Considering superior alternatives like mentioned BitBucket, I don't think I will use this project any time soon. But I'm very glad that some has created it. For me it demonstrates that git is flexible enough to support hosting/sharing solutions that are not standard today. I take it as a sign of git being a least a bit futureproof.

But aside from that, do all hacks have to be practical?

Well, it's from Atlassian for one :)

BitBucket has no 2FA, both GitHub and Dropbox do.

ETA for BitBucket's 2FA support is less than 6 weeks:

https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issues/5811/support-two-fa...

This could be useful as a backup.

I don't know about BitBucket, but GitHub has suffered downtime before. If you have a second remote on Dropbox, you can also get to your files there and wherever it's automatically syncing them should your VCS go down.

I thought it gave you only 5 private repos?

No, that's what you get with the GitHub student account (free for any student with a .edu/school email). BitBucket offers unlimited repositories for free.

You might also consider our GitLab.com, unlimited repo's and unlimited collaborators, unlike BitBucket.

How can Gitlab afford to host unlimited private repos for free?

They have enough premium customers, see https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/

Those services add: - Access to GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) - Next-business day support

For a little more: - 24/7 Emergency Support - Live installation and configuration assistance - Live upgrade assistance - High Availability - GitLab CI Support

An for a lot more: - Prioritize features important to you - Best practices training - Dedicated Account Manager

Thanks, that is exactly how we make money.

By not doing it forever. They are competing with two entrenched players, so this is probably a move to gather a larger user base. They are probably going to limit private repos for new users at some point.

We think this market is going to end up like email, there was hotmail with 2MB but no private user is paying for unlimited email storage now. Our offer is like Gmail, except long term we want to make money from an application marketplace instead of advertising.

At some point you should consider paying for stuff.

That's the CEO of GitLab, and they do offer paid for services.

I tried signing up for that (I'm Dutch, so no .edu email). They just ignored my application and never got back to me.

Not Dutch, but I am working and studying in the Netherlands. I got recently the Student Pack from Github so it's possible.

Odd, I wonder why they didn't get back to me. I'm no longer a student so I can't check anymore.

Once they the education.github.com thing with a proper campaign and starter pack, they received way too many applications than they could handle.

It took them a long while to sort through the backlog, and its always increasing. My education plan was renewed just a few months before I graduated and I'd applied for it almost 8 months back, I think.

Aha, that could be the cause. Once I graduated a few months later I lost access to the student email, so I suppose that's why I never heard back.

BitBucket limits you to 5 unique collaborators over all your private repositories. Maybe that's what you were thinking of?

For small private repos, GitHub makes the per-GB price very high compared to Dropbox.