"GitHub" Is Starting to Feel Like Legacy Software

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Perception of GitHub as “Legacy”

  • Many see GitHub as a big, aging Rails app with a bolted‑on feel: features feel scattered, some simple actions take too many clicks, and UI elements are hidden behind menus despite space.
  • Others argue the tech stack (Rails vs React) is irrelevant; the problem is product design and UX decisions, not the framework.

UI Regressions and Lazy Loading

  • A central complaint: lazy loading / virtualized views break basic browser behaviors like Ctrl/Cmd‑F and full‑document visibility (e.g., blame view, PR file lists, long diffs).
  • Similar frustrations are reported with Slack, Jira, and GitLab: infinite scroll and partial rendering make search and navigation unreliable.
  • Some defend this as an intentional performance tradeoff (smaller DOM, lower resource usage), but many feel the usability loss isn’t worth it.

Stability vs Constant “Modernization”

  • Strong appreciation for tools that stay mostly the same (GitHub, VS Code), letting developers focus on other learning rather than re‑learning UIs.
  • Others counter that GitHub has evolved substantially and positively (Actions, Codespaces, CI/CD integrations, Copilot), and that isolated annoyances don’t negate overall value.
  • Several posters are wary that “modernizing” could further bloat and slow the UI, as already seen in parts of the site.

Code Review, Notifications, and Search

  • Code review flow is viewed as underdeveloped relative to its importance: missing stacked diffs, code‑move highlighting, coverage indicators, and robust handling of rebases / PR versions.
  • Collapsing large files or large diffs by default is seen as harmful for review quality.
  • Notifications and Discussions are widely criticized as confusing or unusable; Actions logs have readability issues for some themes.
  • Code search is viewed as only “moderately better”; some want deeper, AST‑based search.

Alternatives, APIs, and Local Tools

  • GitLab is praised as faster and better in some respects, though also criticized for slow MRs and complex settings.
  • GitHub’s API is seen as its strongest asset, enabling third‑party review tools and workflows, but its dual REST/GraphQL design and PAT transition are viewed as messy technical debt.
  • Many recommend local or third‑party blame/diff tools (CLI, TUIs, IDE plugins) as better experiences than the current web UI.