Hacker News Reader

Comment by solarkraft | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft does have a terrible history regarding open source.

Github felt safe before, a neutral ground for Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon all come together and share their love for code and just code.

Not so much anymore. The hate is over-blown, but it does feel weird now. With a knowledge of Microsoft products I can understand why many people would see a bleak future ahead [0].

[0]: Relevant image going around the internet: https://desu-usergeneratedcontent.xyz/g/image/1528/18/152818...

View on HN

Why not just first wait for their actual moves before spreading panic. I don`t love microsoft and use 0 of their software/hardware products but I don`t believe they will ruin Github. It would ruin their reputation with developers to a very large degree.

But if they do, it is so easy to switch, that I do not see the point in "all hell broke loose" panic attacks before anything actually happened.

The move is already done. The big companies can't host their projects on their main competitor, they will start migrating soon enough.

What big companies? You would be surprised what big companies use. GitHub Enterprise for example, is self hosted.

But this has a public effect.

"already done" and "start migrating soon enough" does not sound like same timeframes

It sounds like Github was in a financially vulnerable position and shopped around for the best suitor.

Microsoft is committing heavily on open source, for good or bad, and it would be tactically disadvantageous for Github to fall into the hands of a competitor.

If history tells us anything about acquisitions of this nature, it never ends well. But I could honestly see things being a lot worse if they'd been acquired by someone like Apple or Google.

> Github felt safe before, a neutral ground for Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon all come together and share their love for code and just code.

This! This is my primary concern. It's not even a concern per se, since I am convinced all of those companies (except MS of course) will pull-out and disperse to alternative services. And then I believe a 2nd wave of smaller, related-to-products-of-these-companies' projects will also leave.

It was nice to have a neutral ground where all "sharks" came together. But at the same time, I can't blame GitHub's founders and board for searching an exit.

And a lot of us have tried to give MS the benefit of the doubt several times over the years and have been bitten by it several times.

What bit you in the last decade?

- forced "upgrade" to windows 10 (from 8 or 7)

- OS level adverts on a fucking paid OS

- forced updates (and forced restarts) at the most inconvenient times)

- MS buying Skype, then removing Linux support, and removing the p2p nature leading to privacy concerns and shittier connections

- the endless spyware they install in the OS, and make it impossible to easily and permanently turn off.

I can't speak for parent, but for instance inserting ads into Windows 10:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/17/14956540/microsoft-window...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com