What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub • Hacker News Board

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#91

Post by culturestate » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:28 AM UTC

Artemis2 wrote: post #18

Not commenting on the acquisitions rumors; > The acquisition of Skype, after which all the peer-to-peer traffic was routed through Microsoft, essentially allowing them to snoop on the conversations. To pre-empt the technical counter argument that this was done to improve the service: It only improved the service for some edge cases, for everybody else the service got worse because of the extra round-trip latency. So…

I know lots of people think Microsoft did this to kowtow to the NSA, but I'm willing to bet it was really done for the same reason that Apple fundamentally re-architected FaceTime: patent threats.

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#92

Post by setquk » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:28 AM UTC

cube2222 wrote: post #25

RyanZAG wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 is really recent though. That said, since I like controversy: I'm happier to see Microsoft buy Github than I would be to see Google or Facebook buy it. And also! A big shoutout to Linus for helping to make source control distributed and open, which means swapping between git providers (for the code at least) is simple, easy and impossible to block. The amount of good Linus has done for the world is incredi…

Well yes, Windows 10, finally a practically usable Windows in my opinion. Finally working, with a lot of polish and Dev tools available. (Like wsl)

I don't buy the usability argument of WSL. The thing isn't anywhere near a useful Linux environment other than for some noddy stuff that cygwin can already handle. Try running a background process, a service, use a serial port or drag some half decent performance out of it and you'll see.

It is ultimately backed with NTFS and NT's buffer cache. Running a VM is still several orders of magnitude more productive. And you can't fix NTFS and NT now. It's impossible.

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#93

Post by wolfgke » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:28 AM UTC

merinowool wrote: post #84

raesene9 wrote: post #4

The idea that some companies must be forever tainted by their misdeads in the past seems odd to me. Companies change leadership, direction and style and it seems odd to suggest that there's some underlying quality which means that, regardless of that, you can never trust them (or in reverse that you should always trust a company you once trusted) There seems to be a trope with Microsoft that they're still the same co…

Microsoft is pure evil - they wanted to access my computer after I upgraded cpu and motherboard as Windows 10 deactivated. That is despite I have full retail version. It took three days so that they acknowledged they won't get remote access. They required me to run some weird binaries to activate Windows again. That was super creepy. - Soon after I bought VS2015 pro, VS2017 was released. They didn't want to give me a…

> - they wanted to access my computer after I upgraded cpu and motherboard as Windows 10 deactivated. That is despite I have full retail version. It took three days so that they acknowledged they won't get remote access. They required me to run some weird binaries to activate Windows again. That was super creepy.

Are you sure that you were not scammed?

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#94

Post by amelius » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:29 AM UTC

oldcynic wrote: post #77

amelius wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also don't forget that Microsoft Research has published an enormous amount of papers, whereas Apple Research ... (does it even exist?)

I can appreciate some of MS Research's papers and former personalities whilst still having zero trust in MS Corp.

Perhaps the whole concept of having trust in a company is flawed, as board members come and go, and shareholders keep pushing the company to the boundaries of what is desired/acceptable from a societal perspective.

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#95

Post by mpartel » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:29 AM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #45

mpartel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another recent example: lockdown of ARM-based Windows machines, preventing the installation of other operating systems.

Lockdown of consumer grade devices isn't really a new experience (e.g. iOS devices). There's a trade-off to be had between security/reliability and flexibility. If MS were selling those devices as general purpose computers and then refusing to allow other OS installation, I think that would be dishonest, however as far as I'm aware they're not making such claims.

I don't see the tradeoff honestly. Sure, make it a little difficult, show a big red scary warning, perhaps even require the use of a screwdriver to discourage "casual" users from being misled into compromising their machine's security.

But ultimately true ownership, recyclability/reusability (Linux on aging hardware..), and hardware-independent OS competition are norms with significant benefits that we shouldn't give up lightly.

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#96

Post by Nursie » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:29 AM UTC

raesene9 wrote: post #4

The idea that some companies must be forever tainted by their misdeads in the past seems odd to me. Companies change leadership, direction and style and it seems odd to suggest that there's some underlying quality which means that, regardless of that, you can never trust them (or in reverse that you should always trust a company you once trusted) There seems to be a trope with Microsoft that they're still the same co…

Their pattern of bad behaviour extended far beyond the 90s, and all the stuff that happened with Nokia gives me pause as well.

As was their OOXML, ISO-stacking shenanigans.

Microsoft have a history of bad behaviour, and repeatedly abusing monopoly positions. How many chances at goodwill should I give them?

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#97

Post by pg_bot » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:31 AM UTC

the_duke wrote: post #60

pg_bot wrote: post #28

The biggest surprise to me was that Github was running at a loss for a considerable amount of time. Given their roots as a bootstrapped company, I would've assumed that they would be more disciplined in their spending. I'm disappointed that they've decided to sell rather than go public, I would've happily been a shareholder of Github if given the choice.

Going public would probaly have been near impossible with large losses and a competitive marketplace where there are alternatives available you can switch to if price is too high.

This would be true for any industry other than tech. It feels like every single tech IPO follows the same formula of going public while posting large losses. See dropbox, box, twilio, spotify, snap, or any other high profile S1 of the last 10 years and you will find that almost none of them make a profit at the time they went public.

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#98

Post by merinowool » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:33 AM UTC

wolfgke wrote: post #93

merinowool wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is pure evil - they wanted to access my computer after I upgraded cpu and motherboard as Windows 10 deactivated. That is despite I have full retail version. It took three days so that they acknowledged they won't get remote access. They required me to run some weird binaries to activate Windows again. That was super creepy. - Soon after I bought VS2015 pro, VS2017 was released. They didn't want to give me a…

> - they wanted to access my computer after I upgraded cpu and motherboard as Windows 10 deactivated. That is despite I have full retail version. It took three days so that they acknowledged they won't get remote access. They required me to run some weird binaries to activate Windows again. That was super creepy. Are you sure that you were not scammed?

I am sure. That was via Microsoft Support chat and email.

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#99

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:33 AM UTC

cecja wrote: post #76

dfcowell wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically, out of all of the BigCorps who could have bought it (and who have deep enough pockets to sustain its bleeding,) Microsoft is one of the best of a bad bunch. I'm not quite as cynical as the author of the OP when it comes to Microsoft's recent apparent change of direction, but who knows, that may just be naivety speaking.

the best out of a bad bunch... what does this even mean. They are killing a neutral force in the market space there is nothing good coming from it.

Better integration with Microsoft's existing ecosystem would be a good outcome (for developers working in that ecosystem) as well as more investment in general. As others have stated, VSTS is excellent so they definitely know what they are doing in this space.

"Nothing good coming from it" seems a bit of a stretch when we don't even know the terms of the deal yet - or indeed whether it's actually happening at all!

Re: What is wrong with Microsoft buying GitHub

#100

Post by rbanffy » Mon, Jun 04, 2018, 9:34 AM UTC

ssijak wrote: post #21

onion2k wrote: post #13

Assuming GitHub was actually losing money and couldn't fix that problem quickly enough it's fair to assume they had to sell, and it's reasonable to believe there aren't that many companies who could have bought them if you think an understanding of the domain is important, then you're really limited to Facebook (user surveillance, adverts), Apple (bad at software, not developer friendly), Google (user surveillance, a…

How is Apple not developer friendly?

Apple is user-friendly first. Developers for Apple technologies come next and all other developers who like the Unix environment of OSX come next. The only reason I use a Mac is because the computer is very well built, fast enough, and runs an OS that's Unix-like enough for my needs.

The fact it's not Linux is the reason I routinely use two other laptops, one with Ubuntu, one with Fedora (and a big Lenovo box that runs about a dozen VMs).