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Are you suggesting MSFT is going to _steal people's code_ from private github repositories? This strikes me as a bit fantastical. What software hosting platfor

Are you suggesting MSFT is going to _steal people's code_ from private github repositories? This strikes me as a bit fantastical. What software hosting platform is not also itself a software company? Atlassian, Gitlab...?

jonny_eh 8y ago
What if you run a recruitment web app that competes with LinkedIn?
- sequoia 8y ago
  What if? What if I run an operating system project, IDE project, email client, etc.? MSFT is going to steal or shutdown every type of software that competes with one of their products? Doesn't add up to me.
  - damieng 8y ago
    The amount Microsoft would have to lose - in courts and public trust - if they were to abuse the private sensitive data held in their systems - would massively outweigh any benefit they could hope to achieve from that information.
    - nickpsecurity 8y ago
      That's already been tested: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-... They're still in business. Numbers look good. They also have advertising and telemetry on paid stuff that people would usually assume doesn't sell them out like free, ad-driven services. Windows, Office, and Xbox are valuable enough that customers will tolerate quite a lot before leaving.
  - aphextron 8y ago
    >"What if? What if I run an operating system project, IDE project, email client, etc.? MSFT is going to steal or shutdown every type of software that competes with one of their products?" Doesn't add up to me. It doesn't matter. The "what if?" is enough to cause a chilling effect. This will be the effective death of GitHub. I'm certain projects that are all-in on the platform will stick around out of momentum. But yesterday was the last day anyone would ever consider starting a new major project on GitHub.
    - kthejoker2 8y ago
      Ridiculous. Please define "anyone" and "major project" and then let's make a bet.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
gowld 8y ago
Not steal source code, but platform companies have been known to use their insight into platform user metrics as a source of competitive intelligence metrics. Knowing which private repos are large and active is valuable info.

jonny_eh 8y ago

What if you run a recruitment web app that competes with LinkedIn?

sequoia 8y ago
What if? What if I run an operating system project, IDE project, email client, etc.? MSFT is going to steal or shutdown every type of software that competes with one of their products? Doesn't add up to me.
- damieng 8y ago
  The amount Microsoft would have to lose - in courts and public trust - if they were to abuse the private sensitive data held in their systems - would massively outweigh any benefit they could hope to achieve from that information.
  - nickpsecurity 8y ago
    That's already been tested: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-... They're still in business. Numbers look good. They also have advertising and telemetry on paid stuff that people would usually assume doesn't sell them out like free, ad-driven services. Windows, Office, and Xbox are valuable enough that customers will tolerate quite a lot before leaving.
- aphextron 8y ago
  >"What if? What if I run an operating system project, IDE project, email client, etc.? MSFT is going to steal or shutdown every type of software that competes with one of their products?" Doesn't add up to me. It doesn't matter. The "what if?" is enough to cause a chilling effect. This will be the effective death of GitHub. I'm certain projects that are all-in on the platform will stick around out of momentum. But yesterday was the last day anyone would ever consider starting a new major project on GitHub.
  - kthejoker2 8y ago
    Ridiculous. Please define "anyone" and "major project" and then let's make a bet.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]

gowld 8y ago

Not steal source code, but platform companies have been known to use their insight into platform user metrics as a source of competitive intelligence metrics. Knowing which private repos are large and active is valuable info.