3
Using GitHub as a landing page for small source‑available tools — does this model make sense? (programming.dev)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/github@programming.dev
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I’ve been experimenting with building very small personal tools to help myself stay focused. One of them is a tiny terminal‑based Pomodoro timer.

For this project I’m trying a different distribution model: it’s closed‑source in the licensing sense, but the code is source‑available. The actual download with code is on Gumroad, where I’m testing a pay‑what‑you‑want model 0$+.

In this setup, GitHub works more like a landing page / documentation hub rather than a place where the full source lives.

Since I’m still learning how to distribute tiny solo tools in a way that feels “fair” and reasonable, I’m curious how other developers see this approach:

Is using GitHub as a landing page acceptable when the code isn’t hosted there?

Does PWYW 0$+ make sense for small, simple tools?

How do you usually distribute your own micro‑projects?

For context, here’s the project I’m experimenting with:

GitHub: https://github.com/Mietkiewski/MPomidoro

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

I assume it's not against GitHub terms, but I find it inappropriate and unfitting. Smells like marketing for discoverability with no content, just forwarding. Which is a thing of course, but if you're asking me as a developer and personally, I'd prefer the project not do that. A repo as a pure landing page uses nothing of what makes a repo a repo.

If it's a developer creating their portfolio and linking their distributed projects to their developer profile, I think I can see some value in that. But in that case, all of them should be in one repo.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •