Github about to be Miscrosofted?

[GoodBytes]

40 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I wonder why. Forcefully inject data collection into open source projects maybe?

And before someone calls me paranoid for suggesting that, please remember that Microsoft deserves NO BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT WHATSOEVER.

They have already been caught injecting data collection into projects compiled with Visual Studio, so I wouldn't put it past them.

Why would Microsoft even remotely cares about other people code? As mentioned by Microsoft Visual Studio team, it is to measure performance.

 

In the post you mentioned:

Quote

our desire was to build a framework that will help investigate performance problems and improve the quality of our optimizer should we get any reports of slowdowns or endemic perf problems in the field.

We apologize for raising the suspicion levels even further by not including the CRT source, this was just an oversight on our part. Despite that, some of you already investigated how this mechanism works in nice detail. As you have already called out, what the code does is trigger an ETW event which, when it’s turned on, will emit timestamps and module loads events. The event data can only be interpreted if a customer gives us symbol information (i.e. PDBs) so this data is only applicable to customers that are actively seeking help from us and are willing to share these PDBs as part of their investigation.

And, of course you need the PDB files (meaning you need to hit Debug mode, compile, and then send them with the executable). It will take more time for Microsoft to setup a team and figure out someones code through memory analysis without the PDB files  to steal code, than to design the project themselves.

 

[jagdtigger]

2 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

As mentioned by Microsoft Visual Studio team, it is to measure performance.

Then why it was done in secret and opt-out only on a per project basis without global opt-out? Sorry but the whole farce stinks....

[Sniperfox47]

5 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

Android modified the Linux Kernel but it was initially based on it.

 

4 hours ago, mr moose said:

Chrome OS too yes?

They both just use the Linux kernel itself. ChromeOS is just a normal Linux kernel. Android had some modifications (namely the addition of wakelocks) but it was still Linux. And it's now had all it's modifications mainlined back into the kernel so Android can use a mainline kernel.

 

Zircon is the first new kernel I've seen intended for consumer devices in a *loooooooooooooong* time. What was the last one? GNU HERD? Kernel development is incredibly hard, especially if you want to make something competitive with the players who have had *decades* of development and optimizations.

[Delicieuxz]

Quote

Why would Microsoft even remotely cares about other people code?

Obviously, for the access to collecting personal user data via telemetry that it might give Microsoft, so that Microsoft can collect that personal user data and sell it for profit - as is a pillar of Microsoft's business model.

 

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

Why would Microsoft even remotely cares about other people code? As mentioned by Microsoft Visual Studio team, it is to measure performance.

But Microsoft likes to measure "performance" (which can mean a wide variety of things) via telemetry / data-collection. And there is all sorts of "performance" that MS could measure by injecting telemetry into Github projects.

 

If there is a way to dual-purpose that "performance" monitoring for monetization, then MS will be doing so, but will still only say to the public that they're monitoring stuff for "performance".

 

Before the Visual Studio team gave their quoted comment, as in all PR matters, it is likely that the given response was prepared or reviewed by MS' legal and marketing teams to make sure it says all the right things to protect Microsoft's business while assuaging the concerned public and aiming to get MS out of a potential PR disaster. If Microsoft had more sinister intentions, they would likely still release a statement just like the one they did. And history shows that Microsoft is a repeat, habitual, and pathological liar whose voice only says whatever MS expects will benefit its business, completely regardless of whatever the truth is.

[Syntaxvgm]

11 hours ago, mr moose said:

Because we actually know very little about the details of most of those patent deals.  I find it a little hard to believe that companies as big as amazon are blindly paying patent licenses to MS for software they should know is free or currently under GPL.  Many of these patents stem back to MS purchase of Novell and while some of that i believe was under gpl and has to remain under GPL, that does not mean there was other stuff that doesn't. 

 

To put all this into perspective of my comments above,  MS have been doing this for quite sometime which indicates they are interested in getting in on the cash that linux produces (along with other FOSS), rather than trying to stamp it out as a threat.  I think MS worked out a while back that competition can increase your revenue stream if you engage with it beyond an enemy. There is a reason they put office on ipad, bought shares in apple and wrote a lot of the software for mac.    Apple is not going anywhere anytime soon and are not going to get caught out with EEE shenanigans from MS.  The entire FOSS community like wise will not fall victim to it either.

this is true, but I feel like foss is easier to target via this stuff than a normal competitor as with another large company they would deal with much better funded legal challenges. I also believe open source solutions are a much larger threat to MS than any other competition, especially for the enterprise setting. 

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, Sniperfox47 said:

 

They both just use the Linux kernel itself. ChromeOS is just a normal Linux kernel. Android had some modifications (namely the addition of wakelocks) but it was still Linux. And it's now had all it's modifications mainlined back into the kernel so Android can use a mainline kernel.

 

Conceded: I am not about to get into technicalities.

 

Quote

Zircon is the first new kernel I've seen intended for consumer devices in a *loooooooooooooong* time. What was the last one? GNU HERD? Kernel development is incredibly hard, especially if you want to make something competitive with the players who have had *decades* of development and optimizations.

 

Well I am not saying it's easy or that it doesn't takes a long time. My point is that at one point it might become necessary for a company or groups of companies to create their own: It's a competitive disadvantage to rely on Microsoft or another private company and I submit that the only reason Linux has been successful is because of the cooperation from many companies with vested interest in it's development.

 

But this companies have to know that depending on a cooky Finnish guy who routinely likes to tell big companies to "fuck off" is not a good idea long term. So at one point either Torvalds won't be involved on the development or quite a bit of the support will be on something else, whatever that might be, however difficult it might be to get off the ground.

[AlexGoesHigh]

Oh boy it looks they actually did buy Github

 www.theverge.com/2018/6/3/17422752/microsoft-github-acquisition-rumors

 

Beside people jumping ship simply because of MS owning Github, I wonder if Amazon, Google, and others are going to still use the service since its owned by a main rival now.

[mr moose]

4 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

this is true, but I feel like foss is easier to target via this stuff than a normal competitor as with another large company they would deal with much better funded legal challenges. I also believe open source solutions are a much larger threat to MS than any other competition, especially for the enterprise setting. 

What remains to be seen here is if MS actually consider FOSS to be competition or whether it is now a revenue stream.   unless I have missed something rather important to this situation, I can't see why microsoft would think they can control FOSS.  It's a very large and flexible community. Take down/change githuhb and they just move to another service. 

 

 

1 hour ago, AlexGoesHigh said:

Oh boy it looks they actually did buy Github

 www.theverge.com/2018/6/3/17422752/microsoft-github-acquisition-rumors

 

Beside people jumping ship simply because of MS owning Github, I wonder if Amazon, Google, and others are going to still use the service since its owned by a main rival now.

Amazon and google (along with samsung and fuji-xerox) already pay patent fees to MS based on tech surrounding Linux distros inside hardware products. Amdocs too I believe.  I don't think MS having any control of github is likely to change things too much.

 

EDIT: the other interesting thing to this discussion is that people seem to be hell bent on assuming there is some sort of absolute causality here that cannot be anything but evil.  If that was the case then every acquisition form MS since 1987 would have landed with the same result.  Given that rarely happens and that most of MS evil programs don't actually require the acquisition of a company it's more likely that they are just building up their arsenal for what they think the future is bringing.

[Lent]

 

Quote

Microsoft has reportedly acquired GitHub, and could announce the deal as early as Monday. Bloomberg reports that the software giant has agreed to acquire GitHub, and that the company chose Microsoft partly because of CEO Satya Nadella. Business Insider first reported that Microsoft had been in talks with GitHub recently.

 

Quote

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire GitHub Inc., the code repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft, the software tech giant, has reportedly acquired GitHub, the popular git repository hosting web service. With a long standing relationship, with over 1,800 open GitHub repository including vscode, roslyn, and ASP.Net core, Microsoft has had a history with trying to acquire GitHub back in 2015 when it was valued at $2 billion. Figures have not been released for how much Microsoft has agreed to acquire GitHub for but it is believed that statements will be coming out on Monday. GitHub has reportedly stated they prefer the acquisition rather than going public, following their search for a new CEO since losing Chris Wanstrath, one of the co-founders of GitHub. Microsoft has been known to buy other software companies in the business sector such as Skype and LinkedIn, and a few gaming companies such as Mojang and Playfab. Microsoft original had their own code repository hosting web service called CodePlex which went into read only mode October of 2017 and shutdown December of 2017. Microsoft previously also had made their own version control called TFVS which they later scrapped for Git and later on heavily modified Git to make GVFS to handle "Enterprise" sized Git repositories such as Windows which is reported to contain over 3.5M files and sees over 8,000 pushes per day. Though we've seen pit falls from Microsoft before regarding software such as Skype, we've also see some new amazing software such as .Net Core, ASP.NET core, and GVFS. 


https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/3/17422752/microsoft-github-acquisition-rumors
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-03/microsoft-is-said-to-have-agreed-to-acquire-coding-site-github
https://about.gitlab.com/2018/06/03/microsoft-acquires-github/

[DrMacintosh]

I don't use GitHub.....was it good? Am I supposed to hate Microsoft for this? 

 

gets pitchfork ready?* 

[Skiiwee29]

This has already been reported.

 

 

[Lent]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

I don't use Github.....was it good? Am I supposed to hate Microsoft for this? 

 

gets pitchfork ready?* 

I personally don't mind Microsoft owning GitHub. GitHub is pretty good, but there are tons of other solutions out there such as GitLab and BitBucket for hosting your code repositories. Microsoft uses GitHub quite extensively so they probably just decided to buy it since they've been making so many contributions to it. Microsoft has also been making a huge shift from closed source software to open source software, so most of the code repositories they do host on GitHub are open source. The community can make contributions to these projects too, such as to ASP.NET core or vscode which is really cool in my opinion.

[Lent]

5 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

This has already been reported.

 

 

I know, but I felt the original post was a bit lack luster and was also before Microsoft actually agreed to the acquisition. It seems now to be a thing that will be happening from other news sources I've read. I will update this post on Monday if GitHub comes out with a statement.

Edit: By lack luster, I mean too opinionated.

[Skiiwee29]

3 minutes ago, Lent said:

I know, but I felt the original post was a bit lack luster and was also before Microsoft actually agreed to the acquisition. It seems now to be a thing that will be happening from other news sources I've read. I will update this post on Monday if GitHub comes out with a statement.

Edit: By lack luster, I mean too opinionated.

well thats how the rules for this stuff works... You have to give a personal opinion on the subject matter too. Here are the rules in case you overlooked them.

 

 

[Lent]

2 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

well thats how the rules for this stuff works... You have to give a personal opinion on the subject matter too. Here are the rules in case you overlooked them.

 

 

Okay, I see. So just for future reference, rumors vs announcements should be seen as the same topic? I was thinking of posting this tomorrow when GitHub came out with a statement.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

I don't use GitHub.....was it good? Am I supposed to hate Microsoft for this? 

 

gets pitchfork ready?* 

It's pretty much the most popular Git-repository for developers. 

 

Watch them rename it to like... Git 365 or GitHub 365

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, DrMacintosh said:

I don't use GitHub.....was it good? Am I supposed to hate Microsoft for this? 

 

gets pitchfork ready?* 

I have torches here for sale too. Can't be an angry mob without torches.

[ItsMitch]

Welp, won't be using Github anymore. Microsoft got a history of turning stuff into hot shit. 

[Sniperfox47]

1 minute ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

It's pretty much the most popular Git-repository for developers. 

 

Watch them rename it to like... Git 365 or GitHub 365

And watch huge swaths of the FLOSS community jump ship to some other repo.

 

Unrelated. I remember when it was just OSS. And then FOSS. And now FLOSS. I expect in 10 years we'll have LOLFLOSSBBQ

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, Sniperfox47 said:

And watch huge swaths of the FLOSS community jump ship to some other repo.

 

Unrelated. I remember when it was just OSS. And then FOSS. And now FLOSS. I expect in 10 years we'll have LOLFLOSSBBQ

Probably all flock to GitLab. 

[Sniperfox47]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Probably all flock to GitLab. 

Nah they'll embrace the wonderous terror of the libre community and fragment to like 6 different services and spin off 8 or 9 totally new ones that offer no real benefits over existing options

[ItsMitch]

6 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Probably all flock to GitLab. 

 

Process has begun. 

[Arika]

1 hour ago, Lent said:

Microsoft, the software tech giant

does anyone ever see "Microsoft" and confuse it with another company?

 

13 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

It's pretty much the most popular Git-repository for developers. 

i see a lot of people using "git" like it's a well known term. whats the difference between GitLab and GitHub and what is Git?

[themaniac]

13 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

 

 

i see a lot of people using "git" like it's a well known term. whats the difference between GitLab and GitHub and what is Git?

git in both of them come from the term git gud from the ancient language called gamer speak, so GitLab is a laboratory full of git guders and GitHub is a hub full of git guders.
 

 

 

 

This just in my imaginary lawer has told me that I must disclose this, what I just said is completely made up from my own brain and I have no idea what the actual difference is 

[Sniperfox47]

19 minutes ago, Sierra Fox said:

does anyone ever see "Microsoft" and confuse it with another company?

 

i see a lot of people using "git" like it's a well known term. whats the difference between GitLab and GitHub and what is Git?

Git is a software tool made by Linus Torvalds (the guy who made the Linux kernel) that takes software source code and uploads it to a repositiory (like GitHub, GitLab or one you've set up inside your own company) and then allows other developers to download a copy and work on it too.

 

The repository can then keep track of versioning for your software, manage commits from different users, and make sure that code changes submitted don't conflict with each other.

 

GitHub is just the post popular of these repos that's freely open for public use.