After supposed claims that Microsoft was looking into acquiring GitHub, it has now been officially confirmed. In a few months, Microsoft will own GitHub, a major purveyor of open source code. With the prior success of other acquisitions like Minecraft and LinkedIn, GitHub staff claims they feel confident with Microsoft's leadership.

According to the announcement blog post by the site, innovations will be made with Microsoft's help, though the focus on providing open software will always remain. A new CEO, Nat Friedman, has been appointed as well, while the previous CEO and co-founder of GitHub will be now working directly at Microsoft.

Of course, this announcement and the rumors leading up to it has caused controversy. Microsoft hasn't always handled its acquisitions well, with many pointing to Skype as evidence of this. GitLab, a competitor to GitHub, has also seen massive registration numbers in the past two days.

The total transaction cost Microsoft 7.5 billion dollars.

Source

 

[AdamFX990]

apple?

Darwin.

My main concern is that they're going to merge TFS with Git or replace TFS with Git. If I'm right, there's no way is that going to be a smooth transition

 

[sj33]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish
Git is an open standard and Microsoft will likely add proprietary elements to it, making it incompatible to the already existing, working and needed alternatives. So they can introduce yet another monopoly, this time on a very serious matter that the whole world depends on, software version control. It's their declared goal. Combine with them saying stuff like "Linux is cancer", and things really could get ugly. Maybe this Reddit ELI5 will help you understand.

This post right here. Microsoft’s ‘embrace, extend, extinguish’ policy is exactly why those of us with memories more then a couple of years are so worried about this.

 

[gudenau]

Can't wait for Microsoft to upload Windows on GitHub.

 

[Pluupy]

i still fail to see the reason behind all the doom & gloom calling, i have yet to find a company that microsoft singlehandedly killed


unlike EA

Rare

 

[chrisrlink]

things cant get worse oh they can if MS gets a hold of the git protocol

 

[Dungeonseeker]

Rareware.

Rare died before Microsoft got their hands on them, Nintendo got rid because they could see Rare were losing the magic they once had.

 

[retrofan_k]

Micro$haft at it again. This is not good for the future of Github imo.

 

[Jayenkai]

Sources suggest it’ll be rebranded to MSNHub, then SkypeHub, then BingHub, then just The Hub, then My Document Hub, then Windows Hub, before being abandoned and forgotten about by 2020.

 

[retrofan_k]

"The focus on providing open software will always remain."

Until we get an Github page for an XBOX One back up loader.

Exactly, i was going to say something similar before i read your comment. As if they would openly welcome open source cfw tools for their Xbox one, if it ever got fully exploited.

 

[Coto]

OpenSource defies what MS standards do: Sort of what Google did, in reverse order:

Google:
Cheap technology, invest in OpenSource code so you don't have to pay a liver for your products. Caused OpenSource to take over, and you can run almost whatever code in whatever environment. You have the tools for that.

M$:
Expensive technology, invest in themselves so everyone is forced to use their shit, and if you want support, you must pay a ton of money. Definitely not OpenSource (or their business part they make most money from). Such as Windows. You must pay a golden brick for support: a.k.a the same code all over again that deprecates the older version.

Certainly Linux proved that OpenSource code really works and you can just replace corporate shit with your own custom code and be able to create a whole environment without corporate licenses made by M$. (well until GNU v3 license came in!!11)



"Open Source" interest was nothing but a way to replace opensource code with their own "standards". Money wise: no license yet allows full control of their source code and earnings (except any corporate license), and that's ok. But being M$, they can't just use any default open source license (gpl v3 code, MIT) anymore since the OpenSource code has evolved a lot, and that would require paying fees/cause their corporate software to "infect". They want the opposite: "infect" open source code that has made it too far, through updated licenses by "their standards".

(unrelated to code directly but indirectly related to independent devs)
edit: Not only that, they already are owners of Linkedin. So if you plan a developer career, (like myself, having linkedin and github), they could/can control how much success you have when looking for job positions.

 

[Monado_III]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish
Git is an open standard and Microsoft will likely add proprietary elements to it, making it incompatible to the already existing, working and needed alternatives. So they can introduce yet another monopoly, this time on a very serious matter that the whole world depends on, software version control. It's their declared goal. Combine with them saying stuff like "Linux is cancer", and things really could get ugly. Maybe this Reddit ELI5 will help you understand.

This post right here. Microsoft’s ‘embrace, extend, extinguish’ policy is exactly why those of us with memories more then a couple of years are so worried about this.

As much as I don't like them, Satya Nadella hasn't run MS like this, heck, very quickly after becoming CEO he went so far as to say "Microsoft loves Linux", and MS is now even a part of the linux foundation. and Gihub's new CEO was involved with mono and GNOME, so I feel he can be trusted until otherwise. MS has also open sourced VSCode (https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode <-- this was on github before today )

 

[Valery0p]

I dunno if someone already posted it, but this is what microsoft will try to do:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

 

[SirNapkin1334]

Crap, I hate GitLab. I hope none of my favorite projects go there.

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

For all of the people spouting doom and gloom against GitHub's acquisition, and how it's the single place for open software. Did no one really see this happening? The old phrase "all your eggs in one basket" comes to mind. This applies to both digital and physical goods. Having a singular backup for anything, even in terms of a cloud backup, is still a terrible idea. Then, when things like this happen, and a company does something you don't agree with, you aren't screwed too.

 

[Kioku]

I dunno if someone already posted it, but this is what microsoft will try to do:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

1998...


20 years later they'll try to do this? Spoopy

 

[bodefuceta]

For all of the people spouting doom and gloom against GitHub's acquisition, and how it's the single place for open software. Did no one really see this happening? The old phrase "all your eggs in one basket". This applies to both digital and physical goods. Having a singular backup for anything, even in terms of a cloud backup, is still a terrible idea. Then, when things like this happen, and a company does something you don't agree with, you aren't screwed too.

I absolutely agree. If many projects move from GitHub because of this, it's actually a good thing. GitHub was already closed-source and owned by a Silicon Valley company anyway. The only gripe I have with this is that Microsoft will probably create another closed standard for code versioning and hijack the awesome project that is Git.

1998...


20 years later they'll try to do this? Spoopy

Fight competition? Probably yes?

 

[Kioku]

I absolutely agree. If many projects move from GitHub because of this, it's actually a good thing. GitHub was already closed-source and owned by a Silicon Valley company anyway. The only gripe I have with this is that Microsoft will probably create another closed standard for code versioning and hijack the awesome project that is Git.


Fight competition? Probably yes?

Was half heartedly calling it a conspiracy. Of course, it wouldn't be as it's more a possibility than a theory. Of course, Github has come to its last leg in my opinion. So, the buyout only seals its fate.

 

[BlueFox gui]

this is a good or a bad thing?

also

 

[osaka35]

What alternatives are there to GitHub? Beyond GitLab?

 

[Delerious]

Well... this is something. I know there were rumors circulating, but I had my doubts it would happen. Well, I sure as hell hope that Microsoft doesn't double-dip into this bowl.