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RailsConf 2019 - The Past, Present, and Future of Rails at GitHub by Eileen M  Uchitelle
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On August 15, 2018 GitHub was deployed to production running Rails 5.2. This was a historic event; for years GitHub had been behind Rails and dependent on a custom fork of Rails 2.3. This talk will visit GitHub's past, including our tumultuous relationship with the Rails framework, and the grueling effort it took to get our application on the latest version. You’ll learn what mistakes to avoid and the reasons why such a difficult upgrade was worth it. We’ll explore what tracking master means for the future and establish that GitHub and Rails are in it together for the long haul.

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In the talk titled "The Past, Present, and Future of Rails at GitHub" presented by Eileen M Uchitelle at RailsConf 2019, the speaker discusses GitHub's historical relationship with the Ruby on Rails framework, detailing the challenges and successes of upgrading their applications over the years. The presentation outlines GitHub's journey from maintaining a custom fork of Rails to successfully upgrading to Rails 5.2.

Key points discussed include:
- **Historical Context**: GitHub was launched in 2008 using Rails 1.2.3, quickly falling behind as they forked Rails, leading to its own custom version. Early upgrades were faster, but concerns about performance and stability initiated a complex relationship with the framework.
- **Challenges of the Fork**: The decision to fork Rails brought about significant technical debt, as deviation from the main framework made upgrades increasingly difficult. GitHub engineers encountered issues maintaining and upgrading their custom fork, ultimately leading to doubts about the fork’s value.
- **The Upgrade Journey**: It took GitHub a long time to upgrade from Rails 2 through Rails 3 and then to Rails 5. The upgrade process from Rails 4 to 5 was strategically executed using a dedicated team and specific methodologies that allowed incremental improvements without significant downtimes.
- **Team Structure and Support**: A strong emphasis on teamwork and planning facilitated a smoother transition. Collaboration among engineers was crucial as they collectively addressed challenges and supported one another through the upgrade process.
- **Lessons Learned**: Uchitelle discusses the importance of avoiding the forking of frames unnecessarily and highlights the cumulative costs of delaying upgrades. Maintaining current versions is essential for security, performance, and access to new features.
- **Future Implications**: Post-upgrade, GitHub aims to consistently contribute back to Rails, benefiting the community and their application by incorporating modern features, thereby avoiding past mistakes and setting a new standard for collaboration.

In conclusion, Uchitelle emphasizes that continuous investments in upgrading frameworks like Rails are essential not just for keeping technology up to date but also for contributing to the broader open-source ecosystem. GitHub’s experience illustrates the challenges of falling behind and the importance of keeping pace with technology to prevent incurring technical debt.

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