News: 0184336528

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

GitHub Thumbs Nose At Sony's Controversial End to Physical Media With Its Introduction of Repo CDs (tomshardware.com)

(Tuesday July 07, 2026 @03:00AM (BeauHD) from the git-burned dept.)


GitHub is [1]offering a limited run of 1,000 CD-ROM copies of public repositories as a pro-physical-media jab at Sony's plan to [2]stop producing PlayStation game discs in 2028. Tom's Hardware reports:

> The coding and collaboration platform, owned by Microsoft, [3]states that "In light of recent developments in physical media, GitHub is proud to announce that you can now obtain your public repo on CD-ROM." Moreover, it appeals to the human side of computing, adding the emotive line "Keep it. Lend it to friends. Pass it on to your children." It isn't April 1st, so thankfully this is no joke. However, if you check out the above-linked GitHub Your Code, On a CD offer page, it quickly becomes clear this is a very limited in time/scope stunt.

>

> "Order a burned CD of your own public GitHub repo. Yes, a real physical disc you can hold in your hands, no download required," begins the spiel. But this is a very limited run of 1,000 discs, with applications required between July 2 and July 6 (inclusive). Limit one per person, with availability varying between country/region.

>

> "Your code is physically yours, forever. Until you lose it, let's be real," says GitHub. At best, these CDs will be framed and put on a wall, some becoming collector's items or eBay money spinners (discs like 0001 or 0888 would be good ones, if they are numbered). Also, many will be lost or eventually/accidentally discarded, as GitHub seems to know. So this 'protest' is arguably 1,000 doses of expensively shipped e-waste.



[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/github-thumbs-nose-at-sonys-controversial-end-to-physical-media-with-its-introduction-of-repo-cds-offers-limited-run-of-1-000-cd-rom-copies-of-public-github-repos-for-preservation

[2] https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/07/01/1734219/sony-playstation-will-stop-releasing-games-on-discs-in-2028

[3] https://x.com/github/status/2072801888525840476?



Cool, we're ready for post EMP gaming (Score:3)

by drnb ( 2434720 )

"GitHub is offering a limited run of 1,000 CD-ROM copies of public repositories "

Cool, we're ready for post EMP gaming

That's actually a good idea! (Score:2)

by bickerdyke ( 670000 )

This could be more than a publicity stunt. This could be part of a backup strategy, if properly scaled up. Github and those other cloud services are trying to get small and middle software businesses to ditch their own infrastracture in favour of their cloud services. At a slightly higher price, but for more flexibility.

But what about backup?

That sounds like a solution! for another 10 bucks per month, have them burn two CDs of your repo. label them and put it an a labeled envelope, and have them mailed to y

Re: (Score:2)

by drnb ( 2434720 )

> But what about backup?

(1) Clone a repo.

(2) Backup to external USB, flash drive, SD card, DVD-R, etc.

;-)

Re: (Score:2)

by ls671 ( 1122017 )

Exactly, I can put my repo on a CD all my myself if I want too.

Re: (Score:2)

by bickerdyke ( 670000 )

But are you DOING it?

Things that aren't automated won't happen.

Plus, drives are expensive. You can't buy a new one every week and send just them to your friend for storage. A new one. Each week.

Re: (Score:2)

by T34L ( 10503334 )

Ah yes, the woke tokens, or as I like to call them, wokens

Microsoft owns GitHub (Score:1)

by BitterEpic ( 10503015 )

Microsoft owns GitHub which is the only way this makes sense. Sony did a marketing jab at MS for locking games to the console years ago. Though pretty goddamn wierd of a jab even if MS is the owner. Even wierder in that MS isn't the good guys in physical media either. Why is this being covered on slashdot?

What? (Score:2)

by Kamineko ( 851857 )

> Also, many will be lost or eventually/accidentally discarded, as GitHub seems to know. So this 'protest' is arguably 1,000 doses of expensively shipped e-waste.

You could argue that, if you were an idiot.

Pause for storage relocation.