$7.5 Billion is a lot of money for GitHub. Just saying...
That's an awful lot of inflation for thirty pieces of silver.
Microsoft acquires Github
681–690 of 840 posts
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#682Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whatever happens to Gitlab, you have the option of hosting the open source edition yourself. If they get acquired by Oracle in the morning, a fork could conceivably rise to take its place.
> Whatever happens to Gitlab, you have the option of hosting the open source edition yourself. The whole _point_ of Github was that you didn't have to host anything yourself. Just create an account and, bam, off you go. On top of that, even if you did want to host Gitlab yourself, it's "open core", not open source. You'd lose a ton of functionality.
When you offload responsibility, you offload control.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#683Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would Github be any harder for the NSA to coerce than Microsoft?
Because Github, unlike Microsoft is not particularly dependant on US government contracts.
Well hello there, I'd like to share a story with you.
I'm the maintainer of butterproject.org and have been maintaining popcorntime.io for a while, we had there 2 issues with GitHub a few years ago, both related to (unfounded) copyright claims on the butter and popcorntime code (we absolutely own the right to every single line there), when we tried to make our case we were ignored once and asked to 'keep things quiet' by side channels the second time. Most likely, the mpaa, didn't want us to exist and GitHub complied with shutting down our repos and sending a cese and desist to all our 800ish forks (at a time where we were trying to transform BitTorrent media streaming into a viable business plan).
Maybe it's time we build our core infrastructure on something else than companies that act irrationally when threatened to be sued ?
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#684> And Microsoft is all-in on open source. We have been on a journey with open source, and today we are active in the open source ecosystem, we contribute to open source projects, and some of our most vibrant developer tools and frameworks are open source. When it comes to our commitment to open source, judge us by the actions we have taken in the recent past, our actions today, and in the future. It’s a fair point bu…
I can understand those concerns, but what can they do to convince you they have changed?
Honestly? Nothing. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose and Microsoft has spent my entire professional life acting against my interests.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#685This is a wake up call. Too many things are relying on Github right now. Microsoft was part of the PRISM program. If Microsoft shares SSL certs with NSA they could do MITM attacks. What if in some very specific cases you download dependencies from GitHub and they give you a different version with malicious code? It's the NSA. They could be smart enough to only deploy those attacks on production servers were nobody is…
Whenever I read these kinds of posts on this website I think of Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove. (The crazy SAC commander who thinks the Russians are plotting to steal Americans' precious bodily fluids). I understand that people don't trust the NSA/US government. And they shouldn't: the US government will always put its interests above yours and mine, and above those of allied countries. At the same time, this stu…
I didn't mean that this is going to happen. I wanted to give an example of a potential threat. My idea was to show one of many problems with centralization and relying so much in GitHub and GitHub SSL certs.
Maybe we can start signing our commits to increase security giving the potential threat. The same way that after the Snowden revelations we started using more and more HTTPS.
We can also think of better ways of sharing/releasing open source code. Debian has a pretty neat system with keys so it's pretty safe to install software from their repos [1]. Maybe there is a better system to be develop than just grabbing whatever from GitHub[2] and running it in your machine.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Development_procedures
[2] https://github.com/mklement0/n-install/blob/master/bin/n-ins...
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#686Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is reported that GH makes about $200M a year.
Right, but my understanding is they are not profitable (they were, but have been trying to work back toward profitability).
I have been looking for a source to that claim (not the first I have seen) and haven't found one (either for or against profitability). Does anybody have one?
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#687If you want to develop software for Microsoft’s Linux distro/kernel (Azure Sphere for IoT), you must use Windows 10 + Visual Studio, https://seeedstudio.com/productDetail/3052
> To use MT3620 Dev Board for Azure Sphere, you’ll need a Windows 10 PC with the latest Windows Updates, along with the Visual Studio Tools for Azure Sphere (which will be available for download from Microsoft). These tools will include application templates, development tools and the Azure Sphere software development kit (SDK). Terms: This development board can be only used for prototyping, it cannot be built into a product for commercial distribution. It cannot be re-sold or used as part of a production environment.
Dear Microsoft, since IoT is one of the “next big things”, it would be nice to use Microsoft Linux ARM kernel with open hardware (no terms of service for hardware resale) and open software (e.g. use open-source Linux dev tools with the Azure SDK).
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#688Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yet they have numerous defenders on this site, all the more peculiar considering those companies' collusion to avoid paying market rates to developers. The preference to be a sharecropper on their plantations is evidently strong, for no very clear reason. And let us not forget the EU's efforts to support incumbents and deter new entrants, with their complex, vague and punitive regulations. These also receive much app…
I'd love to see some sources on your claim that they are colluding to avoid paying market rates to developers.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#689Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Seeing GitHub acquired, I’d speculate that Gitlab will go that route sooner or later. Bingo. It's bizarre to hear people stampeding to GitLab when they're subject to the same financial and revenue pressures as GitHub or any other business. Somebody's paying for those servers and bandwidth and that somebody is expecting a return on their investment.
The difference is that Gitlab has publicly stated, from the beginning, that the goal is an IPO: > Stay independent so we can preserve our values. Since we took external investment we need a liquidity event. To stay independent we want that to be an IPO instead of being acquired. https://about.gitlab.com/strategy/
There’s no way Gitlab is turning down multiple billions of dollars like GitHub. They likely burn even more money than GitHub since their free offerings are bigger.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#690Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whenever I read these kinds of posts on this website I think of Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove. (The crazy SAC commander who thinks the Russians are plotting to steal Americans' precious bodily fluids). I understand that people don't trust the NSA/US government. And they shouldn't: the US government will always put its interests above yours and mine, and above those of allied countries. At the same time, this stu…
I personally am not worried. If I was running some nuclear centrifuge in Iran/N.Korea/etc. then I'd be worried.
This is another phrasing of the worn-out "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" argument, and it doesn't have any place here.