Diss Github bought by Microsoft? The man said it was a great thing

Wen/Owen Williams

Translation/food

Editor/Longo



GitHub is no longer independent.


Microsoft announced today that it will buy GitHub for $7.5 billion after 10 years as an independent company. At this point, GitHub has a long-term meal ticket and doesn’t need to go public.


The reaction from my own circle of friends and fellow developers on the Internet has been intense, with some actively supporting but others opposing GitHub’s move to “that” company.


For my part, I sincerely believe that Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub is in the best interests of everyone, including GitHub itself, and I’d like to review how it came to be this way.



struggle


GitHub, for lack of a good analogy, has been wandering in the capitalist desert for some time. GitHub started out well-capitalized with $350 million in venture funding, but eventually stagnated because of what it was actually doing.


The upfront capital accumulation didn’t bring anything meaningful to the company, which led some active contributors to write an open letter in 2016 complaining about the poor management of the platform:


“But none of us felt excited. Some of us on GitHub maintain many very popular projects that feel completely ignored by you. Responding to a problem through support channels can result in a blank check or no response at all. We have no way of knowing what our request is, or if GitHub is actually processing it. Since our work is largely open source and everyone contributes, it feels strange not to be on top of important projects.”


In response, GitHub tried to clean up its act, but eventually apologized and admitted that it lacked momentum or attention, and would treat its support services as a “black box” in the future.


GitHub’s internal strife can largely be attributed to a poor work environment, and founder Chris Wanstrath has spent years revamping the company.


Wanstrath, who has been CEO for the past few years, has redirected GitHub’s corporate direction and brought in more large companies to boost revenue. There’s also GitHub Enterprise, a hosted version that companies can deploy locally, and in my past experience it’s actually pretty good — big companies seem to like it.


GitHub was able to placate developers to some extent as the platform became more functional, but ended up without a CEO and unable to find a replacement for the last seven months.



Microsoft + GitHub = ❤


Over the past three years, Microsoft has changed dramatically in the way it builds software and thinks about how it shares it with the world. His replacement, Satya Nadella, is taking the company in a different direction from the closed approach of former CEO Steve Ballmer: full openness.


Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub makes a lot of sense in this context because it provides a new environment and runway for startups to continue building open source tools while gaining the enterprise architecture they need to succeed. While I’m not usually a fan of this kind of platform integration, I don’t believe GitHub can be done in isolation for long.



The tide is shifting from computing platforms such as Windows to apis, cloud computing and development tools. Microsoft figured this out, nurturing the community and building free cross-platform tools for developers, and it has benefited in the process.


So buying GitHub is a good move. Microsoft’s scale allows it to offer basic features like a private repository to individuals for free and win over the community.


Over the past three years, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to win over the developer community, making a move on GitHub before it gets discussed, and not even throwing out the bait and switch:


  • Microsoft open-source everything on GitHub. The.net framework

  • Microsoft has made development easier by building rich system-level Windows features and bringing rich Unix shells to the platform

  • Microsoft continues to support the few open source editors that work best on each platform

  • Microsoft became the largest open source contributor on GitHub.

  • Microsoft’s entire Windows 10 platform is now based on the open-source Progressive Web App technology


By reaching out to developers and increasing its visibility in the community, Microsoft has become one of the most important facilitators of open source.


I switched from Mac to Windows in 2017, using the same tools, after getting tired of Apple’s venom toward developers. Microsoft’s work is ushering in a new generation of developers who can use the best gadgets, whether they’re on a PC, Mac or Linux. Microsoft’s ace in the hole is to build the best tools for everyone, not just fixed platforms.


This is important because I can’t think of a better place to buy GitHub — Microsoft will be highly regarded by the community, they’ll always have a way, and they’re unlikely to screw it up.


I don’t think Microsoft is going to merge GitHub with its tools or stuff it with ads, but rather take it seriously and show developers that Microsoft is there for it and won’t let it go away.


While it’s easy to make a wide-eyed joke about Microsoft’s past, it takes hundreds of people across the company to move from an organization that rejects open source to one that fundamentally embraces it.


“GitHub’s own announcement encapsulates the shared vision of Microsoft and GitHub, both of which understand the responsibilities that come with exchanges,” said one Twitter comment.



But more importantly, their vision of the future fits well with our own vision. We all agree that GitHub needs to keep an open platform for all developers. Whether it’s your language, stack, platform, cloud, or license, GitHub will continue to be your home — the best place to build software, collaborate, and discover.


A post by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shows the same realization:


“The most important thing is that we recognize our responsibility to this agreement,” Nadella explained. “We are committed to being the stewards of the GitHub community, which will retain its developer-first ethos, operate independently and remain an open platform. We will always listen to feedback from developers and invest in fundamentals and new features.”


I’m glad they’re not bluffing and are building a foundation for GitHub’s long-term growth. I can’t think of a better place for it to grow, and Microsoft’s work to help developers succeed will continue.



What’s next?



Once this acquisition is done, everyone gets what they want, and I think for the long term, this acquisition will ensure GitHub’s future as part of the development toolkit.


I like how Microsoft bought GitHub before it died or fell into the hands of some malicious company.


What’s even more exciting is that Microsoft may be able to reinvigorate GitHub and start bringing meaningful innovation to our open source tools — and still allow freedom of choice. After all, Git is a decentralized file system, so if Microsoft screws up, it’s not too much of a problem to just walk away.