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Microsoft should just make Github open source. It would be a great PR move and an amazing build of trust. I don't know why Github was not open source to begin

Microsoft should just make Github open source. It would be a great PR move and an amazing build of trust. I don't know why Github was not open source to begin with. Why do companies still think source code is a big deal? This is not Google Search or some advanced AI.

whalesalad 8y ago
Great PR move? Amazing build of trust? Microsoft bought GitHub for over seven billion dollars. You don't buy something for that kind of cash unless it has that kind of value. Saying they 'should' do something as though there is a problem is silly. Engineers here on HN are so quick to say what someone "needs to do" something... but in response to what? What problem are you identifying? A vocal minority of engineers have complained about the acquisition, meanwhile GitHub has 28 million users. Most of those users don't care that this happened.
- emilsedgh 8y ago
  1. They have great competition in Gitlab. Gitlab's main point is it's open source. They simply will be more competitive. 2. They want to improve their "Open Source Friendly" image and they've been taking meaningful steps towards it. 3. Why not? What's the downside of doing so?
  - gkoberger 8y ago
    Apple has great competition in Android, however it would be silly to open source iOS. GitLab/Android are customizable and have a ton of features, while GitHub/iOS are more cohesive. Differentiation is how competition exists. Even if you prefer Android/GitLab, you can't deny that most of the early innovation was copied from iOS/GitHub. In fact, most open source projects (Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc) take their lead from closed source competition... and for all those examples, that competition was Microsoft. That's not to say they can't eventually innovate, however much of the R&D, creation of a marketing, etc come from closed source. The downside of Open Sourcing so is losing billions of dollars from companies who say "rather than paying $10k/mo, I'm going to just fork it for free". Lastly, part of the value of GitHub is the network effects. If everyone's hosting it on their own, then there's no network effect.
    - mikece 8y ago
      GitLab :: Android GitHub :: iOS CodePlex :: Windows Phone Makes complete sense...
- atupis 8y ago
  Github value comes from userbase not the platform which could copied pretty easily.
  - ezekg 8y ago
    Yeah, good point. You could probably do that in a weekend I bet.
    - cornholio 8y ago
      Ironic perhaps? Cloning the Github interface would take thousands of man hours at least. Still completely negligible compared to $7.5 billion, but certainly not a weekend project.
      - ezekg 8y ago
        Definitely being sarcastic and just poking fun. Classic developer, thinking they can replicate a startup in a weekend. :)
- IncRnd 8y ago
  > Microsoft bought GitHub for over seven billion dollars. You don't buy something for that kind of cash unless it has that kind of value. That is NOT what happened. Microsoft is in the process of purchasing GitHub, which likely won't happen before the end of the year. The agreed price was $7.5B in stock not cash.
  - cjbprime 8y ago
    .. why is this distinction significant?
    - IncRnd 8y ago
      I made two distinctions.
      - cjbprime 8y ago
        .. why are either of these two distinctions significant?
- earenndil 8y ago
  Github is SaaS and its value lies in its userbase and network effect. They do license out the github software product, but I imagine that that's a relatively small section of their money intake, and there are plenty of opensource alternatives (gitlab, gogs/gitea, others). They would probably more than recoup the costs with the goodwill they'd get.
fermienrico 8y ago
Please rethink the value of from PR vs. $7.5 billion dollars they paid in the acquisition.
- sanderjd 8y ago
  They paid for the user / project base. Open sourcing would not affect that. It seems like a brilliant idea and a real possibility to me.
johannes1234321 8y ago
Making it open source doesn't mean anybody could use it in a proper manner - I guess it's a ton of services which need a lot of setup and management as it's purposely build to support a few million repos and users.
- lucb1e 8y ago
  Yes, but consider the scenario. Microsoft, acquiring a company, then open sourcing it, and still maintaining/building on it. If that happens, I'd be very much amazed and that would go a very long way towards making me stay (or, by then, move back). For me, open source is both practical and ideological.
  - johannes1234321 8y ago
    Well, guess they will - over time - integrate more and more with Azure services, where they can. Thus open sourcing GitHub will still tie it to Azure and I don't see Microsoft OpeSourcing much of their Azure services ;) (GitHub however open sourced stuff like Orchestrator to manage MySQL replication setups etc. which are key parts of their environment)
fipple 8y ago
What is the value of Github’s source? Seems like Gitlab’s source is almost as good. The value of Github is the community, which isn’t really impacted one way or the other by open sourcing.
ocdtrekkie 8y ago
I don't know if they'd outright "open source it", in part because there is probably a fair bit of cruft, much as Windows and Office likely have under the covers. But I suspect they'll build open source initiatives on top of it. I don't know if GitHub going open source is likely or even beneficial, but imagine if they chose to develop an open standard for PR/issue/comment data. The easiest way to show you are going to play fair and win via quality and trust is to make it easy for people to leave. IMHO, that's where I'd push for/encourage.

whalesalad 8y ago

Great PR move? Amazing build of trust? Microsoft bought GitHub for over seven billion dollars. You don't buy something for that kind of cash unless it has that kind of value. Saying they 'should' do something as though there is a problem is silly. Engineers here on HN are so quick to say what someone "needs to do" something... but in response to what? What problem are you identifying? A vocal minority of engineers have complained about the acquisition, meanwhile GitHub has 28 million users. Most of those users don't care that this happened.

emilsedgh 8y ago
1. They have great competition in Gitlab. Gitlab's main point is it's open source. They simply will be more competitive. 2. They want to improve their "Open Source Friendly" image and they've been taking meaningful steps towards it. 3. Why not? What's the downside of doing so?
- gkoberger 8y ago
  Apple has great competition in Android, however it would be silly to open source iOS. GitLab/Android are customizable and have a ton of features, while GitHub/iOS are more cohesive. Differentiation is how competition exists. Even if you prefer Android/GitLab, you can't deny that most of the early innovation was copied from iOS/GitHub. In fact, most open source projects (Linux, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc) take their lead from closed source competition... and for all those examples, that competition was Microsoft. That's not to say they can't eventually innovate, however much of the R&D, creation of a marketing, etc come from closed source. The downside of Open Sourcing so is losing billions of dollars from companies who say "rather than paying $10k/mo, I'm going to just fork it for free". Lastly, part of the value of GitHub is the network effects. If everyone's hosting it on their own, then there's no network effect.
  - mikece 8y ago
    GitLab :: Android GitHub :: iOS CodePlex :: Windows Phone Makes complete sense...
atupis 8y ago
Github value comes from userbase not the platform which could copied pretty easily.
- ezekg 8y ago
  Yeah, good point. You could probably do that in a weekend I bet.
  - cornholio 8y ago
    Ironic perhaps? Cloning the Github interface would take thousands of man hours at least. Still completely negligible compared to $7.5 billion, but certainly not a weekend project.
    - ezekg 8y ago
      Definitely being sarcastic and just poking fun. Classic developer, thinking they can replicate a startup in a weekend. :)
IncRnd 8y ago
> Microsoft bought GitHub for over seven billion dollars. You don't buy something for that kind of cash unless it has that kind of value. That is NOT what happened. Microsoft is in the process of purchasing GitHub, which likely won't happen before the end of the year. The agreed price was $7.5B in stock not cash.
- cjbprime 8y ago
  .. why is this distinction significant?
  - IncRnd 8y ago
    I made two distinctions.
    - cjbprime 8y ago
      .. why are either of these two distinctions significant?
earenndil 8y ago
Github is SaaS and its value lies in its userbase and network effect. They do license out the github software product, but I imagine that that's a relatively small section of their money intake, and there are plenty of opensource alternatives (gitlab, gogs/gitea, others). They would probably more than recoup the costs with the goodwill they'd get.

fermienrico 8y ago

Please rethink the value of from PR vs. $7.5 billion dollars they paid in the acquisition.

sanderjd 8y ago
They paid for the user / project base. Open sourcing would not affect that. It seems like a brilliant idea and a real possibility to me.

johannes1234321 8y ago

Making it open source doesn't mean anybody could use it in a proper manner - I guess it's a ton of services which need a lot of setup and management as it's purposely build to support a few million repos and users.

lucb1e 8y ago
Yes, but consider the scenario. Microsoft, acquiring a company, then open sourcing it, and still maintaining/building on it. If that happens, I'd be very much amazed and that would go a very long way towards making me stay (or, by then, move back). For me, open source is both practical and ideological.
- johannes1234321 8y ago
  Well, guess they will - over time - integrate more and more with Azure services, where they can. Thus open sourcing GitHub will still tie it to Azure and I don't see Microsoft OpeSourcing much of their Azure services ;) (GitHub however open sourced stuff like Orchestrator to manage MySQL replication setups etc. which are key parts of their environment)

fipple 8y ago

What is the value of Github’s source? Seems like Gitlab’s source is almost as good. The value of Github is the community, which isn’t really impacted one way or the other by open sourcing.

ocdtrekkie 8y ago

I don't know if they'd outright "open source it", in part because there is probably a fair bit of cruft, much as Windows and Office likely have under the covers. But I suspect they'll build open source initiatives on top of it. I don't know if GitHub going open source is likely or even beneficial, but imagine if they chose to develop an open standard for PR/issue/comment data. The easiest way to show you are going to play fair and win via quality and trust is to make it easy for people to leave. IMHO, that's where I'd push for/encourage.