So long GitHub and thanks for all the fish

So long GitHub and thanks for all the fish
blog.onyxbits.de

> Microsoft never was and never will be trustworthy. Replacing a loud (“Linux is a cancer”) with a charismatic CEO (“We love developers, and we love open source developers”) does not magically change a corporate culture that has been cultivated for years.

For decades but yes a corporate culture can and does change. I am willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. Seriously, after bringing SQL Server to Linux, Linux to Windows, open sourcing Chakra Core and so much more ... what would they need to do before you believe them?

Life’s pretty good if all you have to get really mad about is Microsoft buying github.

It's amazing how people can't just take yes for an answer. Open Source won. It's over. Open Source won. "We" won over "them". Yay! Right?

That's not enough though? What if we take one MS employee per week and change their name to "Microsoft" and then force them to stand in stocks in a town square where you can throw things at them? How about also forcing them to dress up as clippy? What would it take for you to get over it and just accept that our system of business demands that a company behave the way they did in the 90's or shareholders would sue them?

I'm not even saying it wasn't bad. It was. It also is how any company in that position will act. See every example from modern history. Now they aren't in that position and they are doing some good work. To the extent that it's good, use it. To the extent that it isn't, don't. That's it.

If you want the world to change, then you need to look into something beyond open source. Business has been using open source as a means to solidify their positions against competitors since it became popular. All of that freedom BS is great, but it mainly helps Google not have to pay a Unix license per server. Or IBM to drive down the cost of tech service delivery, or Oracle to remain relevant, or...I'm just saying. Those guys only participate to the extent that it serves their interest but that's OK because no one ever said anything bad about Linux in a memo?

This is more tribal than anything else. People decided that MS was an enemy a long time ago and literally nothing will change that and now that everyone's opinion is important we all get to here about how you specifically haven't forgiven them and you are moving your project source to somewhere else that gives you something for free. Whooopdeeee dooooo.

The reason people trust other companies (Google and Facebook) more when it comes to open source is because these companies actively use open source products in their core products, and would be affected significantly if open source degrades in any way. Although Microsoft contributes to open source (vscode, dotnetcore, etc.), in no way are they reliant in open source, and in a lot of ways their core products (windows) compete with open source.

So short of changing their business model and core competency completely, microsoft can't do anything to gain the trust of serious open source developers in a matter like this.