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GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

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Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#51
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even chunks of Azure are open source. https://github.com/Azure

Azure used to bill themselves as the "open cloud". That's kinda gone from their marketing, but they are WAY more open than AWS.

Only OpenStack is fully open source and fairly feature complete, with a few dozen providers using the OpenStack platform.

OVH, who owns the largest datacenter in North America uses OpenStack, they're actually one of the largest contributors. Red Hat & IBM both seem to be really pushing private deployments as of late for their larger clients that already own large DCs.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#52
post #31

I think the author nailed it. This is Microsoft's chance to reach out to developers and prove that they've had a change of heart regarding open source. We've seen this over the years with previous code hosting platforms. If the platforms betrays it's users, developers are not scared to mass migrate to something else. The onus is now on Microsoft to keep developers happy or risk losing their $7.5B investment.

I wouldn't say that, as siblings echo. I genuinely think that, for instance, Microsoft is genuinely doing a better job of doing open source than Google right now (With Facebook at the top, MSFT #2, Goog #3 from FAANG). That might be because I'm deeper into web development though, and both TypeScript, and VS Code are great contributions. Maybe I'd feel different if I worked in ML, and used Tensorflow daily.

I wouldn't say that Google is high on my list of trust, either. But TypeScript and VS Code do not jump you into a #2 ranking. Go and Chrome easily trump them for starters. Then you get things like node that ride off V8, and Atom that rides off Chrome. The Google ecosystem of community building blocks is still much, much more significant than MS. After all, Google actually dogfoods OSS.

FWIW, I don't and wouldn't use a source code repository of Google's or Facebook's, either. In fact, rather than open a GitLab account, I started self-hosting a year ago. GitLab made that easy. I also looked at Pagure.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#53

I think the author nailed it. This is Microsoft's chance to reach out to developers and prove that they've had a change of heart regarding open source. We've seen this over the years with previous code hosting platforms. If the platforms betrays it's users, developers are not scared to mass migrate to something else. The onus is now on Microsoft to keep developers happy or risk losing their $7.5B investment.

That to me is what DotNet Core is, along with Asp.Net, Entity Framework many years ago, and everything developer related becoming open source. GitHub is just a signal to people who have been out of the loop, bloomberg and many linux developers. When I start dropping my apps on their systems, they might be surprised how well they run. https://github.com/dotnet https://github.com/aspnet

People may or may not remember, but most of this started with ALT.NET movement, with a number of influential people and developer supported or created a number of projects.

Before ASP.NET MVC, there was Castle Monorail. Before Entity framework or linq2sql, there was Nhibernate.

It was amazing times. It was clear Scott Guthrie started moving microsoft in that direction back in the day, after ALT.NET movement started proving success and showing an alternative to people.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#54

I am a developer, use git, but don't use too much GitHub. I am genuinely curious, are the users of GitHub really that tied in to the site? Is the cost of moving to another platform, really that difficult??

Question: is it possible to build basic pull request and comment information storage into the git repository itself? This way, sites like Github are merely interfaces with no data import export requirements.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#55
post #54

I am a developer, use git, but don't use too much GitHub. I am genuinely curious, are the users of GitHub really that tied in to the site? Is the cost of moving to another platform, really that difficult??

Question: is it possible to build basic pull request and comment information storage into the git repository itself? This way, sites like Github are merely interfaces with no data import export requirements.

I think the problem is with identity management.

Maybe a universal identity provider is required.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#56
post #2

> The WWDC, sacred nerd summit of Appledom, is where they announce things like a new “night mode” for the operating system and try to convince programmers that Apple Watch matters. Bloomberg got an honest laugh out of me.

Apple Watch is apparently the best selling watch (not just best selling smartwatch) in the world [0], with millions of users, and many copycats. Why shouldn’t it matter? Of course, there’s only so much you can do and make on such a small screen, and it is an accessory rather than a “primary” device, but that is another issue altogether, if one. I think it may even function as a motion control input for the rumored VR…

> Apple Watch is apparently the best selling watch (not just best selling smartwatch) in the world

That's rather "big fish in a small pond" in 2018, though, isn't it? It's like making the best-selling model of recumbent bicycle in the world.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#57

I am a developer, use git, but don't use too much GitHub. I am genuinely curious, are the users of GitHub really that tied in to the site? Is the cost of moving to another platform, really that difficult??

> I am genuinely curious, are the users of GitHub really that tied in to the site? For open source projects of multiple contributors, yes, because that's where the community is, along with all relevant traces, e.g. issues, comments, PRs, all linked to their user's accounts. I've seen people here suggest that GitLab's import tool is pretty good in importing the history of issues. It's also a copyright lawsuit waiting…

Aren't a lot of open source communities based around IRC channels or is that old hat now?

I remember back in the day IRC was the place to be for Debian. Ditto for when I was doing stuff with Perl.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#58
post #31

I think the author nailed it. This is Microsoft's chance to reach out to developers and prove that they've had a change of heart regarding open source. We've seen this over the years with previous code hosting platforms. If the platforms betrays it's users, developers are not scared to mass migrate to something else. The onus is now on Microsoft to keep developers happy or risk losing their $7.5B investment.

I wouldn't say that, as siblings echo. I genuinely think that, for instance, Microsoft is genuinely doing a better job of doing open source than Google right now (With Facebook at the top, MSFT #2, Goog #3 from FAANG). That might be because I'm deeper into web development though, and both TypeScript, and VS Code are great contributions. Maybe I'd feel different if I worked in ML, and used Tensorflow daily.

Considering Google has over 2000 plus open source projects I find it hard to believe how Microsoft is doing a better job of doing open source than Google.

Additionally, I find it comical that you would even suggest that a company that has sued other companies for using open source software is even in the conversation with companies that have championed open source software since their inception.

There is no undo button. All you can do is be better than what you were. If Microsoft really wants to start doing a better job in the open source community they can start by agreeing to never sue another company for using Linux.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#59
We might see the day when Nat Friedman rises to the top job at Microsoft. Imagine that, a ex MS-intern who made his fortune with an open source support company running the company that was "celebrated" in hate partys (we have a 1997 poster of that at our hackerspace).

GitHub will be the only Microsoft product I use, but I'll give them a chance.

Re: GitHub Is Microsoft’s $7.5B Undo Button

#60
post #2

> The WWDC, sacred nerd summit of Appledom, is where they announce things like a new “night mode” for the operating system and try to convince programmers that Apple Watch matters. Bloomberg got an honest laugh out of me.

Apple Watch is apparently the best selling watch (not just best selling smartwatch) in the world [0], with millions of users, and many copycats. Why shouldn’t it matter? Of course, there’s only so much you can do and make on such a small screen, and it is an accessory rather than a “primary” device, but that is another issue altogether, if one. I think it may even function as a motion control input for the rumored VR…

I can believe that it is the best selling watch in the world.

People don't buy many watches, because they last a long time.

Last time I bought a watch was 7 years ago, and it still works fine. It's probably got another 3 years before I need to change the battery.

I think the last time my old man bought a watch was some time in the 80's or 90's.

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