While I do agree that Github leaves space for a model like this, I think the value of Github is that it offers a great community and awesome toolset (online and offline). Then I read this:
"I also wanted to do almost everything from my terminal, so I built a CLI, that you can use to manage repositories, public keys and collaborators. For daily usage, you probably won't have to go to our web interface ever again, and that's awesome!"
And I think "that's what I have with Gitosis on my VPS" (Gitosis uses git to manage user accounts and keys, so it pretty much doesn't get simpler than that). Companies pay for Github for the tools, developers who use CLI are probably not that interested in forking $9 a month for something they already have. Just my two cents, but I wish you the best of luck :)
I think it's a great idea. It would cost me more then $9/mo to setup a box(VPS). Not to mention the hour+ it would take to actually set it up(my time isn't free). Backup isn't a huge issue since it's git and presumably you have multiple devs and dev boxes with a copy of the code.
What might be even more useful and cheaper would be a reverse proxy service that allows you to share your local repo on the public internet. Like showoff.io for git.
The repo limit on github does seem a little bit silly. Limit by disk space makes much more sense.
I still use SVN for a lot of my own personal projects (don't judge me!) and sure I could setup my own SVN server no problem. But I pay a small fee ($50 a year I think.. or maybe $50/6-mos) for SVN hosting.
Same situation: I want private repo's. Past that, the only other thing I really want is not to have to worry about ANYTHING. It needs to be secure, backed-up, and quick, without me ever having to give it a 2nd thought.
Sure, at least you take the worry of server management away, but I think your focus on CLI might not be well justified, as existing CLI tools are already very good and incredibly easy to set-up (aptitude install gitosis; git clone git@myserver.org:gitosis admin; done!) :)
Getting a Git repo setup with a web accessible interface is not trivial and for the time spent doing it, you could be doing other things like ... you know ... writing code to make you money.
"I also wanted to do almost everything from my terminal, so I built a CLI, that you can use to manage repositories, public keys and collaborators. For daily usage, you probably won't have to go to our web interface ever again, and that's awesome!"
And I think "that's what I have with Gitosis on my VPS" (Gitosis uses git to manage user accounts and keys, so it pretty much doesn't get simpler than that). Companies pay for Github for the tools, developers who use CLI are probably not that interested in forking $9 a month for something they already have. Just my two cents, but I wish you the best of luck :)