> *For the non technical among us, this is essentially a name change.

For the non-technical among us, it's also one which affects new repositories only; and has done for a while. New repositories whose default branches we're (still) free to name whatever we want, be it `master`, `slave`, or indeed `potato`.

The "master" nomenclature came straight from BitKeeper where it definitely referred to the `master/slave` context:

> We can use the "bk parent" command to check to see what the slave thinks is the master repository:

Src: https://github.com/bitkeeper-scm/bitkeeper/blob/master/doc/HOWTO.ask#L223

The original git devs who picked the previous default, cribbed from BK, are on record as regretting the decision for reasons of pragmatism as much as anything:

https://twitter.com/xpasky/status/1271477451756056577

> Anyways at least one good thing as come from all this, I now know how to rename my master branch `fuck-github`

Well...done? I guess?