back to article Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion

Microsoft has agreed to acquire development platform GitHub in a deal worth $7.5bn, sending developers scurrying for cover. The Office-maker is chuffed to call itself the most active organisation on GitHub, claiming more than two million commits made to projects. The Seattle software slinger has its origins in development …

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  1. J. R. Hartley

    Shite

    Wonder which new and exciting way they're gonna fuck it up.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Re: Shite

      They will probably try to force everyone onto Windows 10 and Edge...

      (No wonder coders are leaving like rats leaving a sinking ship...)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shite

      DILLIGAF.

      What little I had on Github was migrated to my Bitbucket account earlier.

      I wasn't be the first and sure as hell won't be the last.

      1. Lusty

        Re: Shite

        "What little I had on Github was migrated to my Bitbucket account earlier."

        So, presumably just you accessing those anyway then? Not so easy to move real projects, and not so desirable to randomly change platforms for real projects which have real work to do.

        The most likely outcome here is that MS will add enterprise authentication integration - the main thing that's been missing for a long time.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shite

        Trivial, 3 git commands to move your code repository from github to butbucket, and then a couple of clicks and type in "delete me" and it's job done.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Shite

          Trivial, 3 git commands to move your code repository from github to butbucket, and then a couple of clicks and type in "delete me" and it's job done.

          But there are webhooks all over my cloudy code, and they never offered me a bitbucket or gitlab hook.

    3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Shite

      Split it into Github and Github-for-Business but not allow you to use both at the same time

      Github for Business only supported on Windows

      Only allow Office365 subscribers to reset their passwords, or sometimes only outlook.com emails or occasionally only live.com - which depends on the phase of the moon.

      Remove the code checkin/out feature but add new options to post photos to your project timeline

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: Skype

        "Only allow Office365 subscribers to reset their passwords, or sometimes only outlook.com emails or occasionally only live.com - which depends on the phase of the moon.

        Remove the code checkin/out feature but add new options to post photos to your project timeline"

        Oh, I see you have used Skype then.

    4. Sammy Smalls

      Re: Shite

      As much as anything, it's the negative feeling that it engenders. Unless they do something really stupid like making private repos accessible to M$ 'for usage statistics' etc then there's not much they can do.

      Maybe I answered my own question....

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Shite

        As much as anything, it's the negative feeling that it engenders. Unless they do something really stupid like making private repos accessible to M$ 'for usage statistics' etc then there's not much they can do.

        Well, they can force ads for starters and insist on "user tracking" perhaps. Possibly even wanting a % of any code ownership. This is MS we're talking about and they WILL find a way to monetize it to their benefit at a cost to everyone else, A benevolent despot they are not. I'd very much be afraid.. very afraid.

    5. Aladdin Sane

      Re: Shite

      They might not fuck it up.

      1. DJV Silver badge

        Re: Shite

        "They might not fuck it up."

        Ha ha! Fat chance (of NOT fucking it up, that is)!

        1. JassMan

          Re: Shite @DJV

          Ha ha! vFat chance (of NOT fucking it up, that is)!

          FTFY

        2. nematoad Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: Shite

          As ye sow so shall ye reap.

          See also Oracle/Open Office.

      2. Tigra 07

        Re: Aladdin

        Maybe not...But, they're not spending all that money for nothing. They'll want to monetise it somehow

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: Aladdin

          But, they're not spending all that money for nothing

          Hmmm.. Nokia?

          NOKIA!

          (Yes - they spent a lot of money for precisely nothing. )

          1. Richard Plinston

            Re: Aladdin

            > NOKIA! (Yes - they spent a lot of money for precisely nothing. )

            You may think so, but it was not just Nokia that was wrecked it was also Symbian Bella, Series 40 (Asha), Maemo/Meego, Tizen and Nokia-X (Android). Without getting those killed by the MS contract (mafia reference) Windows Phone would have had even a smaller market share.

            Killing the competition is what Microsoft does.

            Linux survives because of the GPL. MS could buy the Linux companies or pay them and kill their distros, but they would just be forked. This is evolution at work, Linux has survived because it is the fittest in the Microsoft created environment.

        2. nijam Silver badge

          Re: Aladdin

          > They'll want to monetise it somehow...

          N..., No..., Nokia

        3. Kabukiwookie

          Re: Aladdin

          They'll want to monetise it somehow

          They'll have access to lots and lots of private repos, full of IP of companies doing software development.

      3. J. R. Hartley

        Re: They might not fuck it up.

        Wrong.

      4. TVU

        Re: Shite

        "They might not fuck it up"

        I was very disappointed that the early rumours turned into real facts.

        That said, they have given an undertaking that GitHub will remain autonomous like LinkedIn is and they have appointed Nat Friedman as the new GitHub CEO. There is the opportunity now for them not to completely stuff things up and alienate developers. Time will tell.

        I would have still much preferred GitHub to have gone down the route of an initial public share offering since that could have avoided corporate dominance but that's history and a lost opportunity now.

        1. JohnFen

          Re: Shite

          " they have given an undertaking that GitHub will remain autonomous like LinkedIn is "

          And yet, understanding or not, Microsoft did destroy what made LinkedIn useful.

      5. DrBobK

        Re: Shite

        They don't always fuck things up. I had the Microsoft C compiler v4.0 and CodeView in the mid 80s and it was genuinely good. Not sure anything since then has been though...

        1. GBE

          Re: Shite

          Microsoft C compiler v4.0 and CodeView in the mid 80s

          That was indeed a solid product. IIRC, it was basically a repackaged version of a compiler/debugger by a company they bought. (Whitesmiths?)

          It took a while, but they eventually f*&^#d it up: it turned into VisualStudio.

          EDIT:

          Nope, I misremembered. The first couple versions of Microsoft C were repackaged versions of Liveboat's Lattice-C compiler. Supposedly versions 3 and up were developed entirely by MS:

          https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-c-c/2x

          1. CheesyTheClown

            Re: Shite

            haha I actually should have read the entire post first. I went to the same website you did. I have to admit, I shamelessly download software from there all the time because sometimes I forget how good things are today unless I compare them to the days that came before.

            I tried writing a compiler using Turbo C 2.0 recently. That simple did not go well.

            Even though they had an IDE, it was single file and it lacked all the great new features we love and adore in modern IDEs. Now I managed to do it. I had a simple compiler up and running within about an hour, but to be fair, it was an absolute nightmare.

            That said, the compile times and executable sizes were really impressive.

            But of course things like real mode memory was not a great deal of fun. Also whenever you start coding in C, you get this obsessive need to start rewriting the entire planet. I was 10 minutes away from writing a transpiler to generate C code because C is such a miserable language to write anything useful in. No concept of a string and pathetic support for data structures and non-relocatable memory... YUCK!!!

            I will gladly take Visual Studio 2017 over 1980s text editors. Heck, I'll take Notepad++ over those old tools.

            You should get a copy of some of those old tools up and running and try to write something in them. It's actually really funny to find out that the keys actually don't do what you fingers think they do anymore. And what's worse, try doing it without using Google. :) I swear it's painful but entertaining. GWBASIC is a real hoot.

        2. Richard Plinston

          Re: Shite

          > They don't always fuck things up. I had the Microsoft C compiler v4.0 and CodeView in the mid 80s and it was genuinely good.

          Microsoft had bought those from Lattice.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Shite

          I had the Microsoft C compiler v4.0 and CodeView in the mid 80s and it was genuinely good.

          That's because it was originally written by Lattice, not Microsoft.

      6. JohnFen

        Re: Shite

        True. And I might wake up to find myself a billionaire tomorrow.

      7. Multivac

        Re: Shite

        "They might not fuck it up."

        LOL, that's awesome man, I'm taking that!

      8. pɹɐʍoɔ snoɯʎuouɐ
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: Shite

        They might not fuck it up.

        LMAO, that's the funniest thing I have heard all year !!

      9. macjules

        Re: Shite

        This is MSFT. If they were called Dyson we could at least say they make a product that does not suck.

        1. Tigra 07
          Trollface

          Re: macjules

          This is MSFT. If they were called Dyson we could at least say they make a product that does not suck.

          They do however make a product that blows...

        2. Alligator

          Re: Shite

          They make a hairdryer now. It blows.

      10. wanderer3

        Re: Shite

        About as likely as Wile E Coyote catching the road runner.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shite

      I don't think it'll be new and exciting more like tried and trusted.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        M$ evil tactic: Embrace, extend, and extinguish

        Embrace, extend, and extinguish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

        When will people learn that products from the YCombinator mafia are bad!? Their president, Sam Altman, is a M$ trojan horse and Bilderberger. Avoid these companies: https://yclist.com (Github, Docker, Reddit, Dropbox, AirBnb, Scribd, Heroku, WePay, Mixpanel, Stripe, PagerDuty, Humble Bundle, Coinbase, Zenefits, ...)

        Read the book "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley" about the YCombinator mafia and Sam Altman M$ connection: https://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Monkeys-Obscene-Fortune-Failure/dp/0062458191/

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: M$ evil tactic: Embrace, extend, and extinguish

          I think it's hilarious that you provide a list of companies that we should apparently avoid, but link to a book on Amazon.

          1. JLV Silver badge

            Re: M$ evil tactic: Embrace, extend, and extinguish

            Got there before me.

            I wonder if AC's prose in the book is as lame as his post's.

        2. HieronymusBloggs

          Re: M$ evil tactic: Embrace, extend, and extinguish

          "Read the book "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley""

          Post by author?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: M$ evil tactic: Embrace, extend, and extinguish

            > Post by author?

            No, I just read the book the other week. And "the boys" named themself "mafia", until it wasn't cool anymore I guess. You know, like the Paypal founders called themself (Thiel, Musk, ...) the "Paypal mafia". Some downvotes just means the post got upset them, and they enabled their peers. It's nothing to the anger WE the COMMUNITY have now, as they sold out to M$.

      2. Glenn Booth

        Re: Shite

        @AC - don't think it'll be new and exciting more like tried and trusted

        Is that 'tried and trusted' in the same way that uk.guv is "strong and stable". If so, I'll pass.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Shite

          I meant tried and trusted way of fucking things up but hey ho.

    7. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Worst thing: M$FT has now full access to our PRIVATE REPOS!!

      Now our worst competitor (M$FT) has now full access to our private repos with our software source code !

      Worst situation ever!!

      What should I do now? Migrating off Github, won't delete the data - right? Given that M$FT gives a shit about GDPR and slurps data like never before on Win10. I don't trust them at all.

      1. theblackhand

        Re: Worst thing: M$FT has now full access to our PRIVATE REPOS!!

        "Now our worst competitor (M$FT) has now full access to our private repos with our software source code !"

        Wasn't this considered when you started to use Github or at some point in the product life cycle when things reached the point where they could justify a solution that allowed you to protect against this type of eventuality? While it is convenient, it's not the only option and if you have concerns about third party competitors wouldn't that justify keeping your crown jewels in-house? Or at least hosted in a cloud solution (assuming a cloud solution provides the availability/accessibility that an in-house solution may not) where you had the ability to control things like encryption etc to prevent unauthorised third parties accessing your crown jewels?

      2. Multivac

        Re: Worst thing: M$FT has now full access to our PRIVATE REPOS!!

        All your code are belong to us.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Worst thing: M$FT has now full access to our PRIVATE REPOS!!

        If you're keeping your source code *anywhere* on the internet in a form where it's not encrypted then at some point this is going to hapoen. The only defense is contracts with teeth and a supplier which operates in a jurisdiction where such contracts mean something (so, not the US, at least).

      4. Kabukiwookie

        Re: Worst thing: M$FT has now full access to our PRIVATE REPOS!!

        Why else do you think MS would pay 7.5 billion USD?

        This'll teach you to use any service that's owned by a US company.

        With the rise of huge mega corps in the US, your data is not safe if it's stored with any US company. Even if the data is not directly stored in the US.

        Stop shooting yourself in the foot and go somewhere that does take privacy seriously.

    8. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shite

      > Wonder which new and exciting way they're gonna fuck it up.

      Sometimes the old ways are the best

      1. Stumpy
        Thumb Down

        Re: Shite

        "Wonder which new and exciting way they're gonna fuck it up."

        Well, first they'll swap Git for SourceSafe ....

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Shite

          They have abandoned the sourcesafe TFSVC backend and it appears to be GIT all the way and has been for 3+ years now.

          Anyone going to TFS in 2018 would have to be a total cretin to opt for the non default TFSVC backend. Even Microsoft don't use it....

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