Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

businessinsider.com

401–410 of 567 posts

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about Skype, though? People loved Skype so much, it was really a feat to make people hate it.

They had a decent Android app, then someone saw that it was too fast/responsive and was using too little memory and took that as a challenge, how can I make skype worst? React Native! Obviously that didn't pleased people (see rating in Play Store), and they had to provide something for low/mid range phones, and skype lite was born (which is really good one).

Hey, thanks for mentioning skype lite. That a mile better than skype .

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#402
If Microsoft buys github I will be pulling all my repositories, deleting my account, and finding any software that I use on github and quickly cloning it and importing it to some competing server(Probably gitlab)...and I would encourage everyone else to do the same.

edit In the meanwhile I would recommend filing an issue on every single project as you would normally file issues on, asking what their migration plan in the event of a Microsoft takeover is, before, not after this happens.

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They made a lot of money, but were not successful. Business software companies become irrelevant decades before their revenues go away (eg IBM). Microsoft lost its future relevance under Ballmer.

Ballmer may have hurt microsoft, but they are still alive and well. The truth of it is that for a lot of things they do, there just isn't a competitor, nor will one arise soon. No one is replacing excel. As for windows -- there are a couple of niches where mac or linux could step in, but for most of them, that just isn't an option . Azure, typescript, vscode, ms office, office 365 are massively successful.

Sure, MS is alive and well and may outlast every other tech giant today (except probably Amazon). But that doesn't make Ballmer a good CEO.

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#405
post #6

Really hope these talks fall through and nothing comes of it. Too many bad experiences with Microsoft buying something out, mismanaging it, and it goes down the drain. As much as I love GitHub, I won't be using a Microsoft-owned GitHub for any of my company's work.

https://github.com/upend/IF_MS_BUYS_GITHUB_IMMA_OUT

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#406
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10's forced updates and telemetry say otherwise.

Telemetry is bad, forced updates is not.

No, forced updates are also bad. I own my computer, I built it, and I paid for Windows. Microsoft shouldn't get to decide how I run it (I can't turn off Windows Defender permanently) or when it updates (you can only delay them so long before it forces you to update). If their updates were stable it would maybe help the argument, but they routinely break my system such that I lose time that was intended to be spent on playing a game. They also conveniently reset some of my settings which always tends to favor the way Microsoft would like for me to use my computer. Or they reinstall fucking Candy Crush.

For god's sake, even Apple, the prime example of knows-better-than-you lets you never update, if that's what you really want.

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#407
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shall we talk Nokia...

Buying Nokia wasn’t the issue. Microsoft’s handling of Nokia was the issue. Microsoft is not good at making a physical product and releasing it to the world like Apple and Samsung. The fact many countries had to wait > 12 months to get the latest phone was retarded. Windows phone was awesome, but Microsoft screwed themselves by not doing minimum what it’s competitors were doing.

Huh? Microsoft has several very successful hardware product lines: peripherals (the Microsoft ergo keyboard is the gold standard in many circles), Xbox, the surface line. Maybe they can’t generate Apple hype but they do know how to make consumer hardware.

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#408
post #193
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telemetry is bad, forced updates is not.

Forced updates are bad. 1. Updates can introduce breaking changes. 2. Windows will restart the computer to update, potentially interrupting processes. 3. Users should have freedom to use software in the way that they choose, and not have actions forced on them by the software. I understand that many windows users are far from power users and the forced updates provide security updates. My point of view is anyone will…

2. Can only be updated so many times until Daddy Microsoft knows best and will forcibly shut down your computer.

3. "Users have freedom to do what they choose unless it makes more work for me"?

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#409
post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying Nokia wasn’t the issue. Microsoft’s handling of Nokia was the issue. Microsoft is not good at making a physical product and releasing it to the world like Apple and Samsung. The fact many countries had to wait > 12 months to get the latest phone was retarded. Windows phone was awesome, but Microsoft screwed themselves by not doing minimum what it’s competitors were doing.

Huh? Microsoft has several very successful hardware product lines: peripherals (the Microsoft ergo keyboard is the gold standard in many circles), Xbox, the surface line. Maybe they can’t generate Apple hype but they do know how to make consumer hardware.

The surface line isn’t avaliable world wide on release. Windows phones were released in like 3 markets. Less than surface line. Xbox gets world wide releases.

Phones, people generally want what’s new. A 12-18 month old phone is not new.

Re: Microsoft and GitHub have held acquisition talks

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not to say they couldn't revert to their embrace, extend, and extinguish tactics of the 90s, even under future leadership. I feel that no big corporation should own GitHub, even if their investors feel differently.

I've mentioned this a number of times, some of Microsoft's open source tooling is under the very permissive MIT license. In the case of GitHub it just means competitors will rise up and replace GitHub. Remember when SourceForge was the GitHub of the day, and then it became bad, and finally it's acceptable with the new owner. People will outright ditch GitHub if evil is truly done to it, but Microsoft doesn't want tha…

Whoa, hang on a second. SourceForge? Acceptable with new owners? Have you tried to download anything from the site recently? They may not be bundling crapware with downloads anymore but it's still an ad-laden slow-loading pile of trash unusable website. (I don't think I'm being hyperbolic there, to be honest!)
Post reply on HN