EVENT
Retiring from Git Testing
- On July 14, 2026, I officially ended my era as an active Git tester, a role I held since within a month of the project's creation by Linus Torvalds in April 2005.
- The Canary in the Coal Mine:
- Following my initial Welcome to Portland Lunch and the Non-Linux Portability of Git with Linus, I became the primary tester for ensuring Git's portability on non-Linux systems, specifically macOS and OpenBSD.
- For over 21 years, I mirrored the official Git repository to my local machine, faithfully pulling the latest changes daily, rebuilding the live Git binary, and using it as my daily driver everywhere.
- I was a highly active participant in the Git mailing list and advocated for Git adoption through early presentations, including my viral Google Tech Talk and presentations at conferences like CONSOL 2005 in Mexico City and FISL.
- Retirement:
- On this day, I unsubscribed from the Git mailing list, deleted my local mirror of the repository, and updated my daily sync scripts to remove the automatic Git rebuild routine.
- Looking back, I realized I hadn't actually submitted a bug report or written new talks about Git in years—it has become such a fundamental, robust part of the fabric of the open-source ecosystem that it no longer needs the same "canary in the coal mine" vigilance as it did in the early days.
- While I am no longer active as a Git tester, I know the project remains in excellent hands.
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.