4 ms·

What nobody is really commenting on is how huge of an opportunity this is for Microsoft to reinvent itself in the eyes of the developer community. If Microsoft

What nobody is really commenting on is how huge of an opportunity this is for Microsoft to reinvent itself in the eyes of the developer community. If Microsoft can somehow manage to gain trust from Github users, which is very possible and desirable for them, it will make Azure more compelling in many ways than Amazon as a cloud computing platform. After Amazon's acquisition of Cloud9, Microsoft is the first big company to try something really bold and inventive in cloud computing. Github can prioritize making code deploy to all clouds AND make it especially appealing for customers to choose Azure, as there will exist amazing opportunities for end to end product optimizations here. Seems really smart for me, and given that Microsoft is really hell bent on changing people's negative opinions about them, they have all the right incentives to make Github even more awesome than it already is.

oaiey 8y ago
The Microsoft bashing is painful. I also wonder about outcomes like that, positive ones for Microsoft, GitHub the platform and GitHub the community. So much negativity!
- meddlepal 8y ago
  Agree a lot of negativity here. I don't really use any of the MS stack at all but I really want to see where they take things from here. The last few years have been very positive for Microsoft in my eyes from an outsider perspective. They're saying and doing the right things.
- thiagocsf 8y ago
  Painful... for you. On a serious note though, they deserve all the skepticism coming to them. I know they’ve been working in the last few years to revert their status as OSS public enemy #1 but remember, this is the company that said the GPL is cancer. Let them earn our trust. Keep the pressure, stay vigilant and be ready to change vendors.
  - sequoia 8y ago
    > remember, this is the company that said the GPL is cancer. You must greatly mistrust the StartupNews community as well, as "gpl is cancer" gets said here almost daily as well. d:o)
- fs111 8y ago
  The negativity comes from MS being MS. Many here have seen what they did in the past and what they do to this day. They have lobbied so hard in Munich that they are going to abandon Linux and go back to Windows. Great open source love all around! Also, as long as Windows, Office and Azure are closed, I cannot take all this "we love Open Source" stuff seriously. It is a big tech-marketing and recruiting vehicle, but nothing more. I am not saying, they should open those, I am saying that they are not an OS company and therefore should stop pretending.
  - oaiey 8y ago
    Their sales is doing what sales does: try to find a method to sell licenses. That has nothing to do with company philosophy but the percentage the sales person get. That is capitalism but nothing special to Microsoft. And Limux was a troubled child anyway (users, it organization and political leadership all along). I would have loved Limux to succeed, but unfortunately it did not.
DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
> What nobody is really commenting on is how huge of an opportunity this is for Microsoft to reinvent itself in the eyes of the developer community. My opinion of Microsoft isn't based on whether or not it owns Github. My opinion is based on other aspects of their behavior, such as: - Do they force mainstream Windows users to provide telemetry data to Microsoft? - Do they threaten Android developers with lawsuits regarding violation of unspecified patents? - Do they use OS upgrades as an opportunity to reset opt-out telemetry gathering. - Have they recently used dark UI patterns to trick users into installing Windows 10? - Do they make telemetry collection opt-out (and non-obvious) for the .net CLI tools? Any meaningful reinvention of Microsoft would involve (1) stopping those kinds of behaviors, and (2) making a compelling, public argument for why we should never expect those behaviors again from Microsoft.
HelloNurse 8y ago
Depending too much on Github and Azure (because you rely on their integration), instead of depending too much on either Github or Azure, is a clear risk increase that most users should avoid, not something "awesome". The only amazing opportunities are for vendor lock-in.
jdiaz5513 8y ago
Integrated CI backed by Azure (with paid options for non-OSS projects) could be a positive outcome of this acquisition. Done right, could be a good gateway to get OSS devs experimenting on Azure. More viable competition on cloud hosting is definitely a good thing for society at large.

oaiey 8y ago

The Microsoft bashing is painful. I also wonder about outcomes like that, positive ones for Microsoft, GitHub the platform and GitHub the community. So much negativity!

meddlepal 8y ago
Agree a lot of negativity here. I don't really use any of the MS stack at all but I really want to see where they take things from here. The last few years have been very positive for Microsoft in my eyes from an outsider perspective. They're saying and doing the right things.
thiagocsf 8y ago
Painful... for you. On a serious note though, they deserve all the skepticism coming to them. I know they’ve been working in the last few years to revert their status as OSS public enemy #1 but remember, this is the company that said the GPL is cancer. Let them earn our trust. Keep the pressure, stay vigilant and be ready to change vendors.
- sequoia 8y ago
  > remember, this is the company that said the GPL is cancer. You must greatly mistrust the StartupNews community as well, as "gpl is cancer" gets said here almost daily as well. d:o)
fs111 8y ago
The negativity comes from MS being MS. Many here have seen what they did in the past and what they do to this day. They have lobbied so hard in Munich that they are going to abandon Linux and go back to Windows. Great open source love all around! Also, as long as Windows, Office and Azure are closed, I cannot take all this "we love Open Source" stuff seriously. It is a big tech-marketing and recruiting vehicle, but nothing more. I am not saying, they should open those, I am saying that they are not an OS company and therefore should stop pretending.
- oaiey 8y ago
  Their sales is doing what sales does: try to find a method to sell licenses. That has nothing to do with company philosophy but the percentage the sales person get. That is capitalism but nothing special to Microsoft. And Limux was a troubled child anyway (users, it organization and political leadership all along). I would have loved Limux to succeed, but unfortunately it did not.

DoofusOfDeath 8y ago

> What nobody is really commenting on is how huge of an opportunity this is for Microsoft to reinvent itself in the eyes of the developer community. My opinion of Microsoft isn't based on whether or not it owns Github. My opinion is based on other aspects of their behavior, such as: - Do they force mainstream Windows users to provide telemetry data to Microsoft? - Do they threaten Android developers with lawsuits regarding violation of unspecified patents? - Do they use OS upgrades as an opportunity to reset opt-out telemetry gathering. - Have they recently used dark UI patterns to trick users into installing Windows 10? - Do they make telemetry collection opt-out (and non-obvious) for the .net CLI tools? Any meaningful reinvention of Microsoft would involve (1) stopping those kinds of behaviors, and (2) making a compelling, public argument for why we should never expect those behaviors again from Microsoft.

HelloNurse 8y ago

Depending too much on Github and Azure (because you rely on their integration), instead of depending too much on either Github or Azure, is a clear risk increase that most users should avoid, not something "awesome". The only amazing opportunities are for vendor lock-in.

jdiaz5513 8y ago

Integrated CI backed by Azure (with paid options for non-OSS projects) could be a positive outcome of this acquisition. Done right, could be a good gateway to get OSS devs experimenting on Azure. More viable competition on cloud hosting is definitely a good thing for society at large.