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NPM Is Joining GitHub

github.blog

131–140 of 588 posts

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#131
post #79

I hope this doesn't alter the current GitHub npm package registry policy where all packages must be published under a scope corresponding to name of the owning GitHub user/org. The resulting increased transparency and clarity of ownership will be great for the JS ecosystem. The existing npm ownership model is markedly less clear and has led to several problems, including the transfer of package publishing rights to b…

Yes thank you! We believe namespaces are a good thing and will continue to promote it as best practice.

Hopefully we can integrate repository information to packages meta data such that you could be aware of a change of ownership even for a globally namespaced package.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#132
Hopefully they don't drop Linux support like they did with Skype, Minecraft, Xamarin[1], Corel Office and a long list of products.

Their strategy from my perspective is to ensure Linux does not become a competitor for their desktop OS.

1: it never had Linux support.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#133
I see this as a straightforward play, simply put, I think (to summarize, perhaps a little to broadly)

- They want to sell Azure Services

- Most (if not all) NPM packages already live on github

- NPM has a business revolving around package management, including private npm instances and increasingly around node/package security

- This being primarily a business that will sell to has-money businesses (e.g., medium to large businesses, Fortune 500 corporations etc)

So, given all of the above, it makes sense to have a vertical selling into one of the fastest growing package management ecosystems where you can be the "full stack" provider of developer/enterprise tools.

I don't think its anything beyond this, personally. I expect to see a lot of pushes to integrate with Azure Pipelines, cloud deployment etc. centered around this.

I wonder if they'll buy Passenger[0] next, its a popular (in my experience) to deploy nodejs applications.

[0]https://www.phusionpassenger.com/library/

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#134

VsCode, Typescript, Github, NPM. And Microsoft doesn't even have to maintain the main runtime, Google does. What a clever strategy!

To be honest I like this new Microsoft. VSCode is a really good tool, C# is amazingly performant and they don‘t talk quite the same BS lingo as some other big players. Also MS research produces some really good stuff.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, indeed - and the dependency is literally right there on the technical level. For years, you've been able to specify a version of a package as a github repo's branch HEAD. npm i some-package username/repo#branchName

How is a convenience feature a dependency? The same command exists as "gitlab:username/repo" variant. The GH variant just happens to be the unprefixed one as it has by far the biggest userbase.

Perhaps dependency was the wrong term, but my point is what you said - they've built it in as a convenience feature precisely because it's such a common usecase - a better way to say it might be they're inseparably linked tools / tightly coupled even on the technical level.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#136
post #125
post #14

This seems like a good outcome overall. NPM being such an important pillar in the software supply chain while having an unviable business model and largely being funded by VC money was never a good position to be in. There are problems with more of the software ecosystem consolidating with a single entity but it still feels like an improvement.

I do not consider the largest distributor of proprietary, closed-source spyware (Windows) owning the fastest growing open source package manager to be a good outcome, personally.

You aren't the only one. Most users are too young to understand how predatory Microsoft has always been. Can't wait for the "npm won't publish my package because it circumvents something in Windows" or whatever. Give it time.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#137
post #125
post #14

This seems like a good outcome overall. NPM being such an important pillar in the software supply chain while having an unviable business model and largely being funded by VC money was never a good position to be in. There are problems with more of the software ecosystem consolidating with a single entity but it still feels like an improvement.

I do not consider the largest distributor of proprietary, closed-source spyware (Windows) owning the fastest growing open source package manager to be a good outcome, personally.

Then you must not like React or Angular, since the owners of those projects are the largest spyware and aggregators of personal data in the history of humanity.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#138

I'm surprised there's not a single mention of "Microsoft" in this or the npm announcement [1], given the old-evil-history of Microsoft and the new-nice Microsoft we have today. I would expect that there was at least a mention, considering the reason that most modules in npm are still in ES5 is exactly because of the monopolistic practices that Microsoft followed back in the day which makes Internet Explorer still rel…

Microsoft is aware of their reputation. So much that they even have a policy of not allowing Microsoft+Github co-brand promotions. They want the Github brand to stay strong instead of being diluted into some mix of Github and Microsoft.

Sleez'n their way into our hearts. I can't say I really blame them, but god I hate it all.

Re: NPM Is Joining GitHub

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Embrace, extend, extinguish?

My prediction, that my IT department hates to hear, is that Windows is going away. Microsoft doesn't want to be Microsoft anymore; it wants to be Oracle and IBM and primarily make money off of business consulting and the cloud. I think Windows will eventually become a presentation and slowly-phased-out compatibility layer on top of Linux, similar to the way macOS became Unix, but even less different than its underlyi…

Microsoft seems to be happily improving their OS and non-cloud products as well. They are a big enough company that they can be competitive in both.
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