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GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

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Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#301

Post by abeppu »

not_your_vase wrote: post #297
arnvald wrote: post #215

I’ll never understand why they ruined GitHub. They had everything they needed - the one place in the world where 99% of open source projects were hosted, where all the discussions happened. A product that people were so used to that it was a no brainer when it came to hosting private repos. And they had to ruin it and give space to GitLab and other competitors. What a waste…

GitHub was sold because it didn't make too much money. Microsoft bought it for OpenAI only, to train Copilot on the vast amount of code. Of course, MS every once in a while says that it makes a lot of money, but they don't really say how much is costs to keep it up. Their free tiers are still very generous, even they are buggy as hell - I can't imagine that the profit it makes even dents MS' bottom line (assuming it'…

> Microsoft bought it for OpenAI only, to train Copilot on the vast amount of code.

I think this gets the timeline wrong. Microsoft acquired GH in 2018 and started the partnership with OpenAI in summer 2019.

I'm sure there was some strategy to extract value from it that wouldn't serve its users but I think OpenAI was not initially meant to be the beneficiary.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#302

Post by BobaFloutist »

petsfed wrote: post #283
arnvald wrote: post #215

I’ll never understand why they ruined GitHub. They had everything they needed - the one place in the world where 99% of open source projects were hosted, where all the discussions happened. A product that people were so used to that it was a no brainer when it came to hosting private repos. And they had to ruin it and give space to GitLab and other competitors. What a waste…

Not to white-knight microsoft here, but I think the problem they run into with every product is that because of their ubiquity, they rapidly reach saturation with most every specialized product they sell. You cannot grow a business if your market is saturated, even if you're the only one selling. So they have to find a way to expand their market. With specialized tools, that's done by generalizing, right? And anyone…

>And anyone who has ever driven a screw with a swiss-army knife can tell you, generalized tools never work as well as dedicated tools

>Windows ultimately sucks

I actually want a generalized tool for my OS, a specialized OS sounds like a pain in the ass.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#303

Post by not_your_vase »

abeppu wrote: post #301
not_your_vase wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub was sold because it didn't make too much money. Microsoft bought it for OpenAI only, to train Copilot on the vast amount of code. Of course, MS every once in a while says that it makes a lot of money, but they don't really say how much is costs to keep it up. Their free tiers are still very generous, even they are buggy as hell - I can't imagine that the profit it makes even dents MS' bottom line (assuming it'…

> Microsoft bought it for OpenAI only, to train Copilot on the vast amount of code. I think this gets the timeline wrong. Microsoft acquired GH in 2018 and started the partnership with OpenAI in summer 2019. I'm sure there was some strategy to extract value from it that wouldn't serve its users but I think OpenAI was not initially meant to be the beneficiary.

Maybe MS just got extremely lucky, like winning-the-lottery-lucky.

But your timeline is off, however. Their partnership started in 2016[1]. In 2019 MS started to invest publicly in OpenAI - but by then they have had some history.

To me, this is at least suspicious. Granted, I have no hard proof.

[1]: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/11/15/advancing-ambiti...

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#305

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

sega_sai wrote: post #267
jacquesm wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's Microsoft. Categorically incapable of respecting their users. What's interesting to me is how many people went like 'Oh, Satya really gets open source, this time it will be different'. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17225599

I am not sure it is that. The job of Microsoft is to satisfy shareholders. That is the only target. They only care about users to the extend that helps the shareholders.

This is repeated ad nauseam, but do they really? Can you honestly say that Nadella's setting a hard target for conversion of local users into Microsoft ones caused their shares go up?

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#306

Post by RHSeeger »

cortesoft wrote: post #286
petsfed wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to white-knight microsoft here, but I think the problem they run into with every product is that because of their ubiquity, they rapidly reach saturation with most every specialized product they sell. You cannot grow a business if your market is saturated, even if you're the only one selling. So they have to find a way to expand their market. With specialized tools, that's done by generalizing, right? And anyone…

> You cannot grow a business if your market is saturated At some point, a business should shift from growth state to a steady state. The idea that businesses have to grow forever is a sad consequence to how we fund companies. The only thing that grows forever unchecked is cancer.

> At some point, a business should shift from growth state to a steady state.

I was on a department-wide call; many, many years ago. The person talking was telling us how well we were doing and how we needed to grow. At the end, they asked if there were any questions (which, thinking back, seems odd given the size of the meeting, but.. it was a long time ago). I asked them "Why? Why do we need to grow? We're doing a good job at our core business. We're making money doing it. Why do we need to expand; specifically expand our offerings into something that _isn't_ our core".

My question didn't get answered. But it _is_ a valid one, imo.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#307

Post by thewhitetulip »

tartoran wrote: post #247
thewhitetulip wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some Product Manager who wanted his promotion of the year went with: Oh how about we squeeze more revenue from our unpaid users

And what's even more disappointing is that despite failure they probably do get promoted.

Yes! And now Microsoft says Copilot is for entertainment purposes only

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#308

Post by thewhitetulip »

dominotw wrote: post #256
thewhitetulip wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some Product Manager who wanted his promotion of the year went with: Oh how about we squeeze more revenue from our unpaid users

nah blame goes to satya. not some rando who is acting on incentives. can we please blaming randos.

Ultimately it's on the company culture. So yea kinda.

Re: GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

#309

Post by moi2388 »

rrgok wrote: post #212

Microsoft, how cheap minded you have to be to understand that you don't need ads? You already had everything you need to grow without slapping ads everywhere. You had everything great. Xbox, Windows, Office,... and somehow in a short span of time you managed to enshittify everything. Focus on you core strength. Ads is not one of them. And the combination Ads+Ai it is not either. Stop ruining great things. You had - s…

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