4 ms·

Microsoft pretends to want to acquire a product or software and then release their own implementation. The developer was obviously brain-picked for any impleme

Microsoft pretends to want to acquire a product or software and then release their own implementation. The developer was obviously brain-picked for any implementation ideas, as stated at scale. They should have been paying a retainer, or had an offer inside of two weeks. Let this be a warning for other developers.

an_opabinia 6y ago
AppGet is an open source program. Besides, if Microsoft was interested in stealing it, he’d be interviewed at Microsoft Shanghai.
- kayone 6y ago
  see my comment here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23332582 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23332582
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- babesh 6y ago
  You mean you have never been part of an interview or supposed acquihire were you were brain picked? That’s happened to me at least five times already. There is far more to things than code. Examples: what is your ARPU, why didn’t you do it this way, how many bytes per unit time can you upload this way, where do you see the market going, who is still at the company, what do you think of this type of market?
jasonhansel 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...
specialist 6y ago
I'd require earnest money at the outset. After Microsoft flirted with acquiring Intuit, then shortly thereafter released Money to compete directly with Quicken, I assume all due diligence is just a way to hoover up intel. To inform a buy vs build decision. To better validate market assumptions. To identify key contributors and poach them. Whatever. No earnest money? Fine. They clearly were going to drain my blood and powder my bones. Their prerogative. But they can proceed to kill me and my product without my help.
SolarNet 6y ago
Yea, requiring consulting fees from big companies is definitely the way to go. Some open source guy wants to pick your brain: Sure lets get lunch and split it. Some small single digit founder start-up wants to talk abut your work: Ok sure, pay for my lunch lets talk about how I can help you change the world. Freaking Microsoft wants to talk: That'll be 1k an hour plus expenses (also get a limo and a nice dinner). The humility of engineering should stop at the boundary between people who want to change the world and those who just want to profit off of you.
joe_fishfish 6y ago
If the developer had asked for a retainer straight off the bat I feel like MS would have just ignored him and started building WinGet earlier. All the AppGet source was right there for them to look at. They wouldn't have had the benefit of Andrew picking his brains one to one, but that probably wasn't 100% necessary anyway.
908B64B197 6y ago
The code basically takes a .yaml manifest, reads where to find the package and get the installation instructions from an enum. I don't think there was much brain-picking here.
- boublepop 6y ago
  You point is that this is simple, yet Microsoft with Thousands of engineers working over the span of decades never internally developed this idea or framework except after picking the brain of this particular person and doing a copy of that particular competing project. Paintings are just paint on a canvas, and all code is just clicks on a keyboard. That doesn’t make it any less immoral to blatantly copy without recognition. It’s perfectly fine to carry out a fork, the irony here is that Microsoft likely tried you play this angle of “we’re just competing, not copying you” because they thought carrying out a fork with attribution would blow up in their face, which this now has.
  - 908B64B197 6y ago
    > yet Microsoft with Thousands of engineers working over the span of decades never internally developed this idea Ever heard of NuGet[0]? Been around since 2010. WinGet isn't a fork of AppGet, the codebases share nothing. [0] https://www.nuget.org/ https://www.nuget.org/

an_opabinia 6y ago

AppGet is an open source program. Besides, if Microsoft was interested in stealing it, he’d be interviewed at Microsoft Shanghai.

kayone 6y ago
see my comment here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23332582 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23332582
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
babesh 6y ago
You mean you have never been part of an interview or supposed acquihire were you were brain picked? That’s happened to me at least five times already. There is far more to things than code. Examples: what is your ARPU, why didn’t you do it this way, how many bytes per unit time can you upload this way, where do you see the market going, who is still at the company, what do you think of this type of market?

jasonhansel 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...

specialist 6y ago

I'd require earnest money at the outset. After Microsoft flirted with acquiring Intuit, then shortly thereafter released Money to compete directly with Quicken, I assume all due diligence is just a way to hoover up intel. To inform a buy vs build decision. To better validate market assumptions. To identify key contributors and poach them. Whatever. No earnest money? Fine. They clearly were going to drain my blood and powder my bones. Their prerogative. But they can proceed to kill me and my product without my help.

SolarNet 6y ago

Yea, requiring consulting fees from big companies is definitely the way to go. Some open source guy wants to pick your brain: Sure lets get lunch and split it. Some small single digit founder start-up wants to talk abut your work: Ok sure, pay for my lunch lets talk about how I can help you change the world. Freaking Microsoft wants to talk: That'll be 1k an hour plus expenses (also get a limo and a nice dinner). The humility of engineering should stop at the boundary between people who want to change the world and those who just want to profit off of you.

joe_fishfish 6y ago

If the developer had asked for a retainer straight off the bat I feel like MS would have just ignored him and started building WinGet earlier. All the AppGet source was right there for them to look at. They wouldn't have had the benefit of Andrew picking his brains one to one, but that probably wasn't 100% necessary anyway.

908B64B197 6y ago

The code basically takes a .yaml manifest, reads where to find the package and get the installation instructions from an enum. I don't think there was much brain-picking here.

boublepop 6y ago
You point is that this is simple, yet Microsoft with Thousands of engineers working over the span of decades never internally developed this idea or framework except after picking the brain of this particular person and doing a copy of that particular competing project. Paintings are just paint on a canvas, and all code is just clicks on a keyboard. That doesn’t make it any less immoral to blatantly copy without recognition. It’s perfectly fine to carry out a fork, the irony here is that Microsoft likely tried you play this angle of “we’re just competing, not copying you” because they thought carrying out a fork with attribution would blow up in their face, which this now has.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > yet Microsoft with Thousands of engineers working over the span of decades never internally developed this idea Ever heard of NuGet[0]? Been around since 2010. WinGet isn't a fork of AppGet, the codebases share nothing. [0] https://www.nuget.org/ https://www.nuget.org/