Order a burned CD of your own public GitHub repo | Hacker News Reader

Order a burned CD of your own public GitHub repo

forms.cloud.microsoft

152 pointsthrowaway2027119 comments

Initially I thought this was a useless/dumb idea.

On reflection, I like it - it's weird. Old internet weird. Like someone with a couple hundred bucks and some time on their hands wants to do something they think is fun or funny... it feels human. I think we need more of this. Extra points for using a sketchy o365 form that looks like a scam.

Felt the same way initially, but you are very much right that this feels like a throwback to a more playful time about twenty years ago. Put in a request for the OpenBSD src repository, which is too big to fit on a CD these days and I am looking forward to see if/how they square that circle. OpenBSD used to ship their code on CDs up until about ten years ago, so it is a bit of a fun throwback in that way as well.

I want OpenBSD on blu-ray

> Put in a request for the OpenBSD src repository, which is too big to fit on a CD these days and I am looking forward to see if/how they square that circle.

From literally the first few sentences:

> If we can make you a CD, it may take a few weeks to reach you.

They just won’t send it to you. Also keep in mind that they say it has to be your repo - not sure how they’re verifying that but you probably won’t get it for that reason too.

Riddle me this, what was the cost to me in terms of trying? If I feel like treating this like the fun we used to have online, what is the point in sucking all the fun out of it by "going lawyer" on the conditions? If I get a CD (or even DVD), it will be a fun story to tell (like when I asked Schneier to write a true Schneier Fact as opposed to his signature when I ordered a signed copy of one of his books). If I get nothing, well, I guess my life is simply over at that point.

You speculated wondering how they’ll manage it, I gave you an answer. If that ruined the fun for you, you may want to rethink how you say things on message boards.

So many ways for splitting across multiple discs... git bundle, split tar files, etc.

Now if it came with a userfs layer that lets users disc jockey and use the repo without copying it first, with some smart mapping making disc swaps seldomly needed, then serious respect would be in order.

you’re one of those people that actually needs /s tags, aren’t you?

This attitude is why we don’t have these things.

Increased risk profile, now they need to pass legal and finance, meetings are booked and cancelled, never seen again.

Only way to slip them past is if you’re the primary shareholder or line item on the marketing budget.

Really? A cause of our societal decline is requesting a CD for a repository that is too big to fit on it? Call me a naive optimist, but I would like to believe that whoever is reading the form results on GitHub's end is more than capable to make the call within a few seconds as to whether they also would find some joy in the challenge the size poses or just ignore it and move on with their day.

I went to our pediatric ophthalmologist's office yesterday. There was another young person in the room, and our doctor asked if we mind if she's scribing.

When leaving I commented that I like that the doctor is using a human scribe and not an AI. Both of them were beaming.

Few weeks ago at a casual office gathering we were discussing given the choice do we hire an intern or get more AI credits. It was clear that hiring an intern is the right move for the industry, even if it results in an abandoned repo or two at the end of Summer. Especially now that AI shovel sellers have realized small teams are willing to spend on AI credits instead of $5000 a month on an intern, and are adjusting the prices accordingly.

All of these are more humane experiences we should not lose out on.

Fun joke at Sony's expense but it's going to spectacularly backfire when Microsoft inevitably announces that the next Xbox won't support physical discs.

This is the worst part. They could actually capitalize on announcing Xbox wont drop physical media, but obviously that's not happening.

The backfiring is baked in, if you think about it: This program is going to die in just a few days, while Sony is going to continue selling physical games for years.

It reminds me of Google proudly boasting their headphone jack when Apple removed theirs, then OnePlus proudly boasting their headphone jack when Google removed theirs.

Samsung too (headphone jack, charger in the box). Apt username btw :)

"No one buys phones with a headphone jack!"

Yeah, cause you all stop offering them within one upgrade cycle! I just checked my carrier, and the only phones they offer with jacks are the lowest end Motos and TCLs.

And if waterproofing or size are issues, how about a second USB-C port?

Same stunt Samsung pulls when Apple does something like remove the headphone jack.

Headphone jack mentioned. I'm not going to stop buying phones based on them until there are no such options remaining, God forbid.

I used to hate phones without the headphone jacket too, even though my headphone lines always needed some detangling out of my pocket when I needed them. But then I tried a pair of Bluetooth earbuds (two earbuds connected with a plastic band to hang on your neck), and actually fell in love. No need to detangle lines, and when I don't listen to things I could just take down the earbuds but leave the plastic band on my neck. Not easy to lose, compared to the completely wireless earbuds. Batteries are in one or both ends of the plastic band, so one charge could last a long time. The only downside is it takes up more space than both wired headphones and wireless earbuds when you put it in a bag, because the plastic band is not that flexible. But that's a cost I am willing to pay.

I use Bluetooth also. But for some purposes the jack works better. Reliable audio output for the purpose of recording for instance.

Remember when Microsoft held a mock funeral for the iPhone? They’re all bark no bite.

The next Xbox already dropped physical media. The rog x ally Xbox portable is the last xbox branded gaming device.

I think they did. Honestly the 2 announcements seemed timed, like a mutual stand down.

There might not be a next xbox since Microsoft has been slowly moving away from the console idea to the platform idea with xbox.

It won't backfire because there is no relevant competition. A couple of complains on social media, but no drop in sales.

Dont know about other places, but in my place, almost every xbox user I know already play all digitally now. Literally xbox is the first console platform to drop physical disc long before sony, though not officially stated.

I remember this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA

> Supplies are limited, and the first 1,000 eligible submissions will receive one. Limit one per person. Availability may be limited by country or region.

This seems quite limited to be a real product, but also quite a lot for seemingly what’s just a joke to mock Sony for ceasing blu-ray production.

It’s worth mentioning that github does (did?) do some cool stuff with physical media archiving of code like the arctic project [1], but these CDs are burned, not pressed so they’ll only last around 10 years

[1]: https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault

Not really cool. They ignored licenses and just stole people (my) code, and gave it to a 3rd party to reproduce for their own commercial uses.

oh I had thought it was opt-in, but it wasn’t. Yeah ignoring licenses is significantly less cool

Some poor intern is spending their summer burning CDs in a Redmond office building...

Github is in San Francisco

Some poor intern is spending their summer burning CDs in a San Francisco office building...

Some poor roofer is working 14 hour days in this ungodly heatwave. Burning CD's sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

Some poor underage girl has been trafficked in the Philippines since she can remember, and it is the only life she will ever know. Roofing 14 hours a day sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

(See? Suffering is not a competition).

No but your little flame war is trying to be without adding anything new to the argument.

HN Guidelines: *Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents.*

But the Internet is everywhere.

There are fully automated disc burner bots. EPSON models take 100 discs at once and burn up to 30 discs per hour, so 1000 discs is just 10 magazine load/unloads or <1.5 days in machine time.

1: https://epson.com/Support/Other-Products/Discproducers/Epson...

That isn't a burner at all. It prints labels onto CDs.

...no? It does both.

Load fresh discs from magazine, put onto an internal disc drive, let a connected PC burn it, take out, print on it, and move it to a burned disc holder. All in one box. The networked model does it over LAN like a laser printer.

Such models do exist but the one you linked lacks a burner entirely.

https://tapeandmedia.com/Epson_DiscProducer_autoprinter_PP_1...

"Epson Discproducer PP-100AP Autoprinter for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Disc (prints only - does not duplicate disc)"

oof. looks like I linked to a special printing only variant out of dozen or so models. My apologies...

All the same, they don't need a thousand copies of one GitHub repo. They need a thousand different copies of various unrelated repos. Maybe some disc duplicators can handle that without constant user involvement, but all the ones I've worked with are designed around mass replication of one individual ISO.

Looks like target market of this type of duplicators is hospitals using it for exchanging medical images, where optical discs are still very common as disposable storage medium. I'm sure they don't print hundreds of identical chest X-ray images... This one really isn't bunch of DVD drives wired in parallel to a no-name ASIC, it's one drive stuffed in a microwave enclosure along with a robot to change out discs for it.

How do we know this is real? Most online form providers will host all forms on their own domain, so it could just be a great way to get some data harvesting going on the .microsoft gTLD.

While it's not full on 100% proof, one of the Senior Dev Advocates posted about it on Bluesky

https://bsky.app/profile/cassidoo.co/post/3mpp2vh3oyk2b

I hate how Office 365 forms have no simple way to verify where your data is going.

Through companies and schools using them for essential functions, they've normalised posting sensitive data without checking.

For those that missed it, Sony announced that Playstation will no longer support physical media. This is Microsoft ribbing them.

One Linux kernel please, the 87320be9f0d24fce67631b7eef919f0b79c3e45c vintage

Excellent choice, sir

Finally, I can get Ubuntu on a CD.

Back in the day I ordered the free disks by the hundreds

Disks are magnetic. The optical kind are discs.

What? Disks are a 2D shape. Some computer discs are magnetic, many involve etchings, or apparent etchings perceived by a laser.

Is this the one with a hash collision?

Excellent choice, the "Merge tag 'net-7.2-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/netdev/net".

This looks like some very finely crafted phishing.

Rather concerned that there's exactly two comments noticing this. I immediately was like "um, it's an Office 365 form, are people this gullible". EDIT: Fortunately a few more people getting it now.

Maybe I'm the dingus but, just not good vibes. Apparently it's probably "fine": https://x.com/github/status/2072801888525840476

Shout-out to the downvoters, may you continue filling randomly linked, MS Forms blindly from nameless accounts, eat your hearts out.

In fairness, GitHub is under a corporate umbrella with Office 365

This is entirely irrelevant. The problem is that anybody can make a Microsoft Form and there's no obvious indication that it's a form from Github without digging around.

The alternative is that someone managed to hijack the official GitHub social media accounts on X, TikTok, Instagram, and Threads to post this, and four hours later, no one from the official leadership has come out to call it out. I find that hard to believe. It's probably legit.

I also heavily doubt its a joke. Shipping a thousand CDs is a drop in the bucket for a company like this. The free marketing they get from this promotion more than makes up for any cost associated with doing so.

Seems like GitHub posted this on their official Bluesky account for those wondering if it's official:

https://bsky.app/profile/github.com/post/3mpp2t6k4yq2j

At the bottom: 'This content is created by the owner of the form. The data you submit will be sent to the form owner. Never give out your password.' It's very clearly just a Microsoft 365 form, and most likely it's just going to take your info and not send you a CD.

This feels like a tongue-in-cheek joke about playstation going diskless

So a funny thing happened to me a while ago... I built my current PC, about 3 years ago (an AMD 7700X but whatever). At some point I wanted to check some old data DVDs I burned, maybe one year after I built the PC or something: basically to make sure everything on the data DVDs was safely backed up in other places...

So I dug out an old internal DVD reader/burner (still have a few of those) only to notice that: my PC tower didn't physically allow to insert an internal CD/DVD reader. I hadn't realized until then. At first I tried to push on the front panel, thinking maybe it was going to open entirely. So I went on IRC, in a good old famous channel, to vent a bit. And they told me it was a thing: new PC towers with a slot of a CD/DVD reader are really uncommon now.

I literally didn't notice until I actually tried, after a year or so, to put a reader in the PC.

Now of course I had plenty other options: using another tower, my server (a Xeon workstation) has got a CD/DVD reader, I could ghetto-mount the internal reader temporarily while letting the tower opened, etc.

But that's not the point: internal CD/DVD readers/burners kinda went away, silently, with some of us not even noticing that PC towers suddenly didn't even offer the physical possibility to install them.

Ever time I see one of these public forms hosted on a generic form platform, I wonder whether it’s legitimate or just a phishing attempt to collect personal information.

I remember years ago, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, etc., could all be obtained via CD for free; years later, everything become a limited print. https://web.archive.org/web/20090219122023/https://shipit.ub...

Yeah, 2010 CDs were still pretty visible. Not sure how many people still ordered them, but at least they were always distributed at events. Don't remember when it started to no longer fit on a CD.

Is this a real Microsoft site, or just a form created by anyone trying to collect e-mail addresses and phone numbers to steal accounts?

It’s real → https://x.com/github/status/2072801888525840476

OP should have used the shortened, more official-looking, link: https://gh.io/cd

Compared the form ID in original submission and after redirect and it looks ok…

Awesome! It is indeed a marvelous merchandize concept! An effortful work of ingenious ideas and great history... sealed in a iridescent CD and signed by a supportive holder of it on public...

Thank you, for an awesome, relatively ingenious idea to preserve the history and highlight its significance in a human history, the love for discoveries and cooperation...

I love it...

Similar: Domino's pizza social media

OFFICIAL STATEMENT:

In response to trends in the gaming industry, as of 1st April 2027 Domino's UK will cease production of physical pizzas and shift to production of digital pizzas only.

Consumers will be able to download our full range of delicious pizza codes and, using the power of the imagination, enjoy them in an entirely virtual sense.

https://twitter.com/Dominos_UK/status/2072602429959340517 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48768873)

Bold of them to call out another company when they haven't been doing well in the court of public opinion themselves lately.

So they are only going to "sell" 1000 physical discs before throwing in the towel and going back to all digital? Honestly this is worse than Sony. They should charge a fair price and continue to offer the service for people who don't have strong enough internet to checkout large repos.

But most repos are over ~700MB. Surely a DVD and if not, why not?

Also seems to be a lot of paranoia in here, GitHub posted it: https://x.com/github/status/2072801888525840476

I went shopping at Target today, and their remodeling underway has dedicated an entire display to vinyl 12" records. I know there is a popular retro thing, but this click-and-mortar dichotomy has gotten bonkers!

I requested the code for Anubis, I'll keep you all updated on what I get!

> I confirm I own this repository and grant GitHub permission to press it to a CD

They're concerned about copyright for burning a public repo to a CD, but sucking up everything for AI training was ok?

How do I know this is real from GitHub ? Isn't it just a microsoft form that anyone can create ?

Good time to still have a CD burner sitting around, business opportunities everywhere!

Want your 200gb game shipped on 300-400 CDs? Just pay postage & handling ;)

https://github.com/left-pad/left-pad

It’s like when I bought HTMX 2.0 release on floppy

This seems like a wonderful way to get folk's private info. What's next, a Google Form offering to download your Gmail?

Unfortunately they don't last very long. Most DVDs are unreadable after 10 to 20 years.

Given the hour this is making headlines, they'll be posting a lot of CDs to the antipodes.

It won’t boot, but someone please upload Slackware to your repo and have Microsoft burn it

Is it some silly attempt to gather personal data like physical address/phone number?

Is this just a guise to get people to hand over their contact information? So it can be linked and associated with a GitHub profile?

It's presented as an official Microsoft product (the link), but it's just a random public-facing form hosted on Microsoft Forms from Joe Schmoe.

I was suspicious too, but it does seem legitimate. They're making fun of the PlayStation going digital-only for games thing. https://x.com/github/status/2072801888525840476

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-produc...

Nice try, Microsoft. You ain't getting any of my personal data.

Can you order chromium source if you contributed a few commits?

1/2” open reel magnetic tape please or GTFO.

If you've got the $$'s for the media and a reader there are plenty of SEG geophysics data storage bunkers that can expedite that request.

I hope Linus orders a CD of the Linux kernel.

It does not fit on a CD.

A kernel tarball is 266 megabytes, it fits on a CD

A terball does not contain git history.

I'd settle for one day without a SEV.

Is that a move to obtain physical address of some people without the bad press of requiring it in their github account?

Just placed an order for mine

But then you have to ask yourself… Is this an op… Sony and ms in cahoots to get a list of problem children?

Why not on floppy disks.

Afaik they aren't manufactured any more

> Offer valid from July 2, 2026 to July 6, 2026.

Microsoft discontinuing physical copies in one week

Can we get a windows 11 DVD that works without an internet connection instead?

I am happy to download it. I just want to install it offline.

I'll take Windows95 on 3.5" floppy discs please. Thank you.

https://archive.org/details/microsoft-windows-95_202404

on what?

I want my repo on floppy disks, please.

This is a wrong move on so many levels.

Elaborate? It seems like a fun joke making light of Sony’s announcement this week.

For a min, I thought "Github is going to be dead soon, so get your backup"

Probably because a lot of people here think it's some kind of conspiracy-level private information stealing scheme.

Correct, HD DVD is the more obvious, and correct choice.

For small repos external USB floppy drives are only $16. IBM Formatted floppy disks are $25-$30 for 10.

Insert floppy #25

I would do it just for fun.

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