Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

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Probably reading too much, in this case.

But since you mention it it'd make a lot of sense for Microsoft to want to buy Github.

Microsoft has been doing a lot of cool stuff engineering-wise in recent years. They've released so many FOSS projects I've lost track[0]. But they still suffer from a problem of being "uncool" because of their past reputation. Which was deserved, but they've changed a lot[1]. Microsoft needs a new brand for their FOSS work, because the Microsoft brand is badly tainted in the FOSS world.

Github is one of the few companies that could earn them respect in the FOSS world if they were to acquire them (and of course, not screw everything up).

[0] Heck, I've literally lost track of the number of FOSS things they've released this week

[1] Fifteen years ago, could you imagine Microsoft hosting a launch party for Debian? Because that's what they did this last weekend: http://openness.microsoft.com/blog/2015/04/21/microsoft-debi...

IMO it would tarnish Github more than it would redeem Microsoft.

You don't become cool by buying the cool new gadget-of-the-week just as you don't become cool by buying a cool company.

Ill be comfortable calling them cool when they've demonstrated they no longer follow Embrace Extend Extinguish but until then they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

As far as I'm concerned they realized they tried to move to fast into the extinguishing phase so they're taking a step back into the extend phase. Im not falling for it.

> Ill be comfortable calling them cool when they've demonstrated they no longer follow Embrace Extend Extinguish but until then they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not saying that Microsoft doesn't still have this intention to some degree. It's impossible to prove a negative, especially for such a large and fragmented company.

But it's inconsistent that Microsoft still receives so much hate for having practice this a decade ago, when there are companies that are literally doing it today, in the plain light of day, in very large ways, and receiving far less criticism than Microsoft does.

I say all this as a Linux user typing in Iceweasel from a Debian machine that has no non-free software on it except the wifi driver. I have no love for Microsoft or proprietary software, but they still receive so much criticism that it crowds out criticism of other companies that are just as bad today (or even worse) compared to Microsoft today.

I have no love for Microsoft or proprietary software, but they still receive so much criticism that it crowds out criticism of other companies that are just as bad today (or even worse) compared to Microsoft today.

They receive far less criticism these days than they have historically. Microsoft hatred in the Linux community is largely considered immature and/or anachronistic, and there is a ton of praise for what Microsoft has been doing with their research division and the service pivot they've been doing as of more recent.

Which other companies are you referring to? Apple? Google? Those get tons of criticism.

I agree. In fact I think github is doing more to extend and extinguish. They are the ones who just introduced their own proprietary closed method of binary storage while git-annex was already there.

If you're talking about Git-LFS, it's open source: https://github.com/github/git-lfs

The API spec is available here: https://github.com/github/git-lfs/blob/master/docs/api.md

There's a reference implementation here: https://github.com/github/lfs-test-server

I agree. Both Yammer and Skype had cool reputations before they were bought by Microsoft. They definitely didn't elevate MS to cool. I doubt GitHub would either.

Being cool is overrated, anyway. FOSS is cool now because it's incredibly useful to people--and by that I mean inexpensive and flexible, not just powerful. Microsoft will be cool again when they to make the most useful stuff.

They seem to be turning the corner on that, but reputation often lags reality by quite a bit. I mean, people still think of Apple as the "Think Different" company, even though their latest initiative is $17,000 gold watches for the nouveau riche. And people still think of Google as an open information company, despite their repeated neglect and killing of tools for openly managing information (Google Groups, Reader, etc.).

If Microsoft bought GitHub, my first thought would be that GitHub was selling out, not that Microsoft was suddenly respectable.

The "new" Microsoft is a lot better than the old Microsoft, but it's still not a company I feel comfortable doing business with.

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