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What Microsoft is doing with GitHub is gross. Like VSCode, it’s an example of exploiting our natural affinity towards convenience to lock ever-growing parts of

by isodev 4y ago

What Microsoft is doing with GitHub is gross. Like VSCode, it’s an example of exploiting our natural affinity towards convenience to lock ever-growing parts of the developer community to their services. There are great FOSS tools for hosting source code like https://gitea.io/en-us/ https://gitea.io/en-us/ and https://codeberg.org/ https://codeberg.org/. I’d put the work to self-host and even contribute to any of them.

smt88 4y ago
> Like VSCode, it’s an example of exploiting our natural affinity towards convenience... This makes no sense. Our GitHub lock-in is due to the audience. If a FOSS project leaves, they lose the GitHub audience. It's a social network. VSCode is absolutely nothing like that. You seem to be condemning Microsoft for making a really good product. Is JetBrains also evil for their suite of amazing, convenient products?
- galleywest200 4y ago
  I had thought that JetBrains products requires a licence, unlike VSCode which is free in regards to monetary cost. However - the main gripe this community has with VSCode is that it is only partially open source. Microsoft adds extra bits to the code that is not open - mainly the items around telemetry. You can get around this with VSCodium or VSCode-OSS, but those are arguably forks and not a MS product.
  - smt88 4y ago
    I still don't understand why that's an issue. VSCode is a proprietary product. There are tons of FOSS alternatives if it doesn't work for someone or the telemetry is a problem. My criticism would only be that the telemetry is not obvious enough for a casual downloader. I don't use VSCode but I'm sure a lot of people do without knowing about it.
    - isodev 4y ago
      The main selling point of VSCode is their extension ecosystem. Most extensions are open source / created by the community. In essence, Microsoft channels FOSS work by third parties in order to create a pipeline for upselling their products and services.

by isodev 4y ago

smt88 4y ago

> Like VSCode, it’s an example of exploiting our natural affinity towards convenience... This makes no sense. Our GitHub lock-in is due to the audience. If a FOSS project leaves, they lose the GitHub audience. It's a social network. VSCode is absolutely nothing like that. You seem to be condemning Microsoft for making a really good product. Is JetBrains also evil for their suite of amazing, convenient products?

galleywest200 4y ago
I had thought that JetBrains products requires a licence, unlike VSCode which is free in regards to monetary cost. However - the main gripe this community has with VSCode is that it is only partially open source. Microsoft adds extra bits to the code that is not open - mainly the items around telemetry. You can get around this with VSCodium or VSCode-OSS, but those are arguably forks and not a MS product.
- smt88 4y ago
  I still don't understand why that's an issue. VSCode is a proprietary product. There are tons of FOSS alternatives if it doesn't work for someone or the telemetry is a problem. My criticism would only be that the telemetry is not obvious enough for a casual downloader. I don't use VSCode but I'm sure a lot of people do without knowing about it.
  - isodev 4y ago
    The main selling point of VSCode is their extension ecosystem. Most extensions are open source / created by the community. In essence, Microsoft channels FOSS work by third parties in order to create a pipeline for upselling their products and services.