[sf-lug] News that Microsoft is Buying GitHub

[aaronco36]

Might or might not directly affect all of us Linux users, but according to 
at least references [1], [2] and [3], the great Microsoft Inc. is set to 
acquire SF-based GitHub, announcement possibly coming out today.


The Bloomberg announcement at [1] sheds this acquisition in generally 
positive terms as follows:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ quoting -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Open-source software allows developers to tinker with, improve upon and 
share code -- an approach that threatened Microsoft's business model. A 
lot has changed since then, and under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft is 
supporting many flavors of Linux and has used open-source models on some 
significant cloud and developer products itself.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is now one of the biggest contributors 
to GitHub, and as Nadella moves the company away from complete dependence 
on the Windows operating system to more in-house development on Linux, the 
company needs new ways to connect with the broader developer community. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The acquisition announcement by TheVerge at [2] comes across as something 
of a mixed bag, as follows:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ quoting -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Microsoft has been rapidly investing in open source technology since Satya 
Nadella took over the CEO role. Microsoft has open sourced PowerShell, 
Visual Studio Code, and the Microsoft Edge JavaScript engine. Microsoft 
also partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu to Windows 10, and acquired 
Xamarin to assist with mobile app development. Microsoft is also using the 
open source Git version control system for Windows development, and the 
company even brought SQL Server to Linux. Microsoft's Visual Studio Code, 
which lets developers build and debug web and cloud applications, has 
soared in popularity with developers. Microsoft's GitHub acquisition will 
likely mean we'll start to see even closer integration between Microsoft's 
developer tools and the service. At Build last month, Microsoft continued 
its close work with GitHub by integrating the service into the company's 
App Center for developers.

There will likely be questions around Microsoft's GitHub acquisition, 
especially among some open source advocates who are wary of Microsoft's 
involvement. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Gizmodo's announcement at [3] casts the impending acquisition of GitHub in 
a more negative light with its reference to the decidedly negative 
comments by Reddit users[4], as follows:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ quoting -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Despite Microsoft's recent decision to open its arms to open source, there 
are plenty of skeptics, especially within the GitHub community. The 
response on the GitHub subreddit is overwhelmingly negative[4], with many 
commenting that they plan to jump ship to GitLab, an alternative code 
repository service. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Indeed, SF-LUG's own Rick M recently posted on another listserve [5] the 
similar idea to just move off of GitHub and to "jump ship" onto GitLab, as 
follows:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ quoting -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
[GoLugTech] Microsoft buys GitHub

For years, I've been politely telling representatives & users of open 
source projects (Void Linux, many others) 'Hey, you might want to 
reconsider outsourcing your entire source code repos to GitHub, and 
consider instead deploying instead one of many actually open source, 
self-hosted workalikes such as GitLab.'

I'm betting they'll see nothing wrong with outsourcing to a 
proprietary-software firm run by people they don't know and have no reason 
to trust, based on this news. I'm glad it works for them.

Did I mention GitLab? ;-> 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Three possibly relevant GitLab links are at references [6], [7] and [8] 
below.

I certainly do invite and _welcome_ further comments and insights on this 
news from Rick M and any/all other SF-LUG people reading of this new 
development ;-)
-A



===========================================
References
===========================================

[1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-03/microsoft-is-said-to-have-agreed-to-acquire-coding-site-github

[2]https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/3/17422752/microsoft-github-acquisition-rumors

[3]https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-reportedly-set-to-acquire-github-deal-could-1826522366

[4]https://www.reddit.com/r/github/comments/8obgi8/_/

[5]https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20180604.010158.6671eda2.en.html

[6]https://about.gitlab.com/product/

[7]https://about.gitlab.com/about/

[8]https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/

===========================================


aaronco36 at sdf.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.org