initial commit
13 issuesa newsletter about the very first commits of software we use every day. one repo at a time. no rebases, no regrets.
- #13PostgreSQLThe first commit of PostgreSQL is from 1996, nine years before git existed. It's labeled 'Virgin Sources' and the copyright still says University of California.
- #12SupabaseThe first commit of Supabase is not a database. It's a Next.js marketing website for a product that did not yet exist, advertising features that never shipped.
- #11Node.jsThe first commit of Node.js is three files, eight lines, and contains no Node.js. It's a .gitmodules file pointing at two C libraries Ryan Dahl had already written.
- #10jQueryThe first commit of jQuery contains Perl, a 748-line monolithic core, and a commit message with a typo in the word 'Initial'.
- #09RedisThe README of Redis's first commit is one line long. So is the BUGS file; and it contains a typo in the word 'Please'.
- The first commit of Rails is 296 files, 30,881 lines, and a one-word message: 'Initial'. It's the bundling of a framework that already existed inside Basecamp.
- #07KubernetesThe first commit of Kubernetes arrived as a 47,501-line dump from Google. It had controllers, kubelets, an apiserver, and no pods. Pods were called 'tasks'.
- #06BitcoinThe first commit of the Bitcoin repository is not by Satoshi. It's dated eight months after launch, and it contains a built-in marketplace and Windows DLLs.
- #05VS CodeThe first commit of VS Code is 704,173 lines across 300 files, titled 'Hello Code', and authored by the man who co-wrote the Gang of Four book.
- #04GitLinus Torvalds wrote git fast enough, in five days, to commit git to git. The first commit contains only plumbing and a README that calls the project 'stupid'.
- #03HomebrewThe first commit of Homebrew is a 137-line README. The commit message is 'I'll start with a rare Belgian yeast and Sussex hops.'
- #02GoThe first commit of the Go repository is backdated to 1972 and attributed to Brian Kernighan. It's 'hello, world': the original, in the B language.
- #01Next.jsThe first commit of Next.js was a 173-line README titled 'initial spec': a design doc for a framework that did not yet exist.