GitHub was founded in 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath and P.J. Hyett.
GitHub began as a web-based collaboration service for software developers using Git, a distributed version-control system created by Linus Torvalds. The founders wanted to make it easier for programmers to share code, discuss changes and work together on projects.
The company’s social features helped distinguish it from a simple code-hosting server. Public repositories, issue tracking, pull requests and profiles made software development more collaborative and visible.
GitHub is sometimes mixed up with Git itself. Git is the version-control tool; GitHub is the company and platform built around hosting and collaboration. Microsoft announced an agreement to acquire GitHub in 2018, and the acquisition was completed later that year. GitHub remains a major home for open-source software and developer projects.