Way back in 2018, Microsoft paid handsomely for Github. I didn’t really care then, and probably don’t care too much now about it now.
I won’t be preachy here. My aim is to de-Americanise, where possible. I’m also a realist: we do live under the Great American Empire, even over on this side of the Atlantic. Europe is slowly waking up and now that its eyes are open, there are some great alternatives to US tech.
Github is synonymous with open-source collaboration, but git is git. Except that with Github, I always had a problem with linking up SSH to my repositories for some weird reason. I even became an expert at trawling Stack Overflow to learn tips and tricks to figure this one out, but never quite did.
Github and the whole AI thing
In their words:
No Use of Private Repositories: GitHub has clarified that Copilot does not use code from private repositories to train its AI models. This means that any proprietary or sensitive code you have stored in private repositories is not accessed or used by Copilot.
Right, so, although not explicitly stated, that statement does imply that public repositories are fair-game for AI training.
Says it all, doesn’t it?
Codeberg
Codeberg is a non-profit based in Germany, meaning no American influence, no AI, and no corporation driven by profit. Plus, being Europe-based, the one significant advantage is they have to commit and adhere to the strict European data protection regulations.
Migrating was very easy (I don’t have many repositories) and lo-and-behold! SSH push/pull worked first time and every time since without the need to mess around in config files. At all.
My repositories now live here, on Codeberg.