Confirmed! Microsoft Has Bought GitHub for $7.5 Billion | It's FOSS

[Charlie]

I'm against this deal. I don't like a corporate giant jumping into our open source community and exerting its influence with money. We of the free and open source software community need to be alarmed by this and if any of you have code on github, I'd suggest you put it somewhere else. Linux is about being open source and FREE and I don't want anything to do with Microsoft. Microsoft, as you all know, is all about the money and their proprietary software that's weak and virus/malware prone. Their closed environment philosophy is against what we stand for. Mark my word, Microsoft WILL try to cash in on our hard work and make it all about profit and take all the code internal and eschew open source philosophies. If they don't, I'll eat my words. 

Charlie Luna IRCID: hangar18

https://itsfoss.com/microsoft-github/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=microsoft_buys_github_kernel_417_and_linux_lite_40_released&utm_term=2018-06-07

It’s Official! Microsoft Has Bought GitHub for $7.5 Billion
Last updated June 4, 2018 By Abhishek Prakash 28 Comments
Earlier a Business Insider report suggested that GitHub is seriously considering a $5 billion buyout from Microsoft. Bloomberg later confirmed that the deal has been finalized and Microsoft is buying GitHub. And Microsoft has now officially announced that it has bought GitHub for $7.5 billion.

In case you didn’t know, GitHub is the largest software developer’s community with more than 23 million individual developers from over a million organizations worldwide. A huge number of open source projects use GitHub for development and for hosting their source code. Though GitHub is famous for open source projects, it is a private limited company.

Top GitHub Alternatives to Host Your Open Source Project
Not the first time Microsoft tries to buy GitHub



This is not the first time that Microsoft attempts to buy GitHub. Back in 2016 when GitHub was raising the second round of fundings, Microsoft saw an opportunity for itself. GitHub denied the ‘rumors’ and Microsoft declined to comment on it.

Two years later, Microsoft has been successful in its attempt.

GitHub complements LinkedIn

Microsoft bought job-oriented professional social network LinkedIn for a massive $26 billion in 2015. This was one of biggest tech deals ever. And this huge investment in LinkedIn has already started to pay off for Microsoft.

LinkedIn and GitHub complement each other. LinkedIn is the biggest social network for professionals where job aspirants and employers hangout. GitHub is the platform where developers can show off their work. Lately, GitHub has been playing a crucial part in job hunting for software developers.


With GitHub in its kitty, Microsoft will surely use it in expanding and strengthening LinkedIn.

Embrace, extend and extinguish: The evil philosophy of Microsoft in play again?

If I have to look at this Microsoft GitHub deal from the negative aspect, I’ll recall the ‘Embrace, extend and extinguish’ strategy of Microsoft.

Two decades back, US Department of Justice found Microsoft’s ‘secret philosophy’ of Embrace, Extend and Extinguish. More than 20 years later, Microsoft seems to continue following the same strategy.

GitHub was the favorite place for open source developers to host their open source projects.

Then Microsoft entered the screen screaming “Microsoft loves Open Source“. [Embrace]

Microsoft used its army of developers to create or contribute to a number of open source projects and thus Microsoft became one of the top contributors on GitHub. [Extend]

And now Microsoft has bought GitHub. [Extinguish?]

Of course, this is a mere speculation and only time will tell if Microsoft is going to bury GitHub or not.

What does it mean to you and open source projects?

Microsoft is a name that almost always creates heated arguments in open source communities. Microsoft buying something that is so closely related to open source is certainly going to see plenty of backlashes.

I can prophesy that some projects will move to GitHub alternative platforms like GitLab or SourceForge. Most organizations and developers will stay with GitHub at least for some time.


What do you think of Microsoft and GitHub deal? As Microsoft buys GitHub, will you continue using it? What difference will this acquisition make for you?



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