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Microsoft acquires Github

blogs.microsoft.com

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Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#511

Post by octorian »

zeveb wrote: post #315
mudetroit wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Microsoft has always been a headache. Recently its been a tiny bit better, but they still are a for-profit company that needs to continue to make a profit. Just want to point out that Github was also a "for-profit" company.

I was never terribly fond of GitHub either. I disliked how they somehow became synonymous with open source, and I dislike how people have focused on GitHub rather than software freedom. I also wasn't a fan when they decided to step into politics. I think self-hosting is a better choice for almost any organisation. Remember, 'the cloud' just means 'someone else's computer.'

The problem with self-hosting is a lack of visibility. Like Sourceforge before them, you basically need to host your project there for anyone else to notice it.

Of course you don't need to host it all there. Just mirror enough that it gets you the "visibility", while keeping everything else on your own servers.

Then again, there's inertia. And inertia always wins.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#512

Post by Ornstein »

jhasse wrote: post #244
Totoradio wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand those concerns, but what can they do to convince you they have changed?

* Drop DirectX for Vulkan * Drop MSVC for Clang or GCC * Drop Edge for Firefox or Chromium because they love open-source, right?

This is just ridiculous. The other points may/may not make sense but drop direct-x for vulkan? What? It'd have made more sense to make Direct-X open source than just dump it like it's useless. It's not like windows drivers for GPUs don't support vulkan. Direct-X has had a history of being the superior graphics API to OGL. Now, VULKAN evens things out a bit but just dumping so much of RnD for nothing doesn't make sense

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#513

Post by jupp0r »

bad_user wrote: post #486
manigandham wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are giant companies with 1000s of employees and more politics than small countries... it doesn’t work to just generalize it all together. The developer side of Microsoft has definitely changed for the better over the last several years. And even if github fails, so what? It’s the most easily replaceable part of the stack.

You haven’t been using GitHub for open source then. The best part of GitHub is the social part and that’s not currently replaceable. Also good luck migrating issues and their history of comments and PRs.

There is precedent for these transitions working out fine (Sourceforge, Google Code)

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#514

Post by LarryDarrell »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #209
mkirklions wrote: post #139

Yes, I think people should expect to move. Microsoft cannot be trusted. They make fine products, but they are definitely looking to make money from this acquisition. EDIT: This is to say that Github was not looking to squeeze their users. I have been squeezed by microsoft.

Why shouldn't they? It's not like GitHub wasn't trying to make money before.

It's like a bunch of anarchists woke up to find that Kushner just bought the apartment building they were squatting in.

Github wasn't a Robin Hood scheme. They were never giving their finger to the man. Their goal was to make a lot of money, failing that, sell for a lot of money. We are lucky Oracle didn't buy them at least.

Given how many employers/recruiters want to see a GitHub account, I expect to see a lot of future LinkedIn integration.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#515

Post by 72deluxe »

bad_user wrote: post #32

People keep mentioning how "Microsoft changed" due to VS Code, the Linux subsystem, .NET Core. I say that they are the same company, only with different cash cows. Haven't they spied on Windows 10 users? Do they not engage in patents racketeering? Haven't they killed Nokia and ruined Skype? " But Mom, some of the other companies are doing it too ", well yeah, but some of us don't have double standards, in spite of wh…

Skype was terrible before they got it. Had to make the config XML file on Windows readonly and remove the obnoxious advert placeholders. Skype 7 still works alright with these removed (although uses mind-bogglingly high amounts of RAM).

The Metro version no longer supports copy/paste formatting properly (no timestamps), destroys {code} annotations, does not show alerts properly, does not actually send messages you type into the Windows 10 popup alerts, does not auto scroll to the bottom of a message list, does not let you set your status to AWAY.

The web.skype.com also has broken copy/paste but is better than the absymal Metro version.

The iPad version is probably the most usable (but not tried copy/paste on it) and the Android one is mostly alright when it lets you log in, although still a bit clunky and non-responsive (blatantly a web app in a native wrapper).

I run OOSU10.exe on all my Windows 10 instances to turn off the spyware and run PiHole at home to try and limit the insane amounts of data leakage from all my devices (TV, iPads, Android phones sending buckets of telemetry home, Windows PC and Macs) - it's insane.

Interesting to see this purchase though, but I wanted to say that Skype is getting worse and worse - bring back MSN Messenger which had more features than modern Skype!

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#516

Post by markand »

oaiey wrote: post #471
nojvek wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny story about him. He wanted to get a Job at Microsoft and wasn’t hired because he didn’t have the qualifications. Then he built Xamarin and made it a great C# open source tool to build apps. M$ really loved it and bought the company. Now he’s leading GitHub. That’s awesome. Microsoft does have a dark history, it’s also a huge company and Terry Meyerson (windows lead) was an aweful leader. Things definitely chang…

The job part is not the story of Nat Friedman but Migual de Icaza.

Not sure about the job part being about Miguel, but it's certainly not true about Nat. Nat interned at Microsoft in 97 and I was his manager. He did a great job and was well liked. I don't think he ever applied for a full time position after graduating as I would have heard about it.

I think it's just that he wanted to do something Open Source based, rather than what Microsoft was doing at the time.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#517

Post by WorldMaker »

dnomad wrote: post #187
ethbro wrote: post #58

From a financial perspective, any purchasing company with enterprise sales / support experience is a great fit. Having MS backing GitHub suddenly makes it a feasible option for a lot of conservative enterprise customers.

Exactly. A big concern for enterprise customers (that often drove them to Atlassian over Github) was the fear that Github was "just a startup" and might disappear at any moment and the lack of integration with existing enterprise tools. If MS can put together a comprehensive platform here that doesn't cost an arm and a leg they could dominate this market. The real story here is that nobody wants to host their own ser…

Which partly was great marketing from Atlassian because it isn't like they are that far removed from "just a startup" either.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#518

Post by AsyncAwait »

Someone1234 wrote: post #455
contravariant wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody here is claiming proprietary code is inherently bad (some people definitely do, but not in this thread), they're just saying it makes a poor example of Microsoft embracing open source.

JetBrains products aren't Open Source. So how is embracing a closed source for-profit company anything to do with embracing Open Source?

> how is embracing a closed source for-profit company anything to do with embracing Open Source?

Truly embracing open-source with .NET core would mean that, yes, even a proprietary product could make use of it. A debugger is extremely core to having a language being open-source and artificially limiting it to your own products is the exact opposite of 'embrace'

Also, JetBrains does have an open-source debugger in their community versions, but this is not what the debate is about.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#519

Post by hinkley »

Aeolun wrote: post #311
wilsonnb wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is outrageous that I have to delete half of the operating system to get something barely useable Seriously? Windows 10 is a perfectly usable OS out of the box. I can open up the included web browser and go to whatever website I want. I can install Office, Visual Studio, a Linux subsystem, VLC, a VNC client, VirtualBox, Chrome, Firefox, and every other piece of software I need without any hassle. Yes, there is so…

> Windows 10 is a perfectly usable OS out of the box. There's a large gap between 'usable' and 'good'. They destroyed the consistency of their interface (combined desktop/mobile anyone), and added a lot of cruft that literally nobody who's used Win 7 needs.

Arguing with developers about the gaping maw between “tolerable” and “good” is an uphill battle. I’m starting a support group. We meet at a bar. Want in?

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#520

Post by WorldMaker »

avip wrote: post #91
zachruss92 wrote: post #27

I am a GitLab user and have been for about 2 years now. With that being said, I think this acquisition makes a ton of sense strategically. Microsoft has really been trying to change their identity from being a stuffy close-source corporation to an open company that developers can rely on. And they have done pretty well at this. They open sourced .net, run MS SQL on Linux, and have released the WSL (which would have b…

That was also the Linkedin acquisition pitch. I wonder how that played out.

LinkedIn still exists and still seems to think they are a separate company.

Rumor has it that Satya is furious he still gets so many LinkedIn emails, but is keeping hands off.

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