I hope it will be embrace, extend and empower instead of the usual embrace, extend and extinguish.
Microsoft acquires Github
321–330 of 840 posts
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#322Seeing GitHub acquired, I can’t help but imagine that Gitlab would go that route sooner or later. Their free offering is even more extensive than GitHub’s, and I don’t think there’s visibility into whether their revenue from paid plans is enough to offset that. Since becoming backed by a major player is both a blessing (cash reserves to fuel the free offering!) and a curse (drive to increase shareholder value could g…
> Feel free to give me a shout if you’re considering moving your business to Gitlab and I’ll share my experience.
I'd love to hear your input on this.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#323I reported a bug in a Microsoft product earlier this year, one whose only effect was to complicate interop with a minor opensource competitor. They handled that fairly, promptly and well. Microsoft isn't the same company as ten and twenty years ago.
> Microsoft isn't the same company as ten and twenty years ago. It's not because you had one positive experience with one small part of MS that it means the whole company's culture has suddenly reversed to be philanthropic or something.
I've had more good experiences, I mentioned that one because it's such a stark contrast, not because it's unique.
Microsoft is hardly philanthtropic. I'd say it acts like a fairly enlightened bigco these days, that's very different from around y2k. My experiences are such that I did report that bug, I'd never have bothered doing that 20 years ago.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#324[deleted]
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is outrageous that I have to delete half of the operating system to get something barely useable Seriously? Windows 10 is a perfectly usable OS out of the box. I can open up the included web browser and go to whatever website I want. I can install Office, Visual Studio, a Linux subsystem, VLC, a VNC client, VirtualBox, Chrome, Firefox, and every other piece of software I need without any hassle. Yes, there is so…
> Windows 10 is a perfectly usable OS out of the box. There's a large gap between 'usable' and 'good'. They destroyed the consistency of their interface (combined desktop/mobile anyone), and added a lot of cruft that literally nobody who's used Win 7 needs.
Yes there is. I have no problem with people saying Windows 10 isn't good, even if I personally think it's good. The "goodness" of an operating system is pretty subjective.
I do have a problem with people calling it barely usable, which is a much more objective (and incorrect) statement.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#326I don't understand this. To me it looked like Github never much strayed (or progressed) in terms of functionality. It stayed a git repo management tool and that was it. It is obviously what people liked about it: it stuck to a single function.
They had so a huge role in popularizing git IMO, they secured some room and ample time for (non-overbearing) experimentation. Their issue tracking was very basic, and there could be so much work done there they could subsequently sell as something additional to core git repo functionality. Or they could improve code review tools etc.
I am afraid this is what will also happen to StackOverflow eventually with their attempts at Documentation, Jobs and now SO for teams. It looks like they are trying to compete but in the end it might turn out being them signaling their willingness to potential buyers by "moving in the right direction".
It is not the fact that it's Microsoft, it's the fact that the finality is almost always acquisition. I always looked at SO and github as an alternative to Linkedin's walls of enumerations, as a way to speak to other developers instead of HRs, and now it is not so for Github.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Haven't they spied on Windows 10 users? Do they not engage in patents racketeering? Have they not killed Nokia or ruined Skype? I don't think one can say they killed Nokia. Nokia's phone business was basically doomed after Android gained traction, and Microsoft just helped the company to pivot by overpaying for that part of the business, while leaving Nokia with everything that actually was making money.
Nokia had Maemo/Meego which wasn't on par with Android at that time wrt the software ecosystem, but with some investment in development could have killed it pretty easily: thanks to native code a device could offer the same performance using slower CPUs and less RAM, or be a lot snappier with the same hardware. Given due time, manufacturers and users would have noticed. As probably did Microsoft. You can have a full…
I really liked the Maemo and Meego phones that got released, but your scenario would not have happened. Nokia's DNA was not in software development, and they couldn't really compete with Google on that.
Furthermore, Nokia wouldn't have shared a successful OS with others like Google did if they had one. That meant all other manufacturers were going to stay with Android, and I greatly doubt that they would've succeeded in building the whole ecosystem alone like Apple did.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only on HN / in San Francisco would the federal government (if I understand you correctly) be preferable to a technology company which has been a key player in the PC and internet marketplace for decades. I’m not trying to lionize M$, but come on - a Public Utility? As if the government doesn’t already burn enough cash....
> if I understand you correctly You don't. We are the public. If GitHub did an annual funding drive a-la wikipedia it would definitely keep them afloat. A-propos, would you be OK with Microsoft buying Wikipedia? Archive.org?
Investors would never accept that as an exit strategy.
Re: Microsoft acquires Github
#329More tech consolidation under Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple flat out sucks. It doesn't empower developers in the slightest to have a small number of giant companies own everything.
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
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keeping in mind, of course, that Ballmer's Microsoft is very, very different from Nadella's Microsoft...
Keeping in mind, of course, that it's an opinion, and not a fact. I happen to have the opposite opinion, although I documented it a lot more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17225290 History does not help with trusting them. So let's wait and see. But I talked about MS PR team before, and I can already see it at work everywhere. Here, the first HN links were not warmly welcomed, so we had another one published,…
I had a serious dislike of MS under Ballmer, and every single one of your examples in that post was under his reign. But the argument that "they used to be bad, so they still have to be bad" is just silly. Ballmer may have screamed "developers" on stage, but he was the one who lost them - which cost them dearly (mobile, cloud). Shareholders and the board pushed him out for that reason, so the new management had no choice but to sail a completely different course - which they did. It's no accident that their new CEO is the guy that was heading the Azure division, which is effectively selling Linux.
But yes - it's still a company that will act in it's own self-interest, as any company will, and right now, that aligns pretty well with playing nice with the opensource community. That could change - in the future, so some caution is always a good idea (but that's the same for Google, Apple, Amazon, ...), but today, I have little issues with MS's attitude today towards opensource. Tomorrow, we'll see.
That said - I don't mind them buying github and I like that people are actively looking into alternatives, github is simply too big imho, and too many things just expect git = github, which sucks too.