GitHub did an incredibly good job of capturing mindspace around git, to the extent that many users don’t realize that there is any distinction between the tool and the hosting platform.
I’m not sure if this is a large scale thing, but I know it’s definitely true for myself and some others.
My first exposure to Git and GitHub was through GitHub Pages. I was told to use the GitHub web editor, ignore all the ‘git’ stuff, and just write the HTML files there. Then I grew into using GitHub desktop and later VSCode’s git integration. At no point did I have to use ‘git’ on the command line so I didn’t really understand what the tool did or why. I think many people simply don’t see git without GitHub. Some even see GitHub without touching git eg. see the infamous ‘I am new to GitHub and I have lots to say’ post https://www.reddit.com/r/github/comments/1at9br4/i_am_new_to...
The best way to make the distinction really obvious is the phrase: "Github is to git what Pornhub is to porn".
Alas, not a phrase you can use in an educational setting though. And I haven't really found other "hub" examples which would be as instantly recognisable and demonstrative of the difference.
It's a good metaphor, and one could easily substitute "YouTube" into the explanation in really sensitive situations. In less sensitive situations, you might be able to still use "PornHub" so long as you do enough throat-clearing to make it seem like you're not speaking glowingly of it, and YouTube is helpful here, too.
PornHub didn't invent online videos, and the fact that just because someone was talking about watching a video online doesn't mean it wouldn't be really weird for someone else to assume that they meant it was something on PornHub, instead of just an ordinary video on YouTube.
