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Microsoft Closes Its $7.5 Billion Purchase of GitHub (techcrunch.com)

Microsoft has official closed its acquisition of GitHub, the Git-based code sharing and collaboration service with 31 million developers. "The Redmond, WA-based software behemoth first said it would acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion in stock in June of this year, and after the acquisition closed it would continue to run it as an independent platform and business," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The acquisition is yet another sign of how Microsoft has been doubling down on courting developers and presenting itself as a neutral partner to help them with their projects. That is because, despite its own very profitable proprietary software business, Microsoft also has a number of other businesses -- for example, Azure, which competes with AWS and Google Cloud -- that rely heavily on it being unbiased towards one platform or another. And GitHub, Microsoft hopes, will be another signal to the community of that position. In that regard, it will be an interesting credibility test for the companies. Nat Friedman, previously the CEO of Xamarin, will be the CEO of GitHub on Monday. He says the site will be run as an independent platform and business.

"We will always support developers in their choice of any language, license, tool, platform, or cloud," he writes, noting that there will be more tools to come. "We will continue to build tasteful, snappy, polished tools that developers love," he added.

46 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What the FUCK is he talking about? Microsoft has been hellbent on making GARBAGE the last 15+ years...

    1. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Microsoft make some of the best development tools available nowadays. Visual Studio, SQL server/management studio etc. They have some annoying quirks granted, but they're better than alternatives.

      Android Studio is very much on par with visual studio to be fair, but that's probably because it's basically resharper.

      xcode is dire, as is the whole iOS development process thanks to the awful provisioning profile and app review process. Its storyboard designer is nice though.

    2. Re:"tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The tasteful part is a new code of conduct. The code has to be ethical and all comments approved.
      All code use and has comments will have to reflect well on the M$ brand and its party political policy direction.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by jd · · Score: 1

      For database, I've been using dbForge and Dezign for Databases. Vastly superior to Microsoft's offering and it's not limited to one database. True, you pay for the privilege. Also true, they are not open source. So? I'd rather have something that does the job than something that has a particular badge. I'm willing to pay for a working product.

      I've not tried OmniDB yet,but it looks interesting. That is open source - BSD, which is perfectly good as a license. It looks much better than Microsoft's SQL Server editor (which I've known to randomly destroy table content on a schema edit).

      Visual Studio is a pain. The tool tips make it hard to read the text. It can't handle renaming a file to change the case. Its error highlighter is defective, randomly reporting spurious errors that vanish if you reboot VS. The build can sometimes show as complete when it has failed. A RAD tool like that should never report flags are incompatible because there's no value in a RAD over text editing a compile recipe if you can set impossible combinations - those should be sanity checked at input. You know, the way we were all taught to validate inputs when first taught programming.

      VS' debugger has nothing on DDD.

      https://softwarerecs.stackexch...

      VS, on being presented with a wstring, shows a pointer. Getting it to show the string itself is horrible and getting it to handle such strings on re-entering the function is all but impossible as it relies on static evaluation of where things are. Sadly, DDD doesn't support Microsoft C/C++, or I'd use it exclusively.

      Open source RAD? Meh. For Windows, Notepad++ with syntax highlighting is faster, easier and more robust. Eclipse is too heavy and I find its package manager gets confused easily. Otherwise, it would be a good project.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    4. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by mikael · · Score: 1

      Microsoft Visual Studio is probably the best there is - at least it doesn't show up variables as [unknown] because the compiler and debugger developers couldn't agree on a data format to indicate where variables optimized into registers were stored.

      Visual Studio seems to be extending functionality into the Internet so it retrieves news articles related to C++ and coding. Perhaps they will extend it into searching for useful Github repositories and libraries.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    5. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by grinchier · · Score: 1

      Resharper came from Intellij Idea which made Android Studio

    6. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by MemeRot · · Score: 1

      If you want a text editor, I'd recommend you check out Visual Studio Code. It's great. It is nothing like VS in any way, other than the name. I use it for everything but c# nowadays. It's quite popular with open source developers

    7. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by MemeRot · · Score: 1

      They also make Rider, a very compelling Visual Studio alternative. But my office gets volume pricing on msdn, so we stick with that

    8. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by chrish · · Score: 1

      I'm still confused as to why anyone would use Visual Studio Code or Atom (both massive Electron apps) when SublimeText is available?

      It's like Atom (a LOT like Atom, I think they're cloning it), but using much less disk and RAM, and with more polish. My instance is currently using a bit over 4MB of RAM (on Win10, no files open).

      Fresh install of Atom, no files loaded... 285MB of RAM.

      On-disk install size for Sublime is 26MB. Atom is 668MB. FOR A TEXT EDITOR.

      --
      - chrish
    9. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by tepples · · Score: 1

      I'm still confused as to why anyone would use Visual Studio Code or Atom (both massive Electron apps) when SublimeText is available?

      To save $80 per seat per major version, especially if the U.S. Dollar is expensive where you live.

    10. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by Pieroxy · · Score: 1

      Android Studio is very much on par with visual studio to be fair, but that's probably because it's basically resharper.

      Android Studio is IntelliJ IDEA, not resharper, although both are provided by JetBrains.

    11. Re: "tasteful, snappy, polished tools"? by chrish · · Score: 1

      Seems fair.

      We let people use whatever they prefer for their dev environment; I'd rather spend that $80 and use the CPU/RAM for compiling and debugging.

      We're actually spread between a bunch of editors... Atom, VisualStudio Code, Sublime Text, Eclipse, vim, etc.

      --
      - chrish
  2. Re:"neutral partner" my arse by Kaenneth · · Score: 2

    You mean GNU?

  3. Microsoft Electron by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    GitHub made an application framework called Electron that is essentially a copy of Chrome hardcoded to view one website. Applications built with Electron, such as Slack, Discord, and modern Skype, tend to be RAM hogs, well into the triple digit MB per application. On laptops with 4 GB or less RAM, the swap pressure caused by running more than one Electron application at once makes Emacs look like "Eight Megs And Constantly Smooth".

    So I guess with the purchase of GitHub made official, we can officially refer to this as "Microsoft Electron".

    1. Re:Microsoft Electron by thePsychologist · · Score: 4, Informative

      Electron may be a resource hog, but with it Microsoft produced Visual Studio Code. It's free, available on Linux, and the first text editor that I have actually been able to use aside from Vim. Aside from Vim keybindings, it's just pure fun to use, and wouldn't exist on Linux without Electron.

      --
      "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson
    2. Re:Microsoft Electron by schweini · · Score: 1

      But why did they use Electron, instead of simply making it a bring-your-own-browser javascript app? (genously curious)

    3. Re:Microsoft Electron by tepples · · Score: 1

      I think at the time, bring-your-own-browser lacked strong support for several things: 1. offline use, 2. allowing the user to drag an entire directory into a web application for things like multiple-file search and replace, 3. launching local build tools natively, and 4. running a secure web server locally without having to buy a domain name and keep it renewed.

  4. Time to move on. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Sorry Microsoft. You pissed all over the PC industry, acted malicious, subverted standards, wrote the least secure major OS on the market, tried to make the web be "Microsoft-Only", and have generally been a bad actor for decades. You set personal computing back a decade and half if not more.

    Guess what? Git is DECENTRALIZED. That means you don't get to have lock-in just because you bought github.

    Bye bye!

    1. Re: Time to move on. by jd · · Score: 1

      Microsoft today IS your father's Microsoft. They've changed only their slogans. They're still working to subvert and destroy open source.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  5. Now ... by PPH · · Score: 2

    ... you can unplug it.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  6. Time will tell. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The fact that Nat Friedman is heading this up is cause for me to lower my machete and molotov. Nat is a smart guy, and if given the opportunity hes shown he knows how to deliver what the community wants.

    the canary for Microsofts acquisition however is, also, Nat. Once he resigns its an impossible act to follow for Microsofts dyed-in-the-wool chain of command. Theyll need to continue the momentum, redouble their commitment to the community and maintain good communication. Gitlab and Sourceforge are too readily available, too easy to use, and have all the same features as github. Microsoft is literally banking on their ability to curate a very perceptive userbase...something they have failed to do time and time again

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:Time will tell. by TFlan91 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think so.

      Even if this investment never reaches black, M$ will view it as a win.

      This is about vertical integration, pure and simple.

      Control not only the productions systems (read Azure), but also the development systems (read GitHub). CI/CD is starting to become a must-have feature among GitHub, GitLab, and others, which only further reinforces reliance on a particular system/structure

      Build those walls, ensure you support the entire workflow process from start to finish, then close the gates.

    2. Re:Time will tell. by TheRealQuestor · · Score: 1

      So not only are you a armchair analyst, you can also foresee the future. Man that must be a terrible burden to carry.

    3. Re: Time will tell. by jd · · Score: 1

      Check for a suspiciously humming blue box with a telephone cabinet on the front.

      Or accept that most people know not to trust Microsoft. Either works.

      Although if anyone here has seen such a box, please let me know. I promise, I am not The Master. Look into my eyes. I am not The Master.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    4. Re: Time will tell. by jd · · Score: 1

      Not as easy to answer as you might think.

      He never directly made money off Linux, but did land at least one (possibly several) multi-million dollar per year jobs on the strength of Linux. The Transmeta shares I'll assume have historic value to a museum but not to Linus.

      So he's a multi millionaire from Linux without making money from it.

      It's less clear what the situation is with git. He may well have earned millions off speaking tours of businesses on the subject of proper attribution and decentralised archiving in content management, for all any of us would know.

      Mind you, with so many kids to put through American schools (expensive) and American college (expensive), with their health system (expensive), he will need to. It's estimated that, in America, it costs about a million to go from pregnancy to graduating university. More, if you want quality.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  7. Gitlab by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hello Gitlab

    1. Re:Gitlab by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Gitlab saw its all time high on project movement count the day Microsoft bought Github.

  8. Embrace, check by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Extend, check ...

  9. Meet new boss. by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Russia government extracts all intellectual property from you.

    In Capitalist West M$ becomes partner to intellectual property created by you.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  10. Microsoft are evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I do not use their software or platforms.

    I'm now on gitlab.

  11. So, gitlab then? by Trogre · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Let's just assume that Microsoft will follow their overwhelming modus operandi and screw this up.

    See you all over at gitlab?

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  12. MS and skype went bad. And now? by OFnow · · Score: 2

    I hope MS does right by linux users, but...I'm sceptical given
    the skype experience.

  13. Re: 7.5 billion fucks given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What is worth the 7.5 billion, clearly not the web interface nor the domain name. Is it advertisement opportunity, access to the email addresses to file lawsuits on patent infringement or the ability to morph the terms for their favor?

  14. Re:"neutral partner" my arse by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 1

    Maybe now Microsoft will start using decent version control and branching for developing their Windows product...

    --
    The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
  15. Developers vs Users by gringer · · Score: 1

    I'd rather Microsoft supported software users rather than software developers.

    --
    Ask me about repetitive DNA
  16. Re: 7.5 billion fucks given by jd · · Score: 2

    It'll be the license, modified so that you give permission for Microsoft to use anything you've put on GitHub in a closed source product, regardless of any license you use, and to make Microsoft co-owners.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  17. Re: "neutral partner" my arse by jd · · Score: 1

    Why stop using SourceSafe now?

    Besides, can they? SourceSafe suffers random database corruption. They might not be able to move off it.

    Anyway, a more advanced source control system could include RCS and SCCS. The extra features of RCS might confuse Microsoft developers at first, but they'd manage. They'd never cope with Git, totally alien to their mindset.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  18. Re: Branding by jd · · Score: 1

    I've taken another look.

    Same attitudes, same abuse towards rivals, same embrace extend extinguish policy, same buying out success stories to illegally leverage a monopoly in other markets, same buggy products.

    Gates wasn't the one who ordered the ISO group bribed to certify their Office data format as a standard. Bribery is wrong, even when done by slightly less rich people.

    Gates didn't violate antitrust law by bundling Edge with Windows 10.

    Gates didn't buy out Mojang or dismantle the community there.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  19. Those of you not happy with this situation by themusicgod1 · · Score: 1

    Note: there are attempts at forks, though they do not have very much to them (yet).

    --
    GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
  20. NSA/Microsoft Github by themusicgod1 · · Score: 1

    I moved all my repositories off of github, and deleted my github account. Then I went on a downloading spree and grabbed as much repositories as I could on the day the deal was announced. Since then I've been slowly uploading to notabug doublechecking that I have everything - the goal will be to have an OS that has 0 github maintained code in it, and *definitely* no github code without a license in it. I have a thread on NSA/Facebook if anyone would like to help coordinate this effort.

    I will never use github again, and code which treats github code as upstream will be migrated away from github to a non-microsoft platform first. Microsoft can suck sand if they think after a decade of war that I will ever touch any of their products again. If they think they can take over and extinguish the free software movement, they are wrong.

    Current task: getting a new gogs instance up since i hit my repository limit on notabug

    --
    GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
    1. Re:NSA/Microsoft Github by themusicgod1 · · Score: 1

      I have made a point to calling all prism partners by NSA/$x to show they are part of a broader system of global oppression.

      --
      GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
  21. Re: "neutral partner" my arse by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

    SourceSafe suffers random database corruption. They might not be able to move off it.

    MS never used SourceSafe internally. They used an internal licensed fork of Perforce.

    They'd never cope with Git, totally alien to their mindset.

    They've been using git to manage Windows for over a year now, as well as many other projects, and they've contributed back some of the work they did to support extremely large repositories (~300GB). git support is even directly integrated into Visual Studio now.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  22. RIP, Github. by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    Just a matter of time before this is shuttered. "What, the FL/OSS people use it? We must buy it and shut it down, or turn it to shit so they won't use it." This has been M$'s MO for a while. The good news is there are alternatives, and hopefully people removed anything important before they got their grimy little hands on it.

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
  23. Re: 7.5 billion fucks given by tepples · · Score: 1

    Has any evidence of this planned TOS change been made public?

  24. U.S. v. Microsoft by tepples · · Score: 1

    Gates didn't violate antitrust law by bundling Edge with Windows 10.

    The only difference between that and the behavior that prompted U.S. v. Microsoft and BrowserChoice.eu is that Internet Explorer wasn't called Edge yet.

  25. Re:No, GitHub does not have 37M developers by tepples · · Score: 1

    Now, if people would only publish a repo once the program was actually working and useful...

    I'll assume "actually working and useful" means roughly the same as "minimum viable product". Is that what you meant? If so, I have trouble believing that you meant "don't back up the repository at all until the MVP is complete". Did you instead mean "pay Microsoft $84 per year to keep your backup private until the MVP is complete"?