Why I Use GitHub Even Though It Is Anti-Minimalist

Hello, this is Mark from Minimalist Living. Today, I want to share with you a shocking confession: I use GitHub. Yes, you heard me right. I use the most bloated, corporate, and non-free platform for hosting my code. Why do I do this? Let me tell you a story.

It all began when I wanted to sign up on GitLab. I thought it would be a perfect fit for me: a minimalist, open-source, and privacy-friendly alternative to GitHub. I entered my email and password, and clicked on the sign up button. But then, something horrible happened.

GitLab asked me for my phone number and a credit card. What? Why do they need that? I already gave them my email. Isn’t that enough? I checked their documentation, and I found out that they use a secretive service called Arkose Protect to spy on me and judge me. They said they do this to “prevent malicious users from creating accounts”. They gave me the highest risk score, and they wanted me to verify my identity with a credit card. I was furious.

You might think that I was using a VPN or some other tool to hide my identity, but you are wrong. The only things I have in my browser are NoScript and uBlock Origin to filter out all the clutter from the internet. I don’t need anything else. I am a minimalist, after all.

So, I decided to abandon GitLab and use GitHub instead. I know, I know. GitHub is the opposite of minimalism. It is full of features, ads, integrations, and surveillance. It is owned by Microsoft, the evil empire of software. It is not even free software, it is proprietary and closed-source. But, I don’t care. I use GitHub because it is simple. It doesn’t ask me for my phone number or my credit card. It just lets me create an account and host my code. That’s all I need.

So, there you have it. That’s why I use GitHub even though it is anti-minimalist. I hope you enjoyed this article, and I hope you learned something from it. If you want to see more of my minimalist code, you can follow me on GitHub. Just kidding, I don’t have any followers. I don’t need them. I am a minimalist, after all.