Is GitHub Copilot still relevant in the enterprise?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47196263

by AznHisoka • 5 months ago

22 23 5 months ago

news.ycombinator.com

It used to be the default choice for companies a few years ago, and now I dont hear many people using it. Does anyone still use it here or have you gone over to Claude Code/Codex/devin/cursor?

clickety_clack• 5 months ago

Now, like then, the only people using it are in enterprises who have to use it because Microsoft are already approved and bureaucracy makes it hard to add new vendors.

mellosouls• 5 months ago

To an extent, probably. It was the first serious (post GPT3 for all its flaws) AI assistant, but even so I'm not sure it was ever the default choice because it wasn't until after ChatGPT got released that AI capabilities started getting mainstream awareness.

Then ofc Cursor took off, but even then normie coders were AI-sceptical or mostly aware through ChatGPT.

Devin was only ever hype.

I still use Copilot (I've been a subscriber since first available) but in concert with ChatGPT/Codex and Cursor & Warp, so it tends to take a backseat.

I would expect most usage of it to be via VSCode until recently.

So perhaps it was always a secondary choice (despite being the pilot) to the trailblazers like Cursor and Claude Code but it has an important place in history and as a monthly subscription it's one of the best value ones so still worth looking at.

acadavid79• 5 months ago

We still use it. Its integration in VSCode makes it very easy to use. We can select which model to use, and Claude’s are the best in my opinion.

dd8601fn• 5 months ago

I think I’m seeing fallout of Microsoft’s notoriously horrific branding and marketing, again?

Some people seem to be talking about the VS(C) extension/feature, the paid llm service from GitHub, or both?

“X bone X is your PC!” vibes, anyone?

idontwantthis• 5 months ago

Or are we talking about Microsoft Word?

qingcharles• 5 months ago

It has the best integration with Visual Studio, and it is incredible value for money on the $10/mo plan. I used it for all my legacy WinForms app work.

al_borland• 5 months ago

GitHub Copilot is the only AI we’re allowed to use where I work.

I don’t use it heavily. I had to turn off the auto-suggestions, because they were almost always wrong, and the hijack the tab key, which makes writing my hand painful (having to hit escape before every tab). I tried looking for a way to change the keybinding a year ago, but it didn’t seem possible.

I will occasionally use the Ask sidebar to see if it gives me some good options or for a quick syntax lookup. That’s about it.

It got Agent mode recently, which it defaults to. When this first happened, I went to ask a question and the agent just started doing stuff and destroyed my code in a way that undo didn’t fix. I had to go back to the commit history and make some manual changes to get back to where I was. I never used the agent again.

There has been some talk about getting Claude Code, but the problem is that it takes so long to make these enterprise deals and get something rolled out, that there is something new by the time we get the last new thing deployed. The pace of evolution in this space is faster than the enterprise moves.

I can only assume that when the next model releases, people will say the current Claude Code isn’t very good… so I’m probably not missing much in real terms. It kind of reminds me of video game graphics. The bleeding edge of the current-gen is always talked about as if its photo realistic and so amazing… then looking back at the same game 10 years later, and it looks like trash compared to the new bleeding edge. So maybe it’s not worth getting so worked up.

kken• 5 months ago

Skill issue

There is actually Claude code integrated into gh copilot.

You can also access opus 4.6 and codex 5.3 in it, which work pretty well in agentic mode.

Atotalnoob• 5 months ago

No, those are the models. They are NOT the same as Claude code/codex.

GitHub copilot agent mode is quite bad, and advanced premium models like opus4.6/codex 5.3 are making it barely usable.

Claude code and codex are night and day comparatively.

Additionally, GitHub copilot admins can enable/disable models. Each model has different ToS, so perhaps their admin has not turned it on.

I would suggest you not immediately insult people with ad hominem attacks.

muzani2• 5 months ago

Yeah, this is exactly why you see all these surveys saying that AI hasn't given any increase in productivity. Especially when GitHub Copilot is still the #1 AI coding tool.

People were sold a spoon, get a spork, and end up eating with their hands.

chiengineer• 5 months ago

its my main platform here - claude / codex and everything else context windows and tooling are not up to speed for me and I cant afford API

for 50$ a month for 1500 requests - I use up the entire weeks worth of context for the other platforms in a couple hours with what im coding its annoying as hell and thats if they are working properly setup properly

ackdesha• 5 months ago

I currently prefer GitHub Copilot Pro to Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and OpenCode for my current role and codebase. Staff Engineer in a midsized professional engineering organization. Using Agent mode with latest OpenAI and Anthropic models. Backend TypeScript maintaining established codebases. Not being constrained by management. It’s not a perfect tool but it has advanced significantly since early releases.

aytigra• 5 months ago

it has advanced significantly since early releases

I have used Claude Code past few weeks and honestly can't tell if it is any better, or does anything different than Copilot in agent mode with same models.

giantg2• 5 months ago

We started with GitHub Copilot, but it was largely replaced by Claude Code. The major benefit was that Claude could execute scripts and Copilot could not. That might have just been the way my organization configured it though.

FloatArtifact• 5 months ago

Claude really utilizes tools or develops its own tools well. If OpenAI could get their sandbox situation ironed out... I could switch.

faebi• 5 months ago

It's not as bad with gemeni and claude in combiniation with skills.

cedws• 5 months ago

We have Copilot and Claude Code. The rationale of having both is that Copilot is cheap anyway, grants access to a range of models, and some developers still haven’t moved over to CC. There’s also the smart auto completion which is actually free now but AFAIK there’s no Claude Code equivalent.

zihotki• 5 months ago

At my work we can use only copilot. The rest of the tools is currently in pilot stage and under review. And no github cloud copilot.

In the recent rise of agents orchestration we're looking into moving towards more automated agentic setup. But while waiting, I decided to take max out of the copilot. Turned out, both copilot cli and VSCode one were lacking in agentic capabilities.

Fortunately OpenCode exists and it allows to officially connect to copilot account. So we were allowed to use it. OpenCode allows more granular control over what is available to the model, what specific model to use, etc. It filled missing gaps so we're now experimenting creating agentic flows.

Additionally, you can connect a local model in OpenCode. So if you have a beefy mac or pc, Qwen Coder may be interesting for you.

CodeBit26• 5 months ago

Copilot is definitely still relevant, but the "honeymoon phase" where we just accepted every suggestion is over. In an enterprise setting, it’s becoming more of a boilerplate killer than a logic generator. The real value now is how these tools integrate with existing libraries. If you're not deeply familiar with the core stack (like the Python/AI libraries we use daily), Copilot can actually lead you into some pretty expensive technical debt. I did a deep dive on why Python’s dominance in AI is what actually makes these tools useful in the first place: https://codebit-daily.hashnode.dev/why-python-is-still-the-k...

Is GitHub Copilot still relevant in the enterprise?

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