Why Microsoft is buying GitHub: It's all about developer relationships

It’s all about developer tie-in. It’s far too easy to move your stuff between azure and aws. Microsoft needs to create differentiation and barriers to migration and since github is heavily used by developers who use both azure and aws, it is the obvious attackpoint. “Well I use azure because the github admin interface makes it easy to deploy, you can’t do that to aws from github...” etc.

Now depending on how evil(tm) Microsoft intends to be, they will either just only focus future development on integrations towards their own stuff, or they will actively degrade github when you aren’t going Microsoft across the board.

"Switzerland of code" - citation needed.

The removal of the C+= (C Plus Equality) repo and FSF* from GitHub is still fresh in my mind. Oh sure, some have brought the repo back, but the removal of the repo essentially killed the nascent feminist programming language, which could have encouraged more womyn in STEM. Some have found the language as ideal for firmware programming in automated dishwashers, but they never went past the prototype stage before the death of the project.

*FSF - Feminist Software Foundation

There goes another great product, killed by Microsoft. M$ doesn't understand open source. They infuse their products with too much politicking and marketing, trying to lead clients when open source is functionally the inversion of this. It is product defined by user needs, not top-down high-priests deigning what we should have. They always get it wrong. Oh well.

"developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers! developers!"

- Steve Balmer(1)

And folks said that microsoft is different now.

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33grif58qO8