On October 20, 2018, AT the China Open Source Conference in Shenzhen, I interviewed Nat Friedman, the soon-to-be appointed CEO of GitHub after Microsoft acquired GitHub. The questions were about open source, the Chinese market, and GitHub’s future collaboration with Microsoft.
Nat Friedman
In June, Microsoft announced that it was acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion. Nat Friedman was appointed CEO of GitHub. Nat Friedman Is Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Developer Services, Responsible for Visual Studio Team Services and App Center. Previously, Nat has extensive experience in open source projects and foundations. Ximian was founded in 1999 (later acquired by Novell), co-founded GNOME Foundation in 2000, and founded Xamarin in 2011, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2016.
- Ximian: Develops and services Linux-based software
- GNOME: Open source desktop operating system based on Linux
- Xamarin: Multi-platform application development based on.NET, such as iOS, Android, Windows Phone
Fireside chat
Who is Nat Friedman?
Nat tells us about his life. He comes from a family that has absolutely nothing to do with software development. As a young man, he used to share and download code over the Internet. I learned about open source software and jumped into it, starting Ximian/GNOME and Xamarin. Two years ago, When Microsoft acquired Xamarin, then-CEO Satya Narayana Nadella asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he wanted to buy GitHub, and this happened!
Will Microsoft change GitHub?
GitHub will remain a very independent company, as part of the Microsoft Family. GitHub is a great platform, it is very easy to use and easy. Developer First is GitHub’s credo: any features or services that help developers make things better are considered, and vice versa. GitHub is a community of developers. Community is the essence of GitHub, and making that community count is GitHub’s mission.
GitHub and Chinese Developers
GitHub and open Source are both global, and China is an important part of the global community where developers create and contribute. There are a lot of great developers in China and I’m sure they will create a lot of interesting new projects.
The Future of OSS?
Open source is a collaborative development model that has led to many important innovations and will continue to lead technology in the future. Is the code better than it was 20 years ago? Not exactly. The whole code world is definitely getting more powerful. We’re standing on the shoulders of giants, but with a lot of new problems. In the open source world of the future, developers will quickly organize virtual teams in this community to co-produce content.
What’s the first thing you’ll do as CEO of GitHub?
Tweet about it! How to help the operational maintainers of open source projects to better manage and serve their projects should be the first direction to make efforts. In the long run, how to get GitHub developers to communicate and contribute actively in the long run is an eternal goal.
GitHub’s relationship with GitLab?
The choice of any platform is the user’s freedom, Developer First’s goal and making GitHub better is our focus. How to maintain GitHub better and allow users to continue using or return to GitHub after a rational choice is the focus. I also want to learn more about what people want and how to make GitHub better.
The number of GitHub Star is very important. Now many Chinese developers will swipe Star. Will GitHub manage to solve this problem
It’s important that interactions on GitHub are real, so fake stars should be managed and made sure the Star count is real.
Exclusive interview: Open source, GitHub, China market
Open source
Q: As we know, you have great experience in developing and managing open source projects. Chinese young developers are very crazy about open source but the community is still at its early stage. So, any recommendation to open source project creators and contributors? What are the crucial factors to make a open soruce project successful?
Q: You are known to have a lot of experience developing and managing open source projects. Open source software is very popular among young Chinese developers, but the whole community is still in its early stages. Based on your recommendations, what advice would open source authors and contributors have? What are the important factors that determine the growth of an open source project?
A: A good open source project should have A clear goal and problem to solve, either an existing project that is not good enough or A complete blank. But it should be from a personal point of view that the problem needs to be solved, and there are many good projects that give open source contributors good guidance. Good projects often start with something like Toy, with a lot of enthusiasm but no idea where the project will go. The best way to start development is right away!
GitHub & Microsoft
Q: Microsoft has become the world’s largest open source company, and VSCode is the most popular open source project in according to the lastest report by GitHub. So, what’s Microsoft vision among open source community and what will happen next from Microsoft?
Q: Microsoft has become the largest open source contributor in the world, and VSCode has become the most popular open source project in the world. What are Microsoft’s goals for open source, and what new things are on the horizon?
A: In the last 10 years, Microsoft has gone from being superior to open source to quickly becoming A contributor and even one of the most active organizations. The most important thing behind this is that the needs of developers and customers have changed. 80% of the servers on Azure are Linux, and open source is inevitable in the future. Microsoft comes from a developer tool background, so we are very sensitive to the needs of developers, and these changes just happen.
Q: What will happen to the GitHub organization after the acquisition?
A: 900 People scattered all over the world. San Francisco is GitHub’s headquarters, but two-thirds of its employees work outside of San Francisco, and all employees use GitHub to collaborate wherever possible. This collaborative approach gives the company a strong collaborative DNA that allows it to invite a wide variety of people to join. Next, GitHub’s goal is to Grow. It is the most important task to continue to Grow GitHub rapidly and gather talents from all over the world.
Q: Will GitHub marry blockchain in the future?
A: Blockchain is an interesting new technology direction, and most of the projects are on GitHub, which further validates GitHub’s mechanism for aggregating global development. But beyond that, there are no plans for GitHub itself to work with blockchain.
Q: Microsoft recently released LOT/joined OIN Normal Member (world’s largest patent pool)?
A: These two projects continue to demonstrate Microsoft’s position as the largest open source company in the world. These two milestones continue to demonstrate Microsoft’s value in open source.
Q: making the Actions? How Azure supports Git Actions?
GitHub Actions is an exciting new Workflow platform with endless possibilities for Workflow sharing. GitHub will be very independent, any automated workflow is possible, there are a lot of possibilities, they can use any cloud service and operating system, and keep the technology options open. Therefore, Azure does not have any specific preferences or requirements.
Q: Microsoft AI & GitHub?
A: We are thinking about the possibility of incorporating machine learning into the development process of developers. Microsoft is only working on the IntelliCode Smart code project, and developers can collaborate if they need to. The needs of the developers are the basic criteria we choose.
Q: will GitHub become a subscription model for Office365?
A: The GitHub team, The Enterprise edition itself is already A subscription model, but GitHub itself is independent and it is our independent decision whether to become A subscription model, so we do not plan to make such changes at this time.
The Chinese market
Q: What does the Chinese open source community think of it? Any suggestions?
A: I’m learning, and I’d love to talk to A lot of developers. In the next 10 to 20 years, It is inevitable that China will develop into the innovation center of the open source software world, and we look forward to more Chinese developers’ contribution and participation.
Q: Serveral days ago, it’s reported that Ping An Cloud and GitHub confirmed cooperation that Ping An Cloud will be the MSP (managed services provider) for GitHub. Apart from this cooperation, will GitHub provide services directly to Chinese market? What do you think about Chinese market?
Q: A few days ago, the media reported that Ping ‘an Cloud became GitHub’s SMP in China. Apart from this cooperation, does GitHub have any plans to expand into the Chinese market? And what do you think of the current situation of the Chinese market?
A: I am learning about the Chinese market and considering whether to enter it. Having A good local partner is very important, but I am still thinking about the specific cooperation method.
Learn more about Nat:
- Hello, GitHub
- I’m Nat Friedman, Future CEO of GitHub. AMA