4 ms·

Unless Microsoft has an Activision-sized amount of cash burning a hole in its pocket, that feels unlikely. Seems far easier/likelier to make a Microsoft branded

Unless Microsoft has an Activision-sized amount of cash burning a hole in its pocket, that feels unlikely. Seems far easier/likelier to make a Microsoft branded Debian than to go all-in-on Ubuntu. Maybe I could take the aqui-hire angle, but how many Ubuntu devs would want to stay with Microsoft?

totallywrong 3y ago
> Unless Microsoft has an Activision-sized amount of cash burning a hole in its pocket What? You greatly overestimate Canonical. Buying it would be a rounding error in Microsoft's balance sheet.
- ewoodrich 3y ago
  The parent comment stated the 40 billion figure (joking or not).
- 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
  It feels like once M&A has decided to buy a company, that money is going to be spent. If Microsoft is prevented from purchasing Activision, I expect a foolishly profligate spending spree to follow.
midoridensha 3y ago
>Maybe I could take the aqui-hire angle, but how many Ubuntu devs would want to stay with Microsoft? Probably far more devs than they'd get trying to make their own MS-branded Debian from scratch. Even if a bunch of them left after a while, they'd have competent, experienced people working for them for that time, instead of trying to staff up from zero and having a lot time where there aren't enough people to really get much done, and during that time they can hire new people who aren't going to quit just because it's MS.
hotpotamus 3y ago
I'm not hip to all the big names in open source development, but I know Lennart Pottering and Guido van Rossum both ended up at Microsoft, so they might be able keep a few other engineers around.
- the_common_man 3y ago
  What is Lennart doing at Microsoft?
  - pizzapill 3y ago
    AFAIK WSL
    - ta8903 3y ago
      Jesus. Is that why my work laptop keeps crashing every 3-4 days?
      - cassepipe 3y ago
        No, that would be just Windows doing its thing /s
    - lproven 3y ago
      More specifically, getting systemd to work on WSL2, but he still has the same collection of projects, including UKI and so on.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Add a couple from Java side as well, after all the drama, Microsoft is now an OpenJDK contributor and has their own distribution, after acquiring jClarity. And a couple from Rust side, after the Mozilla layoffs. And a couple of ISO C++ members. And their own Azure Linux distribution went out of preview at BUILD 2023.

totallywrong 3y ago

> Unless Microsoft has an Activision-sized amount of cash burning a hole in its pocket What? You greatly overestimate Canonical. Buying it would be a rounding error in Microsoft's balance sheet.

ewoodrich 3y ago
The parent comment stated the 40 billion figure (joking or not).
0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
It feels like once M&A has decided to buy a company, that money is going to be spent. If Microsoft is prevented from purchasing Activision, I expect a foolishly profligate spending spree to follow.

midoridensha 3y ago

>Maybe I could take the aqui-hire angle, but how many Ubuntu devs would want to stay with Microsoft? Probably far more devs than they'd get trying to make their own MS-branded Debian from scratch. Even if a bunch of them left after a while, they'd have competent, experienced people working for them for that time, instead of trying to staff up from zero and having a lot time where there aren't enough people to really get much done, and during that time they can hire new people who aren't going to quit just because it's MS.

hotpotamus 3y ago

I'm not hip to all the big names in open source development, but I know Lennart Pottering and Guido van Rossum both ended up at Microsoft, so they might be able keep a few other engineers around.

the_common_man 3y ago
What is Lennart doing at Microsoft?
- pizzapill 3y ago
  AFAIK WSL
  - ta8903 3y ago
    Jesus. Is that why my work laptop keeps crashing every 3-4 days?
    - cassepipe 3y ago
      No, that would be just Windows doing its thing /s
  - lproven 3y ago
    More specifically, getting systemd to work on WSL2, but he still has the same collection of projects, including UKI and so on.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
pjmlp 3y ago
Add a couple from Java side as well, after all the drama, Microsoft is now an OpenJDK contributor and has their own distribution, after acquiring jClarity. And a couple from Rust side, after the Mozilla layoffs. And a couple of ISO C++ members. And their own Azure Linux distribution went out of preview at BUILD 2023.