back to article Is Microsoft about to git-merge with GitHub? Rumors suggest: Yes

Microsoft has held talks with GitHub with a mind to potentially buy the popular source-code warehouse, folks closely familiar with the discussions have claimed. There have been recurring rumors going back to at least 2016 that the Windows giant is considering gobbling the San Francisco-based upstart, which hosts developers' …

  1. elDog

    the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

    Really? I've stopped using linkedin since MS took it over and harvested all the info.

    So now MS wants total control over OSS software, at least as stored on github?

    Sometimes these behemoths don't know how polluting they are of the ecosystem.

    Fortunately, until the internet stays open and alive we'll all have alternate ways to share information.

    1. Christian Berger

      Disney probably is more of an IT company than AOL

      Disney has started looking into IT and investing into its research at least as early as the 1970s. Back then they cooperated with Xerox Parc on programming literacy projects.

      Disney even produced their own computer systems.

      1. Wade Burchette

        Re: Disney probably is more of an IT company than AOL

        The only company I think would be worse for Github than Microsoft would be Disney. These are the same greedy bastards who keep bribing ... er "lobbying" elected officials to increase copyright's length. The Big Mouse has become thoroughly evil.

        1. JLV

          Re: Disney probably is more of an IT company than AOL

          +1

          The Mouse, with Michael Eisner, was also the first company where a non-founding, employee-type, CEO breached the $100M/year remuneration barrier. Not that he lost much $$$$ when the company started under-performing later on - it took years to evict his sorry ass.

          CEO and C-level pay and bonuses being a pox on the face of citizens, employees and, yes, shareholders, Disney has a lot to answer for in our context of ever greater rapaciousness, greed and public distrust - warranted or not - of people who manage companies and free markets.

        2. JohnFen

          Re: Disney probably is more of an IT company than AOL

          Disney would be awful, but would they be worse than Microsoft? It seems like six of one, half dozen of the other to me.

    2. MacroRodent

      Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

      I wonder why the survey did not include Red Hat? As a company built around Linux, and a major contributor to it and other open source projects, Github would fit there.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

        "I wonder why the survey did not include Red Hat? As a company built around Linux, and a major contributor to it and other open source projects, Github would fit there."

        Yes, I was struggling with the list of optional alternatives to find a "least worst" choice and gave up and clicked submit without choosing. Surprisingly, that was acceptable tot poll software but it didn't show a None Of The Above result. I suspect None Of The Above would have won by a landslide had it been offered as a choice.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

          > I ... clicked submit without choosing.

          Same here. None of the supplied answers is a reasonable fit for GitHub ownership.

      2. DCFusor

        Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

        Red Hat - the source of broken stuff they can charge to support, like systemd and pulseaudio?

        No way...

      3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

        survey did not include Red Hat

        Well - DedRat is starting to get a toxic reputation amongst the open-source crowd (systemd and all that) so it's a possibility that could well also spell the end of Github..

        (I suspect that a Microsoft-owned Github would quickly find its usage diminishing very quickly indeed. Would you trust your confidential source code to a microsoft-owned company?)

      4. JohnFen

        Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

        I'm not sure which would be less pleasant -- Github being owned by Microsoft or by Red Hat.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Avoid any products from the YCombinator mafia!

      With hindsight: Avoid any products from startup started by the YCombinator mafia! Their president, Sam Altman, is a M$ trojan horse and Bilderberger.

      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/

      Github, Docker, Reddit, Dropbox, AirBnb, Scribd, Heroku, WePay, Mixpanel, Stripe, PagerDuty, Humble Bundle, Coinbase, Zenefits, and many more!

      Ycombinator imperium, avoid these companies: https://yclist.com

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

      Sometimes these behemoths don't know how polluting they are of the ecosystem.

      Au contraire, they know that exactly. Why do you think they would otherwise do this?

      The problem is that few people know enough of history to notice it repeating itself. Microsoft had a good run with SCO, but quickly discovered that something that overt would wake people up, so I reckon that this is where the process of subversion (apologies for the pun) started - it was exactly their history that made me wary of their later Linux "friendly" efforts. Google has been following the exact same playbook of subversion, coldly ignoring inconvenient laws and lying through their teeth, but they have at least been smarter in how they went about implementing - it's taken a long time for people to realise just how pervasive it is in what it does.

      I reckon that, ultimately, Google will buy Microsoft to have full control. That, finally, will complete their Panopticon plans.

      Back to Git, why wasn't there a "none of the above" option? Or maybe the FSF? No, wait, the latter wouldn't have enough money - but it could set up a Git replacement before the sale has completed..

      1. JLV

        Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

        >FSF

        Kidding, right?

        Out of all possible scenarios I would welcome those zealots least of all.

        Github's license demographics are firmly in the permissive license camp. Nothing wrong w GPL per se, whatever rocks your boat. But, by its context, Github's management should emphatically NOT be biased towards a license.

        Lesser issue, but still problematic, is OS/language bias, which IMHO means best avoiding Google, Apple, MS, Oracle.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

      Oh well, at least it isn't Google. The Borg would likely sell your data, fill it with adverts and discontinue important functions at short notice.

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

        at least it isn't Google. The Borg would likely sell your data, fill it with adverts and discontinue important functions at short notice

        As would Google. In fact, MS & Google have a very similar mindset these days.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Trollface

          Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

          I chose Salesforce, because if Github can't have a decent corporate master, end it swiftly. Oracle works too. Or Microsoft, for that matter.

          It's okay. Github was never great. First it was an unreliable Ruby on Rails site. Then they fixed it but turned it into yet another social network. Then it became a near-monopoly. RIP, Github.

          I haven't really used it in a few years and was thinking about deleting my account entirely. Now I will.

    6. ROC

      Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

      So you're ok with Verizon owning Github through its AOL subsidiary? That's how it would be...

    7. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

      I chose Disney not because it was any better than any of the other choices but merely because it was mildly amusing (and I had run out of options). And no, not Red Hat. I don't need the option to insert systemd into my Arduino code.

    8. Sitaram Chamarty

      Re: the survey only listed Disney as a viable acquirer. How about AOL?

      "until the internet stays open and alive"?

      don't you mean "while"?

      Are you sure you're a developer? :-)

  2. a_yank_lurker

    Slurp the Clueless

    Wolfing done Github would cause a migration away from it as developers really distrust Slurp more so than the general public. Slurp's antics with non-support of standards, dropping developer tools, APIs, etc. makes their stewardship of Github rather problematic.

    When they bought Linked, my activity has dwindled to nothing with some consideration to dropping it altogether.

    1. MacroRodent

      Re: Slurp the Clueless

      Yes. Also the way Git itself works makes migration easier. As the article notes, there are similar competing services, ready to take in projects looking for another home.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: When they bought Linked

      Hadn't heard until a few minutes ago. I'd thought it was entirely disposable since years ago, and IIRC it liked to give itself permission to send legit-looking invites to everyone in your address book if you gave it access to your email account. So I was a bit happy to have been already done caring and long gone, and a bit annoyed to get invites for a while longer from that guy I know who (probably) still thinks he's gonna pull off a coup w.r.t. unlimited free and/or wireless energy, after he "connects with" the right people-- who can and will "buy in". Those emails stopped eventually... don't know whether MS fixed it, or what. But I'm here to cheer you on while you consider.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Slurp the Clueless

      > When they bought Linked, my activity has dwindled to nothing with some consideration to dropping it altogether.

      Drop it all together. Just make sure to take a backup of your contacts data first, as you'll probably want to contact them sometime over the next few years.

      Don't keep the account around though. Microsoft isn't using the data for your benefit.

    4. x 7

      Re: Slurp the Clueless

      "Slurp the Clueless"

      That sounds like the name of an old Viking chief

      1. oldcoder

        Re: Slurp the Clueless

        Yea... that sounds like a Microsoft raider... not knowing what they are doing, and end up just pillaging and burning what they invaded.

      2. ROC
        Pirate

        Re: Slurp the Clueless

        More like one of the Ango-Saxon "kings" who thought he could cut a deal with the Vikings... yeah, right!

    5. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      Are we being TROLLED?

      Are we being TROLLED? I had to ask. Micro-shaft BUYING GITHUB is the _WORST_ possible "Embrace Extend Extinguish" nightmare I can think of.

      1. Ian Reissmann

        Re: Are we being TROLLED?

        The "worst thing you can think of" ?

        What about Boris for PM for starters ?

        Ok MS/GH is not good, but if the coders of the world can't come up with a non MS alternative solution, we'd deserve all we got.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All your open source code

    are belong to Micro$oft.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All your open source code

      expect new FB-like T&C's which grant M$ rights to do anything they like, including Rape and Pillage, of any source code that they continue to be host.

      1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: All your open source code

        expect new FB-like

        Before that - expect all new features and some old ones over time to work only in visual studio.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All your open source code

      M$FT buying Github.com is THE WORST CASE scenario.

      Look at LinkedIn, Skype, Minecraft, Nokia, WebTV - M$$$ is the worst company, it makes products worse and they are dying a slow death as soon as they get bought.

      If Github indeed sells to M$ it is a big blow for the free open source software community.

      Open source software alternatives to GitHub:

      the most lightweight and best performing is GOGS (golang application):

      https://gogs.io/

      And GitLab (though very slow, Ruby code, unstable SaaS, SaaS runs on Azure cloud, aka M$$$)

      1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: All your open source code

        M$$$ is the worst company, it makes products worse and they are dying a slow death as soon as they get bought.

        Nothing specific to a Microsoft. It is the standard in large companies. In fact, MSFT is not the worst in here. By far.

        This will continue being the case as long as M&A based "innovation" in the USA is more tax efficient than internal innovation and R&D. The bean-counters will ensure that.

        1. MacroRodent

          Re: All your open source code

          > In fact, MSFT is not the worst in here. By far.

          Yes, a certain company with a name that starts with an "O" comes to mind immediately.

      2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

        Re: Look at LinkedIn, Skype, Minecraft, Nokia, WebTV ....

        Uh, MineCraft is doing fine, you know. Don't ask me how, but I am an avid Minecrafter and my experience has not changed one whit.

        Since MS bought MineCraft, the only real new thing was the introduction of Realms, which is entirely optional but I guess there are people who find it useful, so good for them. I don't know what exactly is happening on Realms, but there is quite some activity judging from the info panel on the game launcher.

        Meanwhile, no microtransactions or advertisements have appeared, and no hint of that sort of thing on the horizon, so, from where I sit, MS is not, for once, doing bad with its acquisition.

        Here's hoping that will continue.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Look at LinkedIn, Skype, Minecraft, Nokia, WebTV ....

          > MineCraft is doing fine(TM)

          Original MineCraft Java client development stalled and console client development stalled.

          They are only working on the mobile C++ client, that they ported to Win10 and are working on a console port right now.

          All Mods and the big community is on Java client, yet it will never get the graphics improvements and new features - those are Win10 only. Even the Nintendo Switch console got a Minecraft version that was dropped only after 6 months, no new development, no new version - "wait for a new port, please buy it again, sincerely your slurping Micro-$haft"

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @AC

            Regarding Java Minecraft

            "All Mods and the big community is on Java client, yet it will never get the graphics improvements and new features - those are Win10 only."

            So how do you explain the upcoming Project Aquatica?

            Sorry, but you're talking bullshit. 1.13 gets the Java edition a completely overhauled (improved) command system, new blocks and mobs, new game designs (buried treasure, sunken ships, ocean ruins, and dolphins which can lead you to said ruins), improved world generation, new biomes, severely improved customization (create your own crafting & smelting recipes, functions, structures.. and add 'm all into your own datapack)...

            It even enhanced graphics; full screen playing is handled a lot better these days.

            Not just that:

            * Game library updated to LWJGL 3.

            * Optimized cloud rendering.

            * Optimized fog rendering.

            Or what about this, a planned feature:

            * World generation will become data-driven, using json files, allowing for custom structures.[12]

            Sorry, but you're sharing some very serious nonsense here.

            1. Not That Andrew

              Re: @AC

              You can already insert custom structures into world generation. It could certainly be easier, but I'm not sure JSON is the best way to do it. Also "data driven"? As opposed to?

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: @AC

              > So how do you explain the upcoming Project Aquatica?

              Announced to be released in 2017. Then the release got postphoned multiple times. Latest schedule release date was May 30th, which got skipped due to "critical bugs". No new release date announced.

              And most graphical improvements are Win10 only. The Java client won't receive the new shader system at all - as mentioned in November 2017, when they announced it. Microsoft vaporware.

              Pretty sad how the story of Minecraft and Notch ends.

              1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

                Re: most graphical improvements are Win10 only

                You repeat that as if it was a widely known fact. Citation please ?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Good alternative: Gitea

        Gitea, another Github/GitLab alternative, written in Golang:

        https://gitea.io/en-US/

        "Gitea is a community managed fork of Gogs, lightweight code hosting solution written in Go and published under the MIT license."

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All your open source code

      Github doesn't just contain open source, but private repos too. That's probably what MS are after, in addition to developer's eye balls.

  4. Adam 52 Silver badge

    Employment terms

    At the moment github has got one of the least complicated set of terms out there. If Microsoft take it over then those are going to change, which means that thousands of end developers are going to be asked to sign up to something to carry on doing their job.

    In effect thousands of employment contracts are going to get unilaterally modified by a third party.

    If those changes are materially detrimental, for example Microsoft may run "telemetry" and share the results with "partners", then I'm curious what the legal position is.

    Welcome to the world of SaaS.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Employment terms

      Everyone simply leaves.

      The nature of git is that all centralised servers are trivially replaced, because you've all got a complete backup already.

      The only question is selecting a replacement.

      1. cyberdemon Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Everyone simply leaves

        The only tricky part is migrating all the extra bits that GitHub itself provides, e.g. issues, comments, wikis, continuous integration etc.

        For that you need an import tool that uses their API e.g. https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/import/github.html

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Everyone simply leaves

          > The only tricky part is migrating all the extra bits that GitHub itself provides, e.g. issues, comments, wikis, continuous integration etc.

          And the GitHub OAuth account, which (I) use to log in to many other website with.

          1. JohnFen

            Re: Everyone simply leaves

            I'm so happy I never started using OAuth or other such services.

    2. Lusty

      Re: Employment terms

      “github has got one of the least complicated set of terms out there.”

      Arguably the terms for a git repo on VSTS are simpler. Microsoft don’t force you to open source if you’re not paying, for instance.

      Also, I prefer the interface in VSTS over GitHub so hopefully it won’t be killed in an acquisition!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Employment terms

        Hope you're not confusing "open source" with publicly visible. Github doesn't force you to publish under an open source license, even with a free account. A free account doesn't let you create private repos, but you could still theoretically attach a non-open source license to your code. You could also keep your code completely secret and proprietary by using a paid sub to create private repos. Or just host on Bitbucket.

        1. Lusty

          Re: Employment terms

          "Hope you're not confusing "open source" with publicly visible"

          I hope you're not confusing closed licence with having people rip off your publicly visible code! No sane company would use a public repo for thier closed IP.

          1. JohnFen

            Re: Employment terms

            Your code can be "closed source" while at the same time you distribute the source code publicly. "Open" and "closed" source is not talking about whether or not the source code is publicly posted, it's about what you are licensed to do with that code.

  5. jake Silver badge

    Forgot an option to Q2

    None of the above.

    Yes, I know, IBM comes close these days ... but not close enough.

    1. cyberdemon Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Forgot an option to Q2

      It should at least have a CowboyNeal option

  6. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    WTF?

    I can't think of anything much worse

    The small project I work on is a Linux only GPL 2+ one. It's status allows it to have free hosting both there and on Sourceforge. I can foresee real problems if Microsoft muscle in, one of the first being charges brought in. We have no funding at all so in that case (with great regret) we'd have to abandon GitHub and try to find some other second repository. I imagine there are very many projects in a similar position. Knowing their reputation, I guess Microsoft would consider that a good thing - only paying cust victims remaining.

    1. cyberdemon Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: I can't think of anything much worse

      completely agree - this would be disastrous for GitHub. But that might be the plan.

      This all sounds about as healthy for GitHub as the time when Microsoft had installed a stooge CEO to dump the share prices but definitely weren't about to buy Nokia, because that would almost certainly be illegal. And then they did.

      I am personally convinced the only reason Microsoft bought Nokia is because Nokia had a dangerously good debian-based smartphone OS which they wanted dead: Maemo

      Don't forget the old mantra when it comes to open source: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish

    2. NerryTutkins

      Re: I can't think of anything much worse

      Visualstudio.com already offers free private GIT repos for small groups (up to 5 people), and previously offered free open source public repos on codeplex. So I very much doubt they'd charge for public repos on github.

  7. cyberdemon Silver badge
    Devil

    GitLab

    Is the best alternative to GitHub that I know.

    It is properly free (there's a debian package for it in sid), so you can host your own private instance if you wish.

    Also where are the 97+ who voted "Good"? They need to come into the comments section for their flaming.

    Then again, astroturfing isn't a new thing to Microsoft.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: GitLab

      Instead of GitLab (with its slow Ruby) and unstable (SaaS), better check out Gogs: https://gogs.io

      GitLab is from a YC startup, they are looking for an exit as well, just like Github!!

      Gogs is "real" open source (no VC baked startup looking for a business model), coded in Golang, uses little HW resources.

      (I am not related to Gogs, but I dislike the hype despite its buggy slow nature, I moved to Gogs myself.)

      1. cyberdemon Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: GitLab

        First I've heard of Gogs. It sounds interesting.. I will give it a try.

        Also, please forgive my above posts in favour of GitLab, as it's the only good (though admittedly slow) not-GitHub I know/knew.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: GitLab

        > GitLab is from a YC startup

        Care to back that up with some references?

      3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: GitLab

        better check out Gogs: https://gogs.io

        No build or binary for FreeBSD (that I can see) so that's a non-starter.

      4. Wensleydale Cheese
        Unhappy

        Re: GitLab

        "Gogs is "real" open source (no VC baked startup looking for a business model), coded in Golang, uses little HW resources."

        Unfortunately Golang is a Google product and, so I am told, support for that is only available via Google Groups.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: GitLab

      For enterprise Bitbucket Server rules supreme.

      They also host, for free (Bitbucket Cloud), and allow both private and public repos.

      1. Adam 52 Silver badge

        Re: GitLab

        "For enterprise Bitbucket Server rules supreme."

        We moved from Bitbucket to github. Lots of the CI tools support github but not Bitbucket.

        Which is also why all those saying "it's just git move elsewhere" are underestimating the pain.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: GitLab

          I'd be interested to understand the reasons for the downvotes on Adam 52's post.

          We made a move from on-premise Jenkins and SVN to Github+Travis with very good results, but on the way to that destination tried Bitbucket and Bamboo and the experience was awful, mostly due to Bamboo which in our experience was an unusable piece of crap. Maybe it's improved since (a couple of years ago).

    3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

      Re: GitLab

      so you can host your own private instance if you wish.

      I do. It falls over (constantly). I now have a cron job to restart it every night. And you never, ever get a reason for the failure in any of the logs that I can see..

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "or you could try hosting your own Git service"

    I do - its called git!

    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Joke

      Developers! Developers! Developers!

      Git! Git! Git!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Watch "Antitrust" (2001) hollywood movie, they predicted it 17 years ago

    Watch the movie "Antitrust" (2001) (also known as "Conspiracy.com"), it's about a fiction tech-corp that closely resembles Microsoft. And one of the story points is the tech-corp is slurping source code from free software movement.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/

    "A computer programmer's dream job at a hot Portland-based firm turns nightmarish when he discovers his boss has a secret and ruthless means of dispatching problems."

    1. Tomato42
      Facepalm

      Re: Watch "Antitrust" (2001) hollywood movie, they predicted it 17 years ago

      if only there was something to prevent them from doing that, I don't know, like a law for copying stuff, we could call it "copyright"

      also, facepalm on even suggesting that GitHub has control over any of the code they host, with git of all things

  10. richardcox13

    CodePlex is not an issue

    > Others wonder where Microsoft's CodePlex will fit in alongside GitHub.

    Why? CodePlex is now only a readonly archive, just enough to allow migration to other systems… notably GitHub.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: richardcox13

      As in, will CodePlex be folded into GitHub, or will GitHub become the new CodePlex. Was CodePlex shuttered to make way for GitHub? Those sorts of questions.

      C.

  11. Christian Berger

    It could have some benefits...

    ... as it would drive people away from GitHub. Now GitHub isn't to bad as such, however having all your eggs in one basket is something that is very dangerous. The Free Software world should not depend on one company.

    If it means that people will set up their own git servers, I'm all for it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It could have some benefits...

      In the last few years, many open source projects have given up their own Subversion / Git repository and moved to Github or at least mirror their repo to Github to conquer new ground and find more developer.

      A big problem is Google. The Google search is especially bad at finding Subversion or Git repositories hosted elsewhere. Google is only good nowadays finding code on Github. Google Code Search was great, but it is no more (dead like many great Google (search) products).

      Yes, open source should move away from Github NOW. Host your repository on your server, and just mirror your repo (read-only with no "Issues" tab enabled) to Github. And cut the string completely with Github, in worst case, when M$ buys Github.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: It could have some benefits...

        You mention Google Code Search (now dead), but why are people voting that Google should buy GitHub the poll? Have they forgotten Google Code (now dead) already?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: It could have [been Google]

          Hopefully though, if Google did buy it, they would spin it out again to sell/opensource like they did with the likes of Sketchup.

          It (though I may be wrong) seems to be internal Google projects that get temally ended, where as externally purchased software/services get spun out and/or sold on. Hardware though, they seem to cement it 6 foot under if it does not turn profit.

        2. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Mushroom

          Re: It could have some benefits...

          The only reason that people would vote _FOR_ a takeover of GitHub by Micro-shaft is that they are SOCK PUPPETS and/or BOTS "voting". We've seen this before, especially in recent times.

          "Astro turfing" (mentioned earlier) is one of the descriptive terms.

          This is often how MINORITY opinions and policies get "MAJORITY" APPROVAL, these days (and are THEN crammed up our as down our throats). And Micro-shaft is a MASTER of it.

          (wait until Micro-shaft and Google merge, and THEN buy FOX NEWS - nightmare fueling station!)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It could have some benefits...

            I voted for a takeover of Github, but then I use BitBucket, so I don't give a crap what happens to GitHub.

            I just like f'king with polls and I really love getting bombastic bob all dramatic and SHOUTY :D

            He even did bold this time, I am impressed..

        3. JohnFen

          Re: It could have some benefits...

          "why are people voting that Google should buy GitHub the poll?"

          Probably because all of the options in that poll are terrible, so people are just picking randomly.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Baad MSFT!

    All your code are belong to us!

  13. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Windows

    Perhaps its a new

    way for m$ to get code after slurping all those 'free' github projects.

    Looking for the worst , most buggy and unsecured way of doing anything within windows and then slurping it into the windows code base....

    What else explains win 10 ?

  14. Vizesnyolcas

    Good news for Atlassian, BitBucket

    Might be a wake up call as well to Google to revive Google Code.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    poll choices poor

    I would rather see redhat or Canonical pick up github.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: poll choices poor

      I trust neither as of systemd. One can easily argue that a new or improved init system would be great, but the scope of systemd is a massive overreach that will potentially negatively disrupt the GNU/Linux eco-system. systemd is turning Linux into something that Linux was not designed to be and that will be (is) a problem.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: poll choices poor

        It fits now all together, M$-shaft is behind YCombinator experiment-program and extinguishing Linux by "sponsoring" RedHat and Ubuntu, and having Debian-staff on their payroll. So it's easy for them to introduce shit that spread like cancer like SYSTEMD and pulse-audio (both from the same guys). The whole movement behind promoting BSD/Apache license instead of GNU (L)GPL 2 and 3 is another evil move.

        So with Github, M$-shaft will now have access to all "private" Git repositories. With Win10 (spyware incl. all voice, video and keystrokes and all documents) and Linux with systemd (numerous backdoors) they have full insight what people are doing. With full access to private Github repos M$-shaft has then full visibility of any competitor who was dumb enough to trust the amis.

        Switch to Devuan (Debian without systemd): https://devuan.org

        Or use the Slackware distro or switch over to FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD, ReactOS or Android/Magenta.

        Use GNU GPL 2/3 license for your projects. Host it in Subversion or Mercurial repos on your server. For self hosted Git repo, slap a open source Github-clone-interface like Gitea (https://gitea.io) on it.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: poll choices poor

          I voted for Disney because I figured they'd be less evil and more generally incapable of keeping github functioning as a site.

          I'd rather it was dead than borged.

          1. John Gamble

            Re: poll choices poor

            I voted Disney because the entire question was obviously a joke (well done, whoever picked the worst of the worst for the list), and I thought it was the most funny choice.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: poll choices poor

          > or switch over to FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD

          Didn't you just call them evil, a few lines up?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I agree though it's kind of funny given that those two are at opposite ends of the 'innovation & leadership' effectiveness spectrum --doing things their way and dragging others along, like MS-- with systemd and mir, respectively. If GitHub had to go out like Gitorious did, there are plenty of less-horrible or even not-horrible future stewards that don't appear here.

      You: "Like who?"

      I dunno, someone who just does their thing without making enemies, I guess. Someone who doesn't provide clickbait material for Das Reg. They do exist! I know it's tempting to think first of organizations who host code already, like Atlassian, but that's just the strategy when shopping for a new code host. It could be anyone, really-- whoever thinks they're gonna diversify today.

      You: "Then name someone."

      How about Newegg? Did they piss everyone off once in the last fifteen years? Are they going to have any trouble paying enough programmers? If the service absolutely must be ad-supported, will the ads be that bad? I think not.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: poll choices poor

      > I would rather see redhat or Canonical pick up github.

      Please not Canonical. They're untrustworthy w**k*rs.

      On the other hand, if it's a choice of Canonical or MS, Canonical so far isn't as bad.

    4. JohnFen

      Re: poll choices poor

      "I would rather see redhat or Canonical pick up github."

      Canonical, maybe. Red Hat wouldn't really be an improvement over Microsoft.

  16. Tkb608

    Thanks for the heads up

    I'll start migrating to GitLab today.

  17. Wade Burchette

    It is the same old story ...

    Big company buys smaller company. Big company replaces all the employees who made smaller company with their own personnel. The products of smaller company quickly become garbage because the big company's personnel have no personal investment in the smaller company's products and ideas and so do not truly appreciate its value.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: It is the same old story ...

      I'd argue they do appreciate its value - to us as opposed to them - which is why they will trash it.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And Google is just as bad

    at slurping so I had to shake my head in disbelief at all those who voted for Google.

    Google is not the friendly "do no Evil" thing it once was.

    Oh, and MS probably has all the publicly available GitHub repos already copied so taking your ball and going to play somewhere else won't work. A bit late in the day.

    I voted for IBM as they seem to be less inclined to screw us up these days.

    1. Tomato42

      Re: And Google is just as bad

      exactly, when I read the comments I have flashbacks to early 2000's

      Microsoft is now much more pro-OSS than Google is – Microsoft is open sourcing stuff while Google is close-sourcing stuff that was OSS (like parts of Android)

      and while IBM likely wouldn't screw users up, they are not a user-centric services company, so GitHub wouldn't really fit with them...

      1. DrBed
        Linux

        Re: And Google is just as bad (as MS)... NOT!

        Wait, stop here.

        "Google Summer of Code is a global program focused on bringing more student developers into open source software development". Since 2005.

        Since this year, all new Chrome OS machines could run native Linux apps (chromebooks, chromeboxes, tablets), natively. By Google will.

        Chromium OS is still here, as open source. Supported by Google.

        Google Code died, but it was a good try in right direction.

        ...

        I should stop here; find equivalents at Redmond. "All-In-One Code", "code share", "live share"? ReactOS?

        ReactOS - name of the project speaks for itself: it is reaction to the closed proprietary spaghetti code product. It is not related (or promoted) from Redmond, just the opposite.

        Google is parasite to the open source community, no doubt. As e.g. Canonical is, just much more successful! BUT: parasite could be a part of functional ecosystem, even with slurping stuff for it's own goods, as long as it allow (or support) other part of the system to exist. Btw, Google wanted to join in partnership with Nokia (and give Android + support for free), Maemo Linux was interesting project to Google... just Nokians were too greedy. Maemo/Sailfish runs Android apps at similar way as Chrome OS does today.

        Actually, with Google, indy devs (e.g. for Linux) could become more self-sustain, by linking commercial versions of their open source stuff through Google Store, to Chromebooks etc.

        We don't have to be neo-luddites, corporations are here to stay, unfortunately. Chocolate factory is significantly lesser evil IMHO.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And Google is just as bad

        "Microsoft is now much more pro-OSS than Google is..."

        Um, exFAT? DirectX? Not that Google is much better these days.

      3. JohnFen

        Re: And Google is just as bad

        "Microsoft is now much more pro-OSS than Google is"

        You'll have to explain this, I'm afraid, as it's not obvious.

        Not that I'm defending Google -- Microsoft and Google are both powerfully terrible.

    2. TVU Silver badge

      Re: And Google is just as bad

      "I voted for IBM as they seem to be less inclined to screw us up these days"

      If Sun Microsystems had still been around today as an independent entity then I'd have voted for them as the least worst option.

      1. Dave559 Silver badge

        Re: And Google is just as bad

        Ah, I remember the days when every ftp site worth using (OK, Aminet mirrors), had 'sunsite' in the hostname…

    3. ROC

      Re: And Google is just as bad

      IBM has not ceased screwing us up for decades. Just search for articles (and a book) by Robert X Cringely (aka Mark Stephens) over the last 11 years or so. As he wrote in his latest annual predictions column (fun stuff: https://www.cringely.com/2018/02/23/predictions-8-10-apple-ibm-zuckerber/ ):

      "A recently-departed IBM sales guy told me the other day “you know they really hate you.” And it’s true. They hate me for my eleven years of reporting bad executive decisions and poor planning ever since I discovered in a hotel bar in Rochester, MN back in 2007 that IBM employees hated their company. I’ve probably cost IBM millions over that period but IBM management cost the company tens of billions over the same time. Hating must be easier than actually listening. "

      In fact 2007 is when I was included with the thousands of IBM employees laid off that started Cringely on that crusade (actually, after 6.5 years, my feeling was "Free at last!"). Many of us were tageted for being over 50, having participated in a US labor law overtime violation settlement, and/or being paid more than non-US workers with the same nominal job skills/functions (Oracle Applications Server web admin in my case - replaced by Brazilian WebLogic admins, and the client, fed up with incompetence and "communications problems", demanded the support be brought back to the US 2 years later, which was taken on by a guy I mentored - I was happy where I landed, and retired from there 3 years ago with a layoff package to boot ;-} ).

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't someone tell Microsoft to fork off?

  20. jMcPhee

    Clippy says

    It looks like you're writing some source code. Would you like some help with that?

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Clippy says

      "It looks like you're writing some source code"

      AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

      /me FACE-WALLS until the wall breaks

      brain bleach. PLEASE!!!

  21. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Numbers don't make sense

    "It says it has built up an annual run rate of more than $200m in subscriptions.

    GitHub is said to carry at least a $5bn price tag after it was last valued at $2bn during its latest funding round in 2015."

    Valued at $2bn, asking price is $5bn and annual income is around £200m. So not only is ROI, even at 0% interest going to be around 25 years, that doesn't even take into account the numbers of people who will leave if MS buys it. New customers moving to a possible MS GitHub are likely to be much lower numbers than those leaving IMHO

  22. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. TVU Silver badge

      "I hope Microsoft buy Github, and all your worst nightmares come true.

      Signed,

      A BitBucket user"

      Surprise! Your wish is apparently coming true and Bloomberg's reporting that a deal's been done, possibly to be announced on Monday.

      Frankly, I'm saddened that the GitHub executives sold out to Microsoft when they could have gone for an initial public share offering instead. While their wallets might be much fatter now, their consciences will be much diminished.

      The only mild consolation is that it could have been even worse with Oracle taking over GitHub instead.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anything Microsoft touches inevitably turns to turd. No exceptions.

    If it comes to pass... RIP Github. It was nice knowing you. Especially after you had taken in refugees from Sourceforge.

  24. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Put "eee" and "git" together and waddayaget?

    eeegit.

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=egit

  25. JLV

    F*ck, I hope not.

    I really struggle to understand what MS wants to achieve from this.

    Gonna be hard to really monetize. GitHub is all about developer mindshare, but developers will essentially fall into two camps - those who don't care that MS owns Github. And those who passionately will hate it and will not forgive. I assume the first camp will be the majority, but by definition they won't care much for MS's association, so not much is achieved there.

    If big enough, the second camp risks this being the kiss of death. Certainly, hipness and street cred go out the window when geriatric MS is involved in this type of stuff.

    The, much smaller, 3rd group, those who actively will welcome MS involvement, are already drinking the MS KoolAid, so why bother?

    MS is at its hippest when it just _uses_ GitHub. That's a show of openness and hipness from them, rather than the dreaded Embrace, Extend, Extinguish some commentards love to accuse them of (as if they have had much luck dominating any new markets lately)

    But, hey, if MS had $26B to burn on LinkedIn - which had the same questions about it - why not? It's not like they have anything useful to do with their money, like making their OS more reliable and secure or having a credible mobile OS for the next 20-30 years. Or just returning it to shareholders, rather than burning it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: F*ck, I hope not.

      Just a wild guess, but I bet that when this part in Github's history is eventually written it will turn out that it was Github who initiated the discussion.

  26. Black Road Dude

    Fork off!!!

    If this did happen I'd fork all my repos to a new host and delete my account. M$ is a disease we all need to avoid. You can't buy a reputation back. No matter how much you fake it. A lying cheating scumbag company like M$ will never change.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Better Get Deleting, Its Official Now:

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

      1. JohnFen

        Re: Better Get Deleting, Its Official Now:

        Seems like a speculative article, although I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. I'm ready to delete my Github repos. It's just a click away!

  27. blueyon

    No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No!

  28. tmerchant

    They don't want it for the money

    Clearly Microsoft wants to be able to delete all of its source code leaks as soon as they are uploaded.

  29. TVU Silver badge

    Ideally, I would want GitHub to remain completely independent of any of the existing large and flawed corporations because they each have their own agendas and they are not necessarily benign.

    If they do go public with an IPO then I'd much prefer to see multiple shareholders so that no one shareholder can obtain undue influence.

    1. Multivac

      So I guess Gitlab is where you want to be, they are planning an IPO on 18th November 2020 and migration from Github to Gitlab is easy.

  30. karlkarl Silver badge

    If Microsoft wants developers to love it again...

    Get rid of the ridiculous DRM for the operating system itself.

    Get rid of the ridiculous DRM for the developer licenses to publish software on the store.

    Give developers back ownership of their things developer with their own time and effort.

    Creators do not like to "rent"!

    You bunch of fsck(8)ers!

  31. mylittlepwny

    ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP!!!

    ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP!!!

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is the world we live in

    Not every startup is based on vaporware. A few, like Github, combine a good idea with better execution and wind up delivering something of actual value to consumers. So now Github is a unicorn, and its time for the smart money that invested in it to cash out. That's the world we live in folks. But let's keep things in perspective. First, as others here have pointed out, there's an Internet full of alternatives if the worst happens. It may be inconvenient to move to another service, but by its very nature, git was made for that. Besides, given that almost half the people in the US don't have the wherewithal to manage a $1,000 emergency, I'm wondering if it's worth getting worked up over.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Codeplex

    "Others wonder where Microsoft's CodePlex will fit in alongside GitHub."

    I thought Codeplex had already been retired and archived with all active projects moved to GitHub.

  34. Zippy's Sausage Factory
    Devil

    Quick, everyone back to SourceForge!

  35. WibbleMe

    Viable Alternatives...

    GitLab

    AWS CodeCommit

    Cloud Source by Google

    Pick one and shut up

  36. JohnFen

    If Microsoft buys Github

    I'd have to stop using Github.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If Microsoft buys Github

      Why? You think they'll steal your code or something?

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ahhhh. The sound of penguins throwing their toys out of the buggy

    You think Microsoft didn't know this would happen?

    A nice clean purge of all the mad zeaolots, and you're doing it all for them.

    How nice of you.

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