3 years ago

Category: Microsoft, github, gitlab

Earlier this week, GitHub launched the public beta of GitHub Container Registry — essentially an addition to the GitHub Packages feature released last year that will enable its users to “better enforce access policies, encourage usage of a standard base image, and promote innersourcing through easier sharing across the organization.” Perhaps even more important than those features, however, is the fact that GitHub will provide anonymous access for public container images, which it says it will provide free of charge.

Not that you’d expect GitHub to mention it, but reading the news you might be tempted to think that this is the first alternative to DockerHub out there, when in fact GitLab has offered this exact functionality since 2016.

GitLab is missing, however, one big part that the Microsoft-backed (and owned) GitHub can offer – the cloud platform behind it. Whether or not GitLab got there first, GitHub is getting in on the game, precisely when DockerHub seems to be opting out of footing the bill for widespread (free) use, and it has a foot in the door already on where many assume it plans to take this next.