Summary
- GitHub offers CD-ROMs of eligible public repos – 1,000 discs, sign up July 2-6, 2026, for an offline backup.
- Physical discs are a last-resort defense when digital ownership and stores vanish.
- One disc per person; ships to NA, most of Europe, Japan, and Australia – choose which release to preserve.
The popularity of digital ownership nowadays makes it feel like we barely actually own anything anymore. To combat that, GitHub has decided to go old-school — they’re offering a limited batch of CD-ROMs with your public repo on it. If your code is public and meets their rules, you can snag yourself a physical copy of your code, no internet needed, essentially creating a permanent offline backup that doesn’t need a server connection.
The GitHub feature that makes leaving impossible
GitHub Actions is why everyone’s trapped, even though leaving should be trivial
GitHub is rolling back the years
We’re going back to discs, man
For most devs, it’s not just about 90s nostalgia. We’re used to everything living on servers nowadays, but this CD is something you can actually keep, lend, or pass down. Sure, you might lose it, or it could rot, but it’s still a ‘forever’ version of your project that lives outside the digital world. Or at least, as forever as anything gets.
Only the first 1,000 eligible folks get a disc, and sign-ups are open from July 2 to July 6, 2026. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Why does everyone hate it?
GitHub’s move taps into the growing anxiety among tech enthusiasts about the so-called “death” of physical ownership. Sony’s recent announcement that they will stop producing physical PlayStation discs by 2028, so the PlayStation 6 will probably be digital-only.
Think about what happens with a digital-only console. Twenty years later, if you want to replay a PS6 game and the store is gone (like what just happened with the PS3 and Vita just last week), you’re out of luck. You can’t grab it at a secondhand shop or find it on eBay.
PlayStation controls how, when, and even if you can buy or play a game.
You also lose the freedom to resell or lend games. Want to pass a title to a friend or buy a cheap used copy? Not happening with digital-only systems. For many gamers, physical discs are still the only affordable way to play and share games. They’re how older siblings pass down their favorites and get new people into gaming.
It might sound alarmist, but your digital purchases are vulnerable. Just last week, PlayStation’s decision to remove over 500 digital movies from users’ libraries—even those that were paid for—proves how fragile the future of digital ownership really is.
GitHub offering a CD-ROM is a clear response to this concern. When companies secure the rights to take away our ability to own stuff, physical copies are the last line of defense.
Plus, I have to call out some of the best dunks on Sony I’ve seen online; it seems like everyone’s getting involved.
What will people actually use this for?
Is this just a fun novelty? Kind of, but it’s also a cool milestone for your project. You might use it to archive a release, a passion project, or your startup’s first code. It turns a bunch of text files into something you can actually collect. If you’re eligible, you can sign up on GitHub’s site. Shipping depends on where you live, but if you sign up, they’ll let you know if they can’t deliver to you. The limit is one per person, so make sure you pick the right code. Right now, they ship to North America, most of Europe, Japan, and Australia.
