as a chain of static bundles. Also comes with basic familiar UX.
https://t.co/oEnWK3eIL4
Me: “Let’s just add Redis for caching. It’ll make the API faster.”
Tech Lead: “Faster than what?”
Me: “Faster than hitting the database every time.”
Tech Lead: “Have we measured how often we’re actually hitting the database right now?
Or are we solving a problem we only think we have?”
Me: “…”
Tech Lead: “Speed is a feature. Complexity is a debt. Don’t take the debt before you need the feature.”
Customers make an open-source business financially stable, not donations.
We tried to fund Plausible through donations.
In 6 months, we got 6 donations. $5 each. $30 total.
In the same 6 months: paid subscriptions grew from $400 to $8,500 MRR.
People didn't pay because they believed in the project. They paid because it solved their problem.
Open source needs a business model, not a tip jar.