Launchpad by Canonical
Ranked 15 of 22 Git forges by recommenders
Canonical's code hosting and bug tracker, recommended as an early, well-regarded option before GitHub; critics call it flaky, archaic and neglected.
Canonical's code hosting and bug tracker, recommended as an early, well-regarded option before GitHub; critics call it flaky, archaic and neglected.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 18
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Predated GitHub and had early CI
“Launchpad predated GitHub by a lot. canonical just played those cards horribly and lost.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical” “Launchpad had something like CI before everyone from what I remember.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Before GitHub”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Frequent outages and flaky service
“Launchpad was down for most of that time (despite Canonical reporting that it was back up) so many people can't update.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Another Major Outage of Canonical” “Launchpad doesn’t have the bandwidth for half the world to all update at the same time.”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “PHP 8.2.35” “The launchpad server is throwing 503 errors all over the place”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “PHP 8.2.35” - Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Canonical Under Attack”
Neglected, bugs left unfixed
“It was deprioritized for years, the team gutted to staff other shinier projects”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical” “I feel like launchpad is totally ignored most of the time.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils” “all of the Ubuntu LaunchPad bugs being left hanging”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “OpenBSD Developers Reject Uutils Coreutils” - Comment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Ubuntu 26.10 completes transition to Rust-based coreutils”
Archaic and clunky to use
“Even to this day there is a complex and archaic process of using Launchpad where git is tacked on”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical” “It's an insanely archaic system and borderline non-functional.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “What is RISC-V and why it matters to Canonical” “most of those, except maybe gitlab, were clunky AF to use”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Ex-GitHub CEO Launches a New Developer Platform for AI Agents”
Other Git forges people recommend
The four most recommended other Git forges, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 22 Git forges, rankedWhat people said
26 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Launchpad doesn’t have the bandwidth for half the world to all update at the same time.”
“The launchpad server is throwing 503 errors all over the place”
“all of the Ubuntu LaunchPad bugs being left hanging”
“Features that I don't want but take over my machine if I accidentally use the track pad wrong.”
“I don't recall any of them ever being fixed.”
“I feel like launchpad is totally ignored most of the time.”
“the text field doesn't focus fast enough for the text”
“actually changed my patterns in a profound way and I haven't gone back to my previous patterns of working”
“Apple has regressed on this too, with the deletion of Launchpad.”
“Launchpad was down for most of that time (despite Canonical reporting that it was back up) so many people can't update.”
“launchpad.net is also extremely flaky”
“Launchpad had something like CI before everyone from what I remember.”
“The removal of Launchpad is another blunder. Apple didn't even replace it with anything.”
“It was deprioritized for years, the team gutted to staff other shinier projects”
“It's an insanely archaic system and borderline non-functional.”
“Even to this day there is a complex and archaic process of using Launchpad where git is tacked on”
“Launchpad predated GitHub by a lot. canonical just played those cards horribly and lost.”
“Owned by companies that do not help the US Federal Government illegally spy on their own citizens and murder children overseas”
“making workflow bit more smoother with some additional programs like Launchpad”
“most of those, except maybe gitlab, were clunky AF to use”
“The only redeeming thing I could say about Launchpad is that it did not replace Spotlight”
“Except macOS doesn't have the benefit of live tiles to excuse it.”
“The OS now provides no way to organize your applications.”
“I never had a problem launching apps from Launchpad (I guess because that was its sole purpose, and it did it well)”
“Launchpad was so much more polished and better performing.”
“launchpad doesn't work for us because it only works with Ubuntu”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.