I appreciate your perspective and understand the pragmatic approach of avoiding costs. But I’d like to challenge the framing of this as a “weird hill to die on”.

This isn’t about individual cost benefit analysis. It’s about collective responsibility. In a world where tech companies actively enable mass surveillance and violence (see linked articles), passive reliance on them is a form of complicity (even if we don’t pay). GitHub isn’t a neutral platform. It’s a Microsoft subsidiary deeply entangled with militarised oppression.

You’re right that Codeberg isn’t a for-profit corp, and that’s exactly why it’s worth supporting. The goal isn’t to “demand” free services but to divest from systems that profit from harm. If open source only thrives when subsidised by unethical capital, then it can’t liberate us.

As for privilege: it’s a privilege to have this choice in the first place while others are being starved to death and murdered while they beg for water…