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Microsoft acquires Github

blogs.microsoft.com

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Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#761

Post by stefs »

i'm torn about this. on the one hand, microsoft is profit oriented, but so was github. and github was under certain pressure to make a profit, which is optional under microsoft, as they have other revenue streams which can be used to cross-finance a small, money hemorrhaging github.

but why would microsoft buy a money-losing company? either they think they can turn it around - maybe because they can use their own, cheaper hosting infrastructure -, or because it's a ploy to reconcile a mostly microsoft-wary developer community with their new "not so evil as before" image (we all remember the microsoft under gates and ballmer and the damage it did).

the question that remains is: can we trust them to continue to run github as we know (and love?) it? it's not like the company hasn't improved tremendously in the last years, but the windows 10 update and privacy debacle has shown they're not above suspicion.

for me personally, i'll probably continue to use github, as i use it only for non-critical hobby projects anyway.

for important work i'd rely on a self hosting gitlab/gogs/gitea instance. i know it's not the same, as the barrier-to-entry for potential contributors is higher and the added sysop work is a pita for most people. but that's the price to pay for a healthy, robust open source community.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#762

Post by cesarb »

spacenick88 wrote: post #678
cesarb wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is with the issues, which are not cloned together with the repository (and pull requests, while there's the trick of using --mirror to also clone the pull requests, the comments aren't cloned).

But since they need to be GDPR compliant there needs to be a way to export those and I'd think there probably is already.

There probably is, and if not, someone will have created one. But even then, "every developer has almost or exactly an identical copy of the repository in at least one location" is false for issues and pull requests; while nearly every developer can be assumed to have one or more "git clone" copies of the repository, few will have any copy of the issues and pull request comments.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#763

Post by manigandham »

bad_user wrote: post #486
manigandham wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are giant companies with 1000s of employees and more politics than small countries... it doesn’t work to just generalize it all together. The developer side of Microsoft has definitely changed for the better over the last several years. And even if github fails, so what? It’s the most easily replaceable part of the stack.

You haven’t been using GitHub for open source then. The best part of GitHub is the social part and that’s not currently replaceable. Also good luck migrating issues and their history of comments and PRs.

Issues and comments can already be migrated, github has a simple API and all the other services have import tools. It's not hard.

The social part is not that big of a deal, its just because everybody happens to already have a login. Other than that, what's the big social hook? You can have the same exact discussions on the other source code sites, all of which have more features too.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#764

Post by Delmania »

blub wrote: post #676
Delmania wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that by posting that link, you contradicted yourself? How many Microsoft be spying on you if they write articles detailing what data is collected? If you don't like data collection, then don't use Windows 10. Plenty of Microsoft tools work on macOS and Linux. But don't accuse them of spying on the user when they have made efforts to be transparent about it.

What you said makes no sense. Talking about doing something is the same as not doing something?! There's a reason the GDPR requires explicit opt-in: companies are expert at making their spyware look harmless and know that most people won't bother to change the defaults or won't understand what's happening.

No, what I was disputing was the claim that what Windows 10 collects is spyware when Microsoft makes it a point to ask you what data you want to share (if any) and then has several posts written describing in detail what they collect and how to turn it off. Spying implies the company is doing it in secret, and yet here we are talking about and referencing public documents that describe it. That is not "spying".

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#765

Post by bonzini »

SXX wrote: post #709
bonzini wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that different from skydrive or live.com email?

It is different because there is plenty of popular options and you can as well encrypt your data here on any cloud hosting. And for email better example would be GMail due to market share. And GitHub is obviously biggest player on market.

Yes, but I would sure hope that (except for national security letters...) the access control measures for skydrive are very strict!

File-level encryption is still not for the masses.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#766

Post by Aldo_MX »

pavlov wrote: post #50
ulkesh wrote: post #20

The real question everyone should be asking is whether Microsoft is trustworthy, cognizant, and honorable enough to be the steward of such a major player that facilitates a large portion of open source software. This has me very concerned for the open source community.

Why were you not concerned previously about an unprofitable SV startup holding that central position? GitHub wasn’t a non-profit. This was always the endgame for them. They were losing money to acquire a userbase that would be sold when the time is right — just like WhatsApp and numerous other big social SV plays.

What is SV? There are too many definitions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SV

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#767

Post by Ichelures »

spacenick88 wrote: post #678
cesarb wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is with the issues, which are not cloned together with the repository (and pull requests, while there's the trick of using --mirror to also clone the pull requests, the comments aren't cloned).

But since they need to be GDPR compliant there needs to be a way to export those and I'd think there probably is already.

I don't think GDPR comes into this. You could probably make the case that the issues you've posted yourself are personal/identifying information but github have no obligation as far as I can see to allow you to export issues and comments created by others as well.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#768

Post by Aldo_MX »

nimbius wrote: post #117

Friendly reminder: this is the same Microsoft that "empowered" skype and once called open source a cancer. Its the same Microsoft that ruined open document standards and started the browser wars. I wouldnt be surprised to see next years release of "Github Pro Platinum with Minecraft 3D and Windows Store integration" For those looking to move, https://gitlab.com is an excellent open source alternative that can easily…

> this is the same Microsoft

No, it isn't. It's like saying that Ford is the same company that finds more profitable to let customers burn than to fix a flaw[1].

[1]: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Professionalism/The_Ford_Pinto...

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#769

Post by z3t4 »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #338
ptx wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why the "extend" phase is there in the embrace/extend/extinguish strategy - to make it an insurmountable pain to migrate elsewhere, after first having lured the users in with the "embrace" phase. Letting it play out is just what they need to move from phase 1 to phase 2.

But "extend" hasn't happened yet. There's no need to cry foul until it does, because until it does there's no evidence of anything nefarious going on. "Embrace" on its own is perfectly normal and acceptable behavior. Vendor lock-in is an important concern regardless of who owns the platform you're being locked into.

So what do you call TypeScript !? They now bought the site where 99% of all free NodeJS packages are hosted. A few years ago NodeJS didn't even work properly on Windows, and was growing at exponential rate, taking market share from the Microsoft ecosystem. So what happened in the last few years ? Many developers now code JavaScript/NodeJS using TypeScript on VsCode. And their code is hosted on Github.

Re: Microsoft acquires Github

#770

Post by hinkley »

manigandham wrote: post #691
hinkley wrote: post #506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who taught you that high market cap equals nondestructive? Go ask for your money back.

What is the point of your comment? Care to explain what "destructive" means then since you're claiming to be better educated about this?

No, I don’t care to explain. You opened with incredulity, an Appeal to Accoplishment/Authority, and now you are playing Prove Me Wrong/Teach Me.
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