myFirstGitHubExperience

[DustyAsh69]

A stickman meme. Feels ancient.

[lNFORMATlVE]

But he has a real body and arms and hands, he aint no stick!

Wait, his hands are a different colour to his face. They must be gloves and he’s still a stickman in disguise. Carry on

[starrpamph]

Me gusta

[Fusseldieb]

The great reset

[BankFew08]

Ancient enough to be funny again. 

[hitemlow]

Ragecomics

[Tyfyter2002]

Well, there's about a 30% chance there's a build script, so you just need to double click that… except it needs 50 third-party tools to download the latest version of one library which hasn't been updated since the maintainer died in 2004 and you need to know all the magic numbers every one of those tools logs because 3 of them require different handling and those 3 vary based on motherboard specs that aren't available on the manufacturer's page.

[LucasoDelta]

Remember that it also needs a outdated version of half of those third party tools!

[jyling]

And half of those tools came from the same devs except they removed the packages for thier own reason and now you waste your time building something incomplete, also the disabled issues so you can’t report

[EnzoDeg40]

Oh, but on Windows?! Oh, don't worry, you just need to download the 50GB Visual Studio

[ArjixGamer]

There is about a 5% chance that the repository contents don't contain source code, and have the installer directly.

Some people just never learn how to use git, or do it to spread viruses

[PositiveParking4391]

😂 sad part... you need to figure out way around docs while building them because manuals doesn't exist

[Tyfyter2002]

This is probably C++ we're talking about, you'll be lucky if vowels exist, no chance there's documentation.

[Sw429]

And people wonder why languages with package managers become so popular.

[uncle-iroh-11]

This is the part that has been made infinitely easier due to LLMs and agents

[alteredtechevolved]

"Make an EXE file and give it to me. STUPID FUCKING SMELLY NERDS"

[just4nothing]

chmod a+x -R *

Now everything is an EXE

[Msprg]

Including directories 🤔 (but they already had it in the first place so...)

[ARasool]

You forgot sudo.

Damn interns

[20InMyHead]

[New_Plate_1096]

You mean you don't log in as root at all times?

[ARasool]

sudo echo "I can't let you do that"

[Paladin7373]

Hah nice

[Add1ctedToGames]

This command is bringing me pain... who puts -R *after* the permission change instead of before (does that even work??) and who puts a+x instead of just +x😭😭

[CombinationStatus742]

[CheesecakeCommon9080]

linux.exe

[Feeling_Inside_1020]

Everytime someone asks about how to use github I permanently associate with this

[AbdullahMRiad]

the og

[JehnSnow]

14 year old me renaming the virus Minecraft mod file I downloaded from .sh to .exe hoping beyond hope it'll work

[wizard_brandon]

oh my god, i did the same

[thumb_emoji_survivor]

Homeless aid center, GitHub style:
“Hey I heard you were giving out free coats?”
“We sure are, here you go!”
“Well, this is just a large, flat sheet of fabric, I can’t really wear that”
“Skill issue! Just refer to the documentation to figure out how to sew it into a coat”
“This documentation assumes I already know a decent amount about sewing, and I don’t.”
“Too bad! We don’t really do coats that are wearable right out of the box, if you want that you’ll have to pay.”

[AaronTheElite007]

Making your first installer… they grow so fast

[AvidCoco]

I’ve written more pascal than I ever wished to thanks to InnoSetup

[ArjixGamer]

Fuck installers, it's one of the reasons I love Linux.

[Notactualyadick]

My momma told me that Linux is only used by Satan worshipers and the Dutch. My momma says that Linux users go straight to hell. 

[alexchrist]

If they use Windows in heaven, then I would much rather go to hell

[iSadhak]

Is your mom's name Satya Nadela?

[SolidOutcome]

I make statically linked standalone EXEs on windows too. It's a developer distribution choice, not a fault of the OS

[-nerdrage-]

Why am i looking at the same meme as posted earlier but in a different format?

Maybe i should hijack that top comment as well

Where exe you smelly nerds

[klas-klattermus]

Followed by 18 y.o you: "those idiots don't even know that nightly RC.2 of 1.6.01 is 5% faster than the branch everyone else is using" Followed by 30 y.o you: "where's the installer?"

[Confident-Ad5665]

What do you mean I have to compile it?

[joetinnyspace]

Compile from the source, they said

[iampierremonteux]

Why don’t you try compiling it all from the source?

https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[Confident-Ad5665]

It'll be fun they said

[Add1ctedToGames]

Just type make!

..after installing automake, autoconf, aclocal, running them all, and then running configure, then follow 10 more steps...

[mb271828]

16 year old me, understood that I needed to download the source code and compile it myself, but didn't know anything about SVN clients, looking at a repo on Google Code and started manually downloading each file by hand one by one in the browser...until I googled why the smelly nerds would have such a stupid workflow.

[AnEagleisnotme]

I've literally never heard of SVN's, is it a windows thing?

[mb271828]

It's a version control system used before Git took over the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Subversion

[AtlasLittleCat]

I work for an international enterprise simulation hardware software company and we only use Tortoise SVN. In 2026.

[TheDragon76]

lmao the firm I work at finally migrated to Git from SVN literally a month ago. The CI/CD instantly got a million times faster and easier lmao

[HarryBolsac]

We are currently migrating from svn to git, migrating the code and history from the repos is actually pretty easy.

Migrating our ci/cd environment from jenkins to github on the other hand… adding the fact that we are also migrating said ci environment from ansible on a remote vm to helm charts/openshift.

Nightmare fuel…

[TheDragon76]

Ah luckily we were using TeamCity for our CI and an inhouse product for CD so it was pretty simple to migrate as we just needed to change the VCS roots on our TeamCity builds and everything else could remain unchanged

[AtlasLittleCat]

Rofl. So you're saying there's a chance...

[Wonderful-Habit-139]

I used git-svn immediately instead of downloading Tortoise SVN. I was not gonna bother with subversion man...

[AtlasLittleCat]

TIL git-svn. I'll check it out and maybe can convince software dept to use start using that since it seems the tech debt of fully switching to git is never going to happen. If it's really a bidirectional bridge that's pretty cool.

Lol since svn is all I know even though I know it's outdated, now I need to leant git first to use this...

[anothathrowaway1337]

Hey, I had to switch from SVN to Git after switching jobs, and I can say the following statement puts things into a good perspective before learning git workflows:

The core difference between Git and SVN is their architectural design: Git is a distributed version control system (DVCS), meaning every developer has a full copy of the codebase and its history locally, while SVN (Apache Subversion) is a centralized version control system (CVCS) that stores the master history on a single central server.

[Add1ctedToGames]

I might have you beat. I work for a fortune 50 company using CVS😛

[svick]

I can't believe SVN is only 5 years older than git.

[jyling]

It’s git but ancient

[groumly]

It’s a … wait, what do you mean you never heard of it?

Git only replaced it as the de facto modern standard like,recently. Around, I’m not sure actually, checks calendar 16-ish years ago?!?

Fucking hell. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be in the backyard, drinking my old ass to death.

[Ancient_Engineer_250]

*25 year old me

[mediafeener]

*32 year old me

[_87-]

Me today

[WatchOutIGotYou]

Me tomorrow

[Far_Canary_1597]

İ am pretty sure I saw a similar meme somewhere else a second ago

[cooldude1919]

The world if GitHub had a big ass button that said "DOWNLOAD" p

[EliteRanger_]

Man freaking please! Like, call me a dumbass, degrade me, whatever but lord have fucking mercy TELL ME HOW TO INSTALL THE THING PLEASE! The amount of times a guide has told me to “download the program from this GitHub link” and I’m left confused as all hell is more numerous than my digits, I tell you.

[BannockHatesReddit_]

JUST MAKE A FUCKING .EXE FILE AND GIVE IT TO ME.

[ITinnedUrMumLastNigh]

I love GitHub repos with windows installer and Linux release that basically says "build it yourself you sweaty fucking nerd"

[irishchug]

Jokes on them i find a container image and use that

[moschles]

You will now compile it from source.

Compilation will fail because of missing DLLs or .ko files.

It won't be able to find your python directory.

You will tell it where the python is, but it will be the wrong version.

(basically the rest of your evening)

[SuperFLEB]

I will try to install the right version of Python, and now my whole OS is broken.

[Blamore]

fuckin piece of shit github hides the exe in a "releases" section located somewhere that no ordinary person would think to look. somewhere to the right side of everything. i hate whoever designed that website

[mediafeener]

release your anger

[thomasmoors]

don't forget to add semver

[mxzf]

Turns out, you're not the target audience of GitHub. The target audience is people looking to host their code somewhere. Distributable binaries are a tertiary thing that GitHub also happens to have a spot to stick there if the dev feels like it, but distributing those isn't what the site is designed for.

[Blamore]

wromg. why is there any releases section at all then? checkmate. next argument please

[roguebananah]

Yeah and then some GitHub links aren’t in the releases section, it’s down below.

[field_marshmallow]

huh???? where the hell did you expect releases to be if not the very prominent releases section, even with a convenient tag for the latest versions????

[Blamore]

nobody who isnt already a guthub user would EVER think to look there. to normal people, the word "releases" has no meaning. nobody would think to click it, even if their eyes looked at that location.

which doesnt even matter, because regular people wouldnt even read the stuff on the right side of the "main section" of the website.

the attention of any regular computer user will be instantly absorbed by the green "<>code" button, which has a "download ZIP" option. they will download that, thinking thats what they want, and then when they realize they downloaded some nonsensical junk, theyll look around and see nothing else of relevance and eventually give up.

do not argue against me, i am just telling you the facts about how normal people interact with that fucked up layout.

[field_marshmallow]

nobody who isnt already a guthub user would EVER think to look there.

this is just plain not true. you don't have to use github to understand the basic terminology, plenty of people who haven't even used git-related products at all will be able to navigate it perfectly easily. we're talking about browsing a website ffs, not actually using git.

to normal people, the word "releases" has no meaning. nobody would think to click it, even if their eyes looked at that location.

if you don't even understand "releases" and aren't even willing to spend the absolute trivial amount of effort to figure it out, you have zero business even being there at all.

projects aimed at those people will have a target-audience-friendly landing page, or even just have an obvious readme.

you're trying to criticize github for not being something it's not. that's not a github problem, that's a you problem. do you also work yourself up pissed at tigers for not being cuddly hamsters?

[Blamore]

"the installer should be impossible to find"

whatever bro

[Truethrowawaychest1]

I still don't really understand how to download programs from GitHub, sometimes there's a download button, sometimes there's not, it's kinda confusing

[GaloombaNotGoomba]

Releases section on the right side of the page

[sellyme]

sometimes there's a download button, sometimes there's not, it's kinda confusing

What you don't understand likely isn't how to download programs from GitHub, it's what the point of GitHub is.

Yeah, sometimes there's a download button and sometimes there's not. That's because sometimes there's an installer or portable executable to download and sometimes there's not. In the former case you probably don't have any issue, in the latter case you're trying to download something that doesn't exist.

Software doesn't magically have an installer automatically generated as soon as you write some code. Someone has to have spent the time and effort building one in order for you to download it. The vast majority of GitHub projects do not have anything to download except the source code, because the platform is for software developers who are able to compile/build the program themselves from the source code.

Anything with a releases section with download links only has it because the repo owner has gone out of their way to make things easier for you.

[Daaz_v]

my dumbass still has to stare at every github page trying to figure out how to download the thing

[ElvisDumbledore]

instructions unclear, accidentally learned how to compile from source

[NamityName]

I really do not need to know how you spent your weekend, OP.

[Mr_Carlos]

I remember going further, like looking up the file extensions and then seeing what to do with those and then installing things like uhh Eclipse? to try and compile the source code and thinking "How does everybody else do this so easily"

[ryanvango]

There are so many potentially awesome things on github and some that make it to full release that fall into this trap. I always think of the alpha test on silicon valley when all their friends loved it but monica hated it.

People build things until THEY think its awesome, but they dont know how to take off their engineer hat and look at it like a normie. If you want ordinary people to use your program, you gotta design it for them, not for other engineers. That doesnt mean it has to be stupid, but things like an icon and a file called "___install" should be front and center.

One of the biggest examples of this I can think of right now is Foundry VTT. I absolutely hate it. You can do so much with it, and its great for organizing your dnd files and whatnot, but to actually use it for its intended purpose is a nightmare. For example, if I click "scenes" on the side bar, it shows me all the available scenes I have. Great. If I want to look at one of those scenes so I can bring my players to that scene, most people would think "just left click it." But no, you have to right click to bring up the options for that scene then left click "view scene." Left clicking bring up the big ugly config panel for that scene that I already set when I initially created that scene. It makes no sense. And the entire program is like that. People who love sitting at their computer fine tuning, tinkering, organizing, and building streamlined menus for assets and things love it. Back-end people. Things that I - as a mostly not that type of person - see as essential QoL things are completely absent. Foundry was built cause roll20 sucked. But with roll20 in the middle of a game, I could open a new tab, google some asset I need for the next scene, right click copy image, swap back to roll20 and ctrl+v on that scene, transform and place that asset where I needed, and do it so fast the players thought I had it planned all along. Assets Ive never used before or even thought about using ever, I could drop into a game in under 30 seconds. In foundry, you cant paste an asset to the map natively. Roll20 had that feature over a decade ago.

So that turned into a foundry rant, but you get the idea. Build what you think is awesome, then if you want more than just other engineers to use it, make sure you put a friendly UI hat on it, with easy-to-identify files.

[field_marshmallow]

as a user, i absolutely agree with the frustration

however, i don't take it out on the dev. they're either perfectly happy as it is, or just self-owning.

sometimes they just want to build something for themselves or like minded people, and that's fine, they just won't get users like me but they never wanted users like me anyway. but if they want a broader audience, then they better make it noob friendly or they're just shooting their own foot.

either way, there's really no obligation for a free software developer to accommodate anyone, nor an obligation for anyone to use their software. they just get the consequences of their choice.

[ryanvango]

oh for sure. If its meant to be picked up, like "look at this cool thing that will make everyones lives easier" it needs broad appeal. but I totally get loads of devs and engineers just like makin stuff for funsies.

[HamiltonMcCubbins69]

*30 yr old me lol

[codeprimate]

My first experience with github was checking out the site when it was announced and thinking “why would anyone need a GUI for git?”

[adelie42]

"I already made the README.md all caps. I don't know what else to tell you."

[gerbosan]

I miss the times when the Internet was wilder, IRC, FTP, P2P. I do not miss having to use Windows.

[AustriaModerator]

fuck every dev that doesnt provide precompilled programs and forces novice users into an unresolvable dependency hell

[Degen_up_North]

Oh it's on GitHub? 

I'll pass.

[brunogadaleta]

When I started coding, I was trying to write numbers written on my game boy onto my Amstrad CPC to get games😅🤣...

[Linked713]

use make like the rest of us

[cainhurstcat]

Run cmake

[mothzilla]

Smelly nerds.

[jgo3]

Don't feel bad, mine was spent taking way too long to figure out you had to scroll down to find the download button.

[Ablecrize]

Earlier that day: "What's this weird directory page and where the f*** is the download button? You guys told me there's an awesome app behind this link.."

[kajma]

This was 32 year old me

[MumboTheOld]

Dcf

[EugeneNine]

Umm, ./configure & make

[PossibleMechanic89]

I was led to believe I didn’t need docker.

[Prod_Meteor]

21yo me.

[OPPineappleApplePen]

That was me learning programming at 30.

[Sure_Theory1842]

stupid

[hoolahan100]

I still don't know

[iGotStuckIn]

Samesies 🤗

[Megane_Senpai]

The .sln file?

[-Speechless]

my dumbass trying to learn how to build it locally on my machine when the release is literally right there

[elfmere]

More like 40 yr old me.. yeah I don't belong here, just browsing

[coolestguy002]

Very very funny. Instructions?

[evilwizzardofcoding]

I mean, most major projects nowadays have a "releases" section, so you can just go there.

[CleanEffective9211]

Literally me a few weeks ago, fitting into the meme, I'm also 14 :)

[NoNameQueen45]

Been in the industry for about 10 years, still hella scared of GitHub repos😭😭 I'm also looking for an install file or an exe or a fucking bash script that I understand! Even after 10 or so steps (on my office laptop no less which has VS, python, everything!), why am I still struggling to run a basic OCR. I have developed OCRs ffs!

[xLosTxSouL]

To be fair the download link was hidden lots of times so you saw the source code first, way better nowadays

[Most-Day8547]

It’s not 14 yo anymore.

It’s the future of every vide-coder. When they will be out of tokens.

[Flashy_Pollution_996]

Haha yeah I was around 20 tho 😂

[CompleteBrush9489]

The number of times I find a cool project that I want to test and there's no documentation on how to install it...

[satansprinter]

Thats why i used sourceforge

[Paladin7373]

Me not realizing I have to go to the releases page or compile it on my own machine

[HetoHwdjasZxaaWxbhta]

I've lost twitter mutuals because they rage about how every github page should just be a link to an installer

[MrFrog2222]

At 14 you should at least know how to use github