Default clone path goes to iCloud synced folder in OSX

Please summarise the issue in the title, and then use the template below to fill out the details so we can reproduce the issue on our end.

Description

The Documents folder in OSX is synced to iCloud typically. A very bad idea for a default clone path.

I suggest something like ~/user/Projects.

Version

What version of GitHub Desktop are you running? This is displayed under the About GitHub Desktop menu item. If you are running from source, include the commit by running git rev-parse HEAD from your local repository.

GitHub Desktop version: 0.6.1

The operating system you are running on may also help with reproducing the issue:

• If you are on macOS, launch About This Mac and write down the OS version listed.
• If you are on Windows, open Command Prompt and attach the output of this command*: cmd /c ver

OS version: OSX Sierra 10.12.5

Steps to Reproduce

1. Clone a repo to default path

If the issue involves a specific public repository, including the information about that repository will make it is easier to recreate the issue.

If you think screenshots or a GIF recording will help demonstrate the issue better, feel free to add them here.

Expected behaviour: I’m given a path that’s not pointing at an iCloud synced folder

Actual behaviour: It didn’t

Reproduces how often: Every time

Logs

There may be some relevant information in log files generated by GitHub Desktop:

• If you are on macOS, attach the most recent log file from: ~/Library/Application Support/GitHub Desktop/logs/*.desktop.production.log
• If you are on Windows, attach the most recent log file from: %APPDATA%\\GitHub Desktop\\logs\\*.desktop.production.log

The log files are organized by date, so see if anything was generated for today’s date.

Additional Information

Any additional information, configuration or data that might be necessary to reproduce the issue.

If you are dealing with a performance issue or regression, attaching a Timeline profile of the task will help the developers understand the runtime behaviour of the application on your machine.

[jpike88]

Well that’s good for you…? The point is that OSX is designed with iCloud integration in mind, and I dare say a good chunk of OSX users leverage iCloud for certain things for convenience like safari bookmarks, contacts etc. It’s an unpleasant surprise to clone and realise an absolute buttload of files are suddenly uploading to the cloud by default. This is an issue and the default behaviour needs to at the very least allow for choosing another folder, indicating that you might be accidentally cloning a repo to your iCloud folder.

[AJLeuer]

Agreed that GitHub shouldn’t default to cloning to the user’s Documents folder. In addition to the question of whether a user would even want their projects syncing to iCloud, there’s the fact that the typical ~/Documents folder is overcrowded to begin with. It’s gone from the place where the user keeps their PDFs and Word docs to the place where seemingly every other application stores its data, making it harder for the user to find their actual documents (though admittedly this problem seems worse on Windows).

It would be better to save to a directory that was specifically intended for code. If I could suggest an alternative, create a folder named Developer in the user’s home directory and use this as the default path. macOS actually seems to be aware of ~/Developer, since when you create a directory with this name it automatically gives it a special folder icon that integrates quite nicely with the other default user folders.

Sidenote: If I’m not mistaken Xcode used to use ~/Developer as its default when saving projects, but these days it seems be defaulting to saving on the Desktop (which besides being a terrible place to save anything comes with the same iCloud syncing issues).