Microsoft to acquire GitHub code repository

[Corky34]

Probably not under Nadella. This is also a big promotion for the pro-open source elements of the firm.

He won't be around forever.

Other than it being massively illegal to do so? If I put some code on GitHub under a GPL licence nobody but me has the legal power to alter that licence or its ownership.

Yea i have to admit IDK the legalities of it (INAL) but i though not everything uploaded uses the same license, GPL license may prevent them from ownership but i wouldn't put it past them to do something at a later date that people consider against the spirit of FOSS.

Basically like DanceswithUnix implies, it's Microsoft's platform now and what's best for them may not necessarily be best for "us", trust in Microsoft isn't exactly very high with many people.

[DanceswithUnix]

Ars has an interesting article on this:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...tter-solution/

They give a shortlist of companies who could have bought GitHub. Whilst not their greatest fan, I think I would rather it was MS than Oracle for example.

[scaryjim]

... I can imagine they will now move for better integration with Visual Studio. ...

The existing integration between github and VS is pretty damn good anyway, and that's in the completely free-to-use community version.

There's a completely open source .net implementation now, an open source MS code editor and IDE (Visual Studio Code); I think the problem is that most people are completely incapable of separating Microsoft, the huge, multi-faceted corporation that plays in many different markets and now has a very open and inclusive corporate culture, from MS Windows of the late nineties with the anti-trust and proprietary lock-outs and hidden features.

Anyone who's worked with Microsoft outside of the Windows team in the last decade will probably have a very different opinion of the acquisition than people who still only think of MS as the Windows and Office people....

[DanceswithUnix]

The existing integration between github and VS is pretty damn good anyway, and that's in the completely free-to-use community version.

But for me that is of zero interest. I find an IDE is great for the likes of HelloWorld.cpp, but beyond that I find they just find they get in the way of automation. So if github becomes somehow bonded to VS use, then many of us will move on.

If Microsoft had truly changed their stripes over the years then fair enough, but they clearly at the top level still have people thinking "how can we use A to leverage people into using product B". Did MS adopt Vulkan? No, they rolled their own DX12 which hurts the consumer but helps MS keep control within their walled garden, so they are clearly still at it.

I once watched a company I was competing against announce a new product based on WindowsCE running on SH3. Literally within weeks, MS pulled the plug on their SuperH port of Windows just like they always eventually do on every non Intel sanctioned Windows port and how I laughed as the now dead product and all the man hours that had been put into it were tossed into the dustbin of history. Even if I could afford MS's license fees, I can't afford to be steamrollered by their fickle ways, so even if I could run Windows IoT on the embedded ARM target I am currently using I think I would have to be an idiot to do it when I have all the source code to hand for my custom Linux kernel and hence full control over the future of the product.

[TheAnimus]

He won't be around forever.

No, but he is putting more people who share his views in places of power. Even if he goes in a few years he will have fundamentally changed the culture at some level.

Yea i have to admit IDK the legalities of it (INAL) but i though not everything uploaded uses the same license, GPL license may prevent them from ownership but i wouldn't put it past them to do something at a later date that people consider against the spirit of FOSS.

That's kind of a bizarre conspiracy, besides, who cares, there are lots of alternatives.

But for me that is of zero interest. I find an IDE is great for the likes of HelloWorld.cpp, but beyond that I find they just find they get in the way of automation. So if github becomes somehow bonded to VS use, then many of us will move on.

If you find IDEs get in the way of automation, then frankly I can't imagine the code base you work on and how awful it must be.

However the idea they would do something as to make GitHub IDE only is so absurd as the last thing they want to do is make azure integration harder, even if you think they are the devil that would just hurt themselves.

If Microsoft had truly changed their stripes over the years then fair enough, but they clearly at the top level still have people thinking "how can we use A to leverage people into using product B". Did MS adopt Vulkan? No, they rolled their own DX12 which hurts the consumer but helps MS keep control within their walled garden, so they are clearly still at it.

Vulkan isn't some panacea, it's also a bit of a change for other players (AMD) who are behind NVidia in their adoption of it. It's a bit more complicated than you are making it out to be, plus who on earth would give up dictating for following? Why is OpenGL in the garbage pile at the moment if consortiums are so great.

[Corky34]

No, but he is putting more people who share his views in places of power. Even if he goes in a few years he will have fundamentally changed the culture at some level.

That's kind of a bizarre conspiracy, besides, who cares, there are lots of alternatives.

Just so I'm clear you say a change in CEO has fundamentally changed the culture, something i agree with, but when someone says a future change in CEO may lead to a similar fundamentally changed you say it's a bizarre conspiracy?

[DanceswithUnix]

If you find IDEs get in the way of automation, then frankly I can't imagine the code base you work on and how awful it must be.

Whilst I have been faced with awful code (but thankfully it is a pretty good job market atm) I find it doesn't take much to end up using an IDE as just a text editor calling some external build utility. Sometimes the world is a complicated and slightly messy place, part of embedded work is that you have to model that in code and processes or you are solving a problem similar to the actual problem, not the real one, and it doesn't end well

But then I have also seen Eclipse crash just trying to read in the C++ source base at one company. That code was very well maintained, there was just an awful lot of it so it was quite a big hierarchy. Everyone just used VI or EMACS, they just work.

As for OpenGL, its in an awful lot of Android devices, though I gather Apple in their wisdom are dropping it to force everyone to use Metal. That stupid landgrab's really going to help the gaming Mac community.

[TheAnimus]

Just so I'm clear you say a change in CEO has fundamentally changed the culture, something i agree with, but when someone says a future change in CEO may lead to a similar fundamentally changed you say it's a bizarre conspiracy?

Sure it can be changed back, but this is like turning a supertanker, it doesn't happen quickly and people would have enough of a warning to jump.

Whilst I have been faced with awful code (but thankfully it is a pretty good job market atm) I find it doesn't take much to end up using an IDE as just a text editor calling some external build utility. Sometimes the world is a complicated and slightly messy place, part of embedded work is that you have to model that in code and processes or you are solving a problem similar to the actual problem, not the real one, and it doesn't end well

It sounds like the toolchain is rather poor if an IDE offers no value, it strikes me as a bit like saying sports cars are useless because you don't have any good quality roads.

As for OpenGL, its in an awful lot of Android devices, though I gather Apple in their wisdom are dropping it to force everyone to use Metal. That stupid landgrab's really going to help the gaming Mac community.

Sure, but I'm just saying OpenGL or Vulkan isn't automatically better, there is room for biodiversity.

[shaithis]

I did read they they bought it to leverage their investment into LinkedIn.

I did have to chuckle at one of the headlines I saw:
"Microsoft buys OpenSource"