
Hello, GitHub - rafaelc
https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/
======
dang
Since this is the newest big thread, it can take the front-page slot for now.
The big previous discussions are:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17221527](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17221527)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17227286](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17227286)

------
ericabiz
I’m going to be a bit contrarian to “the sky is falling” posts on HN and say:
I think Microsoft is handling this really well.

1) They’ve acknowledged the skepticism around the acquisition.

2) They’ve expressed their commitment to keep GitHub an independent platform
(like they did with LinkedIn.)

3) Nat Friedman, although I was not familiar with him prior to this, seems
like an ideal candidate to run GitHub.

This, overall, is giving me a more positive impression of Microsoft. Now what
remains to be seen: Will they follow through on these commitments? Will they
continue to listen to the community?

~~~
Klathmon
I agree, my biggest concerns are:

1\. What is happening to Atom? I have tried VS code and don't really like it
due to the difference in how the 2 systems are designed to work (Atom being
more "plugins are king", VSCode being more "kitchen sink included by first-
party"). I'd hate to see my favorite editor lose it's major backing. If MS
makes a commitment to continue to develop Atom, or they work with someone else
to "transfer" development over to them in a way that's not half-assed, it
would go a LONG way toward solidifying the trust they are trying to build (at
least to me).

2\. How will other companies who are hosting on GitHub _react_ to this? Will
Facebook/Google/Apple start pulling their code from GitHub? Will we go back to
having to learn how to contribute to each project individually?

There's definitely major benefits for diversity in this area (meaning not
having the vast majority of projects on one platform), but I'm hoping we (as
developers in whole) don't throw the baby out with the bathwater here.

GitHub has by most accounts helped bring in a renaissance of open source
software. It's never been easier to contribute to FOSS at any level, and I'm
hoping we don't lose that as everyone diversifies where they host their source
code...

~~~
adrianmalacoda
Fellow Atom user here. According to Lee Dohm, Open Source Community Manager at
GitHub, "Atom remains key to GitHub. Our product roadmap is set, and the team
will continue all of their work." [0]

[0]
[https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/17454#issuecomment-39442...](https://github.com/atom/atom/issues/17454#issuecomment-394421141)

~~~
hinkley
In a buyout, always be sensitive to situations where promises of status quo
come from someone who is not in control of the situation.

Quite common for new owners to let old employees make promises they can’t keep
and then make them disappear and change plans.

~~~
Lordarminius
This.

Not saying that Microsoft has a plan to 'embrace extend extinguish', but if
they did, this is how they would go about it.

------
bad_user
So I’m kind of depressed about this. I loved GitHub enough that I paid for a
subscription without needing it and have all of my public work on it and my
investment in OSS is quite significant.

People saying that it is easy to migrate don’t know what they are talking
about. GitHub isn’t just Git hosting, but a social network of open source
developers and projects. You can’t migrate stars, issues with comments and the
history of PRs, all linked to the profiles of their authors.

And sure you can self-host GitLab, I pushed for it at my previous employer and
works great for on premises deployments, but it’s not the same for OSS if the
community you care about isn’t there.

That said I am glad to see Nat Friedman as the new CEO. This gives me some
hope for its future.

~~~
sarreph
You make a good point about the _just-move-to-Git[whatever]_ being the
entrenched social aspect of many repos! I can't imagine if, say the day comes
when developers flee GH en-masse, it will be at all easy to retain the
discussion history behind repos.

~~~
pmontra
There is an API
[https://developer.github.com/v3/issues/](https://developer.github.com/v3/issues/)

It could be not trivial to map those data into the new destination, especially
if they don't have an API too.

This is how to programmatically create a new issue on GitLab
[https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/api/issues.html#new-
issue](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/api/issues.html#new-issue) and in Bitbucket
[https://developer.atlassian.com/bitbucket/api/2/reference/re...](https://developer.atlassian.com/bitbucket/api/2/reference/resource/repositories/%7Busername%7D/%7Brepo_slug%7D/issues#post)

~~~
JetSpiegel
Gitlab already support this, no need to go with home grown bit banging.

[https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/import/github.html](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/import/github.html)

------
mindcrash
I have been familiar with Miguel's work since the good old GNOME and Mono days
(pre-Microsoft and even pre-Xamarin) and familiar with Miguel and Nat's work
since the Xamarin and Microsoft days and I really must say that GitHub could
have got somebody far far worse on the executive level than Nat (and ScottGu
above him, ofcourse, due to the same kind of personality).

Nat can be best described as a OSS geek gone CEO, and thus I can't imagine a
better executive within Microsoft to lead GitHub besides him. In fact, when I
heard the first rumors and Chris not wanting to run operations anymore I
immediately thought of Nat to run GitHub when Microsoft was crazy enough to
buy it.

Seems I was right :)

------
nicodjimenez
What nobody is really commenting on is how huge of an opportunity this is for
Microsoft to reinvent itself in the eyes of the developer community.

If Microsoft can somehow manage to gain trust from Github users, which is very
possible and desirable for them, it will make Azure more compelling in many
ways than Amazon as a cloud computing platform.

After Amazon's acquisition of Cloud9, Microsoft is the first big company to
try something really bold and inventive in cloud computing. Github can
prioritize making code deploy to all clouds AND make it especially appealing
for customers to choose Azure, as there will exist amazing opportunities for
end to end product optimizations here. Seems really smart for me, and given
that Microsoft is really hell bent on changing people's negative opinions
about them, they have all the right incentives to make Github even more
awesome than it already is.

~~~
oaiey
The Microsoft bashing is painful. I also wonder about outcomes like that,
positive ones for Microsoft, GitHub the platform and GitHub the community.

So much negativity!

~~~
fs111
The negativity comes from MS being MS. Many here have seen what they did in
the past and what they do to this day. They have lobbied so hard in Munich
that they are going to abandon Linux and go back to Windows. Great open source
love all around!

Also, as long as Windows, Office and Azure are closed, I cannot take all this
"we love Open Source" stuff seriously. It is a big tech-marketing and
recruiting vehicle, but nothing more. I am not saying, they should open those,
I am saying that they are not an OS company and therefore should stop
pretending.

~~~
oaiey
Their sales is doing what sales does: try to find a method to sell licenses.
That has nothing to do with company philosophy but the percentage the sales
person get. That is capitalism but nothing special to Microsoft.

And Limux was a troubled child anyway (users, it organization and political
leadership all along).

I would have loved Limux to succeed, but unfortunately it did not.

------
glorbol
While Microsoft has a lot of nice marketing and really good PR, they are still
a corporation that makes money off selling SQL server licenses and office
suite and increasingly by harvesting your user data.

Microsoft is addicted to your data. They siphon it off whenever they get the
chance, often times by default and without your knowledge or consent. Even
their cli Linux tools have """analytics""".

This will never change, no matter what slick marketing materials they produce,
what PR fluff they have, or shills that shill for them.

The simple fact is I cannot trust Microsoft, especially to not touch code in
my private repositories. I am sure they just want some "metrics" and to do
some "analytics" on all the private data held in GitHub.

To use GitHub now, is to trust the same company who works hand in hand with
the government and the NSA to make sure you stay insecure and known to
agencies who just want to run some "metrics" and do some "analytics" on you.

No thanks.

~~~
foolfoolz
just a friendly reminder most cli tools you use today that run primarily
against a cloud service publish analytics explicitly or implicitly.

you can’t trust MS to not read your code? do you trust amazon to host your
binaries? or database? or google cloud? or do you trust no one and rent your
own cage and keep it locked?

aws has an entire cloud for US gvoice. they work hand in hand with government
requests. google is very tightly coupled as well. do you host entirely on
foreign providers?

------
bgongfu
I'm split on this one.

I lived through Microsoft's dark ages, when the victory of open source was
still hanging by a thread. The reason we're seeing a softer Microsoft is that
they lost, they were forced to change. And the open question is what they
learned in the process.

On the other hand, they're producing pretty decent software these days; dotNet
Core, TypeScript & VSCode just to name a few solid projects. Open source, no
less; imagine that back when monkey boy was running the show, literally.

But then I keep hearing about shady Linux licensing deals and endless privacy
intrusions over in Windows land.

Tricky indeed, I think I'm going to leave my code in there for now and give
them a chance to redeem themselves.

~~~
mkirklions
>I think I'm going to leave my code in there for now and give them a chance to
redeem themselves.

Why would you do that?

I mean, at least import the code to other repos

~~~
kristiandupont
Do you think they are going to just delete it?

------
freedomben
I recognize this isn't an opinion that will resonate with many, but I find it
offensive that Github praises and benefits so much from open source, yet is
not open source itself. This has bothered me for many years.

Now this post from Nat, talking about how open source literally changed his
life and made all things possible (which I agree with), bothers me even more.
How can you say such things when your actions are so completely opposite? The
hypocrisy is appalling to me.

Don't misunderstand, I _do_ think Github has done great things for open
source. However, it's time for them to either practice what they preach (open
the code) or else we need to move to gitlab of gitea or something else.

I'm actually a bit optimistic that MS might open source github in the long
run. It's a long shot, but they have really been incredible with how much they
have opened up. I'm more optimistic now with MS at the reins.

~~~
maxbrunsfeld
GitHub has helped to maintain git itself for years, in addition to creating
and open-sourcing libgit2, a massive engineering effort, which ironically,
GitLab is built on.

~~~
pritambaral
> a massive engineering effort, which ironically, GitLab is built on.

Perfectly normal use of FOSS; I'd say, not ironic. If GitHub wanted, they
could have kept the work to themselves and avoided others benefiting from it.

FOSS is like people coming together with their own bricks and building a
cathedral for everyone. There's little point in participating if you either
don't want others to pitch in or don't want others to benefit from it.

------
l5870uoo9y
> GitHub will operate independently as a community, platform, and business.

Had Github been bought by an foundation operating outside the confides of the
market, then such statement would have been believable. Microsoft will
naturally use Github maximise its wealth, thus when disagreements arise then
Microsoft will put its will through.

It is of course easy to imagine ways Github could be used by Microsoft, fore
instance mere access to valuable user data, strategic focus on integration
with Microsoft products or sigle sign on with Azure, Github, LinkedIn and
Skype.

~~~
luckydata
I work for Linkedin, MS is very respectful of our independence (sometimes in
puzzling ways).

It's kinda painful and annoying to read about all the negativity and tinfoil
hat theories but that's the price to pay (I guess) and we'll see what happens.
Microsoft has every interest in playing nice with the community and everything
to lose from trying to do anything hostile to it.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
> It's kinda painful and annoying to read about all the negativity

I can imagine. You may wish to switch employers.

> and tinfoil hat theories

Are you saying that all complaints about MS conduct are delusional?

> Microsoft has every interest in playing nice with the community and
> everything to lose from trying to do anything hostile to it.

So let's have a candid discussion about telemetry. Or sneaky Windows 10
upgrades. Or vague patent threats.

I'm sorry, but few software developers who follow Microsoft's actions will
accept you crying martyr.

~~~
luckydata
I'm saying most complaints I'm reading here have no basis in reality.
Microsoft felt negatively in the past about OSS when it felt an existential
threat from it. In the past few years the work of many inside Microsoft helped
shape a new vision of OSS inside the company and it's pretty evident to anyone
that's not trying to be blind that things have changed.

So yeah, let's talk about telemetry, or Windows updates, or patent threats.
Every business makes decisions, some good, some bad. We might not agree 100%
on which ones are which.

We're in the business of creating software and not running charities, we all
do what's in our best interest trying not to be too evil, there's plenty of
good folks and also plenty of assholes in every big co out there and all the
negativity doesn't help the good ones pushing for the right outcomes.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Hey, thanks for replying!

I'm sympathetic to your point about large organizations having a mix of
employees with different ethical standards.

In this particular case, as CEO Nadella is fully responsible for allowing the
various nasty practices I enumerated above. (I tried to only list those which
happened under his leadership.)

This is why I'm not persuaded about Microsoft's general trustworthiness by
either of the following:

(a) Outsiders referring to Nadella's leadership of MS, or

(b) Nadella himself suggesting that people judge MS by its recent behavior.

------
walterbell
Looking for answers to these questions from previous threads:

1\. If you want to develop software for Microsoft’s Linux distro/kernel (Azure
Sphere for IoT), it appears you must use Windows 10 + Visual Studio,
[https://seeedstudio.com/productDetail/3052](https://seeedstudio.com/productDetail/3052)
& [https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/developing-an-
azure-s...](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/developing-an-azure-sphere-
experience-with-visual-studio/)

 _> To use MT3620 Dev Board for Azure Sphere, you’ll need a Windows 10 PC with
the latest Windows Updates, along with the Visual Studio Tools for Azure
Sphere (which will be available for download from Microsoft). These tools will
include application templates, development tools and the Azure Sphere software
development kit (SDK). Terms: This development board can be only used for
prototyping, it cannot be built into a product for commercial distribution. It
cannot be re-sold or used as part of a production environment._

Since IoT is one of the “next big things”, it would be nice to use Microsoft
Linux ARM kernel with open hardware (no terms of service for hardware resale)
and open software (e.g. use open-source Linux dev tools with the Azure SDK.
Will this be an option?

2\. What is Microsoft’s position on EU upload filters for copyright screening
of code uploaded to Github? Has Microsoft taken a public position on this
issue? Does Microsoft currently use upload filters for open source code
screening?

[https://blog.github.com/2018-03-14-eu-proposal-upload-
filter...](https://blog.github.com/2018-03-14-eu-proposal-upload-filters-
code/)

------
hlmencken
It was a pleasure but gitlab and bitbucket have continued to improve and I've
expected some sort of exit for a while. I appreciate everything the Github
team has done, but barring some crazy improvements from Microsoft I think my
feet are firmly planted on the GitLab train.

~~~
leg100
How has gitlab "continued to improve"? They are getting worse. Do you have
statistics on their uptime or their performance? Because in my own experience,
gitlab.com is going from bad to worse. Their API increasingly returns 503s and
timeouts. Their UI is increasingly returning a stale state. One pushes a
branch and they say it doesn't exist. One does a git pull and it takes so long
one is used to going off and putting the bloody kettle on. They don't know
what they're doing. I don't have the time or inclination is to collect
demonstrative evidence, but it'll take something to say they are "continuing
to improve"!

~~~
mitochondrion
Do you not self-host?

~~~
leg100
No sir, I do not. And I'd rather not have to.

~~~
mitochondrion
I'm sometimes amazed at how afraid otherwise competent software dudes are of a
bit of sysadministration.

~~~
kondro
It's not fear. It's experience. Having to keep an extra OS and software
patched and up-to-date (often times different to the rest of your SoE because
it's different software) and keep it safe from real-world threats takes a lot
of time and context-switching to do well.

Hosting anything well takes up a lot more effort than the $100+/month we pay
to GitHub and even the $7/month I pay personally.

------
CaliforniaKarl
+1 for the outreach. They definitely lost control of the announcement, since
it got out yesterday.

The nice thing about it is, everyone who keeps their Git repo up-to-date (and
who has the transfer.fsckobjects setting set to true) has a complete copy of
the Git repo. And GitHub provides APIs to pull other stuff. I think the
hardest thing to move would be sites on GitHub Pages.

So, since I can pull out relatively easily, I'm gonna give them the benefit of
the doubt.

~~~
cma
What's missing without transfer.fsckobjects ?

~~~
bacongobbler
[https://git-scm.com/docs/git-config/1.7.9.3#git-config-fetch...](https://git-
scm.com/docs/git-config/1.7.9.3#git-config-fetchfsckObjects)

My interpretation is that transfer.fsckObjects just checks that all of the
fetched objects are properly formed and contain no broken links. I cannot
confirm whether or not this fetches any extra objects from the remote; this is
the first time I've heard about this feature.

------
amarraja
I remember watching the "screencasts" (they were gifs back in those days), of
Nat working on Beagle [1]. Sadly it's a dead project now, however, it shaped
my attitude as a developer - how can I write software that _helps_ people.

I am really excited to see what Nat and team bring to the table

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_(software)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_\(software\))

------
joshbaptiste

      C:\GITHUB> git clone https://github.com/my/repository
      Cloning into repository...
      remote: Counting objects: 57583, done.
      remote: Compressing objects: 100% (36/36), done.
      ..................
      Resolving deltas: 100% (42949/42949), done.
      Install Bing Toolbar? (Y/n):

------
cutler
There are a lot of users on here who either don't remember Microsoft's
hostility to Linux and open source or who want to bury their head in the sand.
3 words are all you need to know about Microsft - Linux patent racket:
[https://www.infoworld.com/article/3042699/open-source-
tools/...](https://www.infoworld.com/article/3042699/open-source-
tools/microsoft-loves-open-source-only-when-its-convenient.html) .

As far as I'm aware nothing has changed. A leopard never changes its spots.

------
daly
I read a lot of comments claiming that MS "used to be a bad actor" but, of
course, they now "care about developers and open source". Developers, they
say, are the very lifeblood of the new Microsoft. "We respect developers."

I work on Windows 10. It is normal for me to have many programs open while I
do development along with dozens of web pages containing information I need.
Days worth of "state" are stacked on the screen.

Every few days Microsoft reaches out and REBOOTS MY MACHINE, losing my work.
My various linux boxes all have uptimes listed in YEARS. So next time you
think Microsoft cares about your work be sure to thank them for random
reboots. After all, a Microsoft 'update' is MUCH more important than your
work. You're "just a developer".

Microsoft cares about Microsoft, not your work. Expect the same attitude to
slowly, eventually, take over Github.

You'll need a Microsoft login. You'll be hosted on its server farm, requiring
a login. You'll see Microsoft-branded forks of software, prioritized in github
searches. You'll see a "Microsoft Git GUI" as the required interface for
push/pull. The Microsoft Git will use incompatible hashing from the open
source version (it's called "embrace and extend"). Microsoft Git repository
communications (e.g. git://github.com) will only work with a Microsoft Git GUI
over a Microsoft-login connection.

~~~
codingdave
Settings -> Windows Update -> Restart Options: Off

~~~
daly
Oh, and that option is only available on the "professional" version of
Windows. We poor open source developers use the "non-professional" version
that comes with the machine and THAT won't let you turn updates off.

So again, Microsoft is a corporation dedicated to making money. My time is
only worthwhile if Microsoft can make money. So, naturally, in order to keep
them from destroying my work I have to BUT an "professional" version.

"Nice place you got here, be a shame if anything happened to it."

The belief that Microsoft will help open source is simply naive.

------
mcolyer
I'm a GitHub employee (previously a founder of Easel S12 and Flagr W06) and
work now in the Product group on the Marketplace. I'm excited to see Nat's
commitment to developers and our community. This news doesn't change our
resolve towards building a platform that allows our Ecosystem to thrive.

We launched Marketplace just over a year ago and continue to heavily invest in
it. We want it to become the place that any entrepreneur in the software space
is able able to grow their own successful business. We're just at the
beginning of that journey.

Looking forward to what's to come and to seeing more developer tools thrive on
our Marketplace.

------
Gys
Good to hear. Still, I have these memories of Facebook buying Whatsapp for too
much money and first saying it will be impossible to integrate both platforms.
Surprise, surprise, later they did find a way to integrate.

Microsoft paying 7.5B for something that looses money every year ? And not
having any problems with that ? What will the shareholders say ?

~~~
oculusthrift
the stock price just went over 100. i think the shareholders are fine

~~~
Gys
The shareholders see potential. I also think there are many ways for Microsoft
to make money from Github. But that means changes the general Github user will
not like (ads ? higher fees ? tracking ? killing atom ?). My point is that the
'Hello, Github' implies nothing will change.

------
paul7986
Microsoft destroyed Skype something I used for ten years but don’t anymore.
I.e. I forgot my password and mistakenly chose a fake birthday in my first
attempt to reset my ten year old Skype account. Well doing that triggered
authenticate your age by giving us your credit card number... what? Horrible
consumer UX it’s all about milking Skype for all it’s worth and was worth.
Facebook voice messenger works just as well and no credit card needed.

------
solutionyogi
> I’m not asking for your trust, but I’m committed to earning it.

Love this line. I had followed Xamarin when it was independent and I get a
strong feeling that Nat wrote this himself and it's not just a PR speak. I am
cautiously optimistic about GitHub going forward.

------
icc97
Anybody else think that StackOverflow would be Microsoft's next purchase?

A profitable, developer focussed business built using Microsoft stack.

I don't know how much sense it makes for Microsoft to be making money through
selling job ads, but if they're gonna take over all the tools that developers
use then SO and the SE network seems a good fit.

~~~
luckydata
I'm not sure it would make sense. While it's built on the MS stack, it's a
somewhat toxic community with no clear business value. Even as a Q&A site has
too much history and too much baggage.

------
bluenose69
The blue banner area at the top of GH pages tells me to click on a blog
posting to learn more. So I do. And then I get to a microsoft page that has as
its banner area an information box telling me that merely browsing this site
means that I _agree_ to the use of cookies for analytics, personalized content
and ads. Really, GH? Do you really want to direct your users to a page with
that warning? Were you doing the same thing to me already, without warning?
And will GH be doing similar harvesting of information?

And what about gitlab ...? Maybe they want my money more than GH does...

------
hartator
He seems very reasonable, have a better feeling about this now. Maybe GitHub
will be able to be a VSCode.

~~~
pknopf
> Maybe GitHub will be able to be a VSCode.

The question is, what will happen to Atom?

What will happen to the X-Ray research project?

~~~
thiagocsf
I don’t understand why I keep reading “what about attom”.

Atom is irrelevant to all of this, as far as I can tell. Can someone please
educate me?

~~~
pavelbr
GitHub owns and maintains Atom, and it's biggest competitor is VS Code.

------
catchmeifyoucan
+1 for Nat heading this. (

Worked at Xamarin as an intern before the MS acquisition. So not too long, but
enough to get a coffee downstairs with Nat at the coffee van. I also joined
his all-hands. Great guy who has a great attitude towards open-source and has
a positive leadership style. I was skeptical of the Xamarin acquisition, but
MS open-sourced and made the platform free for everyone. Nat knows how this MS
stuff goes, and I think he's a perfect fit to preserve the core of Github.

------
oneplane
I wonder what is in it for MS if "GitHub will operate independently as a
community, platform, and business." and "GitHub will retain its product
philosophy." stay true. Do they make money off of it? Get information (that
turns into money) out of it?

------
Aissen
I was in the room at the Paris Solutions Linux when Nat did one of the first
demos of compiz and XGL. It was a weird feeling because it started as a demo
of benign desktop features, and it slowly transitioned to the awesome window
transitions we've all come to know. Like many technological advancements, its
effect on the short term had been largely overestimated (the fancy animation,
transparent windows and cube desktop are almost forgotten), while in the long
term, it was the first of many steps in the modernizing of the Linux graphics
stack.

I have nothing relevant to add, since I don't really know Nat or how good he'd
be leading Github (but I'd guess pretty good), I just thought it was a fun
anectdote.

~~~
terwilliger
Those were some heady days in the Linux desktop world and I remember them
fondly. I remember seeing those demos and being blown away, and then furiously
trying to get it set up on my box to blow the minds of my buddies. I think we
were all trying to be first!

------
lucb1e
Right, make it about the person instead of the company. Put someone in charge
who will turn the public (just look at te top posts in this thread vs earlier
threads). Nice move, Microsoft.

People in an organization are usually not evil. It's the organization as a
whole. And I'm pretty sure that this CEO has someone and their business with
priorities in his neck. It's scary how easily it seems people here move on
after seeing a face with a good reputation and a CEO sticker even though
they'll still have to dance to another's wishes.

------
rwhitman
I'm curious if there are any unforeseen legal implications in having the
world's largest software company acquiring the private repositories of a
massive number of smaller software companies, including independent
competitors to MS.

MS now has the capability to not only snoop on smaller competitors' IP but
gain visibility into their dev team composition, work habits, pipeline etc.

This acquisition smells like something that could get litigated to hell and
back, though I'd assume they've already prepared for that

------
jumbopapa
I understand that Microsoft has handled some software they've acquired badly
(Skype), but is the Microsoft of today not vastly different from the Microsoft
of that day? I don't think this will be the downward spiral that some people
think it will be. Time will tell though.

~~~
da_chicken
My primary concern is that I worry about an inevitable merging or linking with
LinkedIn. As positive as my experience has been interacting with GitHub, it's
been equally as negative interacting with LinkedIn. I worry that MS will see
GitHub as the code management platform, and LinkedIn as the customer
management platform.

It's important to me that my GitHub account and my LinkedIn account are
allowed to be 100% separate. I don't want people able to hunt me down like
that.

~~~
justadudeama
What is so negative about LinkedIn?

~~~
dlisboa
Almost everything? Aside from keeping an updated resume I've never had a
single job come from it, nor anyone I know. As far as networking it's useless
too. It's just recruiter spam and people you never met adding you to their
network. They also did the whole MITM attack on your e-mail's contacts a few
years back.

None of that is Microsoft's fault though, it's been useless for a while.

~~~
luckydata
That's, like, your opinion man. Most of my jobs and most of my friends jobs
have come through (or discovered thanks to) Linkedin. Before becoming an
employee I used the site to find cofounders, people to interview for product
feedback, check the background of possible hires...

You don't use it or like it, fine. Linkedin has created economic opportunity
for so many, it's kinda ridiculous to dismiss it out of hand.

~~~
jacquesm
Says the guy working for Linkedin.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17232483](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17232483)

~~~
luckydata
LOL, you caught me, so cunning. Almost like I didn't say "before becoming an
employee" right in my comment.

~~~
jacquesm
Ah, I did not relate that use of the word employee to becoming an employee of
linkedin. Fair enough. Still, unadulterated hype by employers of companies
with questionable ethics doesn't hold a whole lot of weight in discussions
like these.

~~~
luckydata
If that's the reality you like to live in more power to you, but mine is not
hype, is my personal experience, stuff I lived through. Can't you accept that
someone's experience might be different than yours?

~~~
jacquesm
> That's, like, your opinion man.

:)

See, that cuts both ways.

My experience with linkedin: Countless emails suggesting that someone has
'added me on linkedin' when I never made an account, they clearly bought a
list and kept on spamming it over and over again.

A website that leaks data like a sieve, one failed attempt after another to
create a sense of community, utterly meaningless endorsements and competency
system.

On and on. I really wonder what the draw of linked in is, I would never use it
as a decision in whether or not to hire someone and I think it is one of the
worst possible experiences on the web.

And that's before we get into it now being a Microsoft subsidiary, another
major strike against it.

The sooner linkedin goes away the better, it's been ripe for disruption for
many years.

------
sixdimensional
I'm pleased that Microsoft has opened up, changed and grown so much in recent
years. Congratulations to the entire GitHub team for making such a wonderful
community and set of tools easily available, and for their successful
acquisition. It will be fascinating to see where this goes - who would have
imagined that a former heavyweight of proprietary software would achieve such
a transformation?

I must ask the question now, though - is it time for a non-profit Github-like
open source community with integrated source control / tools? Could that even
exist due to the costs of running such a thing, and is it necessary? For
example, it would be like if The Apache Foundation ran GitHub.

Or should we look into things like git over IPFS (or something similar) and
try to go decentralized?

I have wrestled with the for-profit / not-for-profit conundrum my whole life,
and I still do. Obviously, running such a utility / community costs money, so
it is good to have one or more healthy companies supporting it. It should mean
good things. But ultimately, both GitHub and Microsoft are primarily for-
profit entities (although I know they both do a tremendous amount to support
the not-for-profit space).

Perhaps Microsoft could even be the one to set up such a non-profit... like..
"The Microsoft Foundation for Open Source" or something similar. Knowing that
the organization owning and managing such a utility and community is a non-
profit - good or bad?

EDIT: ..perhaps like they have done with the .NET Foundation?

------
pheon
Am seriously pissed at this. MS has been slowly acquiring all the tools used
for my business, its like surround and siege warfare. Skype, Linkedin, now
GitHub..

The time horizons on these kinds of acquisitions are 5 years out. In that time
you`ll log into Windows 20, single sign in to Skype, Linkedin, Github all re-
branded, all re-written code, with messed up ELUA and a shitty product.

Dont believe todays fluff and BS, the end game is many years out.

------
hapnin
The concepts of "bought for $7.5 billion" and "independent" strike me as
mutually exclusive.

------
tguther
Microsoft might contribute to open source now and again, but their business
model is actually worse than it was when everyone hated them. Now Microsoft is
a surveillance machine like Google and Facebook, but they've also got
enterprise captive audiences using their telemetry packed cloud and OS.

All this good will because they developed a telemetry packed browser-based
text editor or finally started providing a not-dog-crap shell environment is
stupid. Their binary editor is licensed like Chrome, who builds VSCode from
source?

Both Google and Microsoft are doing a hell of a lot of embrace and
extinguishing and I think that pattern will continue unnoticed as long as they
keep devs happy with silly gimmicky pro-developer products.

------
ggregoire
Best of luck Nat! Hoping to see all the improvements the community has been
asking for very long. And maybe a new pricing model?

------
pow_pp_-1_v
A nice, safe introduction.

There's a lot of talk about people leaving github for other platforms. If
there are actually doing it, it seems like a short-sighted move. I understand
why people who lived through the earlier years of Microsoft are skeptical.
Microsoft did a very good job of earning a lot of ill will.

But things have changed. Microsoft's primary focus seems to be is Azure and
everything they do needs to be looked through that lens. They need developers
of all stripes using Azure. So they will do everything to attract _all_
developers. It's in their business interest.

~~~
justadudeama
Because it is the business interest to get people using Azure, how do you
think this will effect Github?

~~~
pow_pp_-1_v
I would guess that the acquisition will not affect Github in any detrimental
way. I would argue that developer good-will is a more valuable commodity to
Microsoft now than in the years past.

More happy users of Github => more happy developers using a MS product => more
developer good-will => more developers/decision-influencers that might
consider a MS cloud product (like Azure).

------
jmartrican
Maybe they can bundle free private GitHub repos with their Office360 offering.

~~~
TillE
I fully expect them to just make private repos free for everyone, a la
Bitbucket and Gitlab.

------
hjek
@: It looks like you're starting a git repository.

------
mevile
I hope GitHub doesn't change much. It works well. It does basically one thing
and they've never tried to do more than what they are. Microsoft used to have
their own code repo and they shut it down. It was mostly used for .NET
projects if I recall correctly. Microsoft to be honest has done a lot of good
lately. I love VS Code. It's the best editor I've ever used. So I'm hopeful,
but changes like this are always scary. Announcements are usually full of
promises that seem to be shortly broken.

------
jas-
Skeptical, but not without cause.

1\. Late 90's/Early 2000's, Microsoft's implementation and inclusion of
CDRW/DVDRW functionality native to the OS eliminating competition from smaller
companies that had pioneered the technology and was selling their software to
Windows desktop users.

2\. Late 90's/Early 2000's, Microsoft's implementation and development of
Active Directory which not only rivaled Novell's Netware flagship product but
also went against RFC's put forth by the larger community that rivaled
OpenLDAP. Because of the desktop shares and users already on the Windows NT
platform put thousands out of work and nearly put Novell out of business.

3\. Early to mid 2000's, Microsoft moves away from already found vulnerable
MSCHAP, MSCHAPV2 authentication protocols in favor of the MIT Kerberos
protocol for all network authentication of users and systems in Active
Directory.

Not only did this put those companies out to pasture and eliminate a large
amount of revenue but the idea of stealing and idea is very bad tact. Reverse
engineering code to gain a larger market share is not only dishonest but
plagarism and illegal in schools. Why should the free economy play by a
different set of rules?

People wonder why Microsoft has a bad reputation, the three things I have
witnessed over the years in conjunction with the snatching up smaller
companies and parting them out make me and I am sure many others very
skeptical of their desire to snatch up the worlds largest source code
repository.

------
tmsldd
@natfriedman, thanks to come public and sharing with us. To summarize in one
word: transparency. That’s what GitHub community expects from the platform and
you are the key person to drive it. Microsoft has been increasingly open to
the whole open-source idea, which is great. But coming to the point, please,
understand the following concerns: 1 - There is without doubt a conflict of
interest and trust issues on Microsoft hosting thousands of private
repositories, where some potentially compete with Microsoft commercial
interests; 2 - There are concerns that the platform would become a exclusive
marketing weapon in the hands of Microsoft, eventually killing the spirit of
openness and free competition. 3 - The developer community fears that
Microsoft see them as “potential clients” and therefore as target to its
products. The developer community doesn’t want to be monetizing neither be
bombarded with Microsoft products ads. 4 - GitHub has always been a community
driven and community centered platform. What will be the role of Microsoft as
it changes from “one more user” to the owner of the platform? 5 - What is now
business model of GitHub and how entangled is it with Microsoft? More than
ever, and more than anything else transparency will be the key for the success
of GitHub. I wish you lucky on the new task.

------
mariopt
Nothing against the CEO but we all know who the stakeholders are.

------
peterwwillis
What I really love about this is that M$ realize the product's users are
tightly wound to the brand's identity, and are hostile to M$'s. They know
they're buying a "lifestyle brand" and that they have to keep it hip and
unencumbered by a corporate behemoth or it'll become worthless.

When the new CEO has to make a public personal appeal to the users to keep
them from jumping ship, that says something (though I'm not sure what that
is).

~~~
gilrain
> M$

Really?

~~~
mitochondrion
Long live the Gates?

------
reilly3000
Minecraft is evidence in my mind of Microsoft being a reasonable corporate
overlord. They could have fought modders and killed off java, but instead have
been continuing development on it. I think they have gotten to understand the
value of existing communities and maybe how not to accidentally destroy them.

For all these companies with the free time to migrate repo hosts on the same
day, get back to work and make something worth your focus.

------
Gepsens
"Linux, Git, node and Kubernetes" putting Kubernetes at the same level as
Linux and Git... Not a pre-crafted commercial message from M$ at all guyze lul

~~~
e1ven
Maybe it isn’t in the area you work in, but for many companies I’ve worked
with, it’s a critical component.

I’d say it would probably be easier to replace git with hg or something than
to pull out and redo the k8s infrastructure.

------
eruci
Software developers to companies:

\- don’t charge me money! \- don’t raise your prices! \- don’t raise money! \-
don’t sell your company! \- don’t shutdown! ...

Me, I don't care. I work for myself.

------
CodeSheikh
"I’ve been a developer since I was six". I would love to learn what sort of
projects were kids working on this early back in the 80s.

~~~
zer00eyz
I'll second this.

I often tell the story about the first program I wrote (at 8) and how I got
beaten by good old flesh and blood.

I don't tell people I was a developer at six... I wrote a program... semantics
matter here.

The photo got me... The fake over done smile, the "I had a professional take
this" pose. The Hoodie. It just smacks of being over produced to try to fit
in.

> I’m not asking for your trust, but I’m committed to earning it. I can’t wait
> to help make the GitHub platform and community that’s special to all of us
> even greater.

Im not calling you a liar but I already don't believe you.

~~~
swayvil
Agreed.

------
coldseattle
Will he fix these sorts of problems:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118)

and also issues of people being removed from projects _by GitHub Management_
because of political or personal opinions expressed in other forums that were
unrelated to the open source project?

This is why I don't use GitHub

------
g0dg0d
Goodbye Github. No way I trust Microsoft with my private code. Hello Gitlab.

~~~
jlisam13
Let's trust a startup that accidentally blew up their database and lost all
sorts of data, as opposed to Microsoft. At least the other complaints about
the acquisition make sense.

------
bauerd
>My name is Nat and I’ve been a developer since I was six

Oh come on give me a break

~~~
vonseel
What? You didn’t code when you were three?

~~~
jstarfish
I cut my teeth on blockchain...

(...a string of wooden blocks I teethed on.)

~~~
RankingMember
I started with Rust...I had to get a tetanus shot at a very young age.

------
dclowd9901
I think what bothers me about this announcement is that _anyone_ owns Github;
that is, a tech giant with a lot of influence in the software world owning the
largest repository of code in history. Something feels wrong about it. I'd be
as uncomfortable with it if Google or Facebook or Apple owned it.

------
brownbat
Most people are thinking of this from the GitHub perspective, but MS Office is
bigger, and random document editors could benefit a lot from smarter, easier
version control.

That's just one example, but I'm honestly most curious if any ideas will go
from GitHub to other products.

------
kolpa
> PS: I’ll be doing an AMA on Reddit in the next few days, I hope to see you
> there!

It's a bit of shame that that's the location of choice for hosting an AMA. The
AMA subreddit is good, but it's trapped in the toxic cesspool that is Reddit
overall.

~~~
ryan-allen
That depends on what subs your subscribed to, or filter from /r/all, there's a
lot of positive, creative stuff on Reddit. Here's my filtered list from /r/all
(most of the awful crap is USA politics, and all the anti-Trump subreddits, at
least the pro-Trump people stick to the one sub):
[https://gist.github.com/ryan-
allen/18e0e0ccbe34e81b7a0b96d11...](https://gist.github.com/ryan-
allen/18e0e0ccbe34e81b7a0b96d11803ac16)

------
jason_slack
I feel a bit better knowing Nat Friedman will be CEO. He does have a history
with OSS software projects and also running such companies.

I hope that things don't change. I have come to rely on GitHub and I don't
want to go investing in another solution.

~~~
freedomben
I agree, and MS also has some pretty good OSS chops these days. But Github
itself is closed source. This is something that I think needs to change, or
Github needs to disappear. There are good OSS solutions now that we need to
make grow.

I also rely a lot on Github and don't want to move, but I'm going to bite the
bullet if they don't open up. I don't like the hypocrisy, and I don't want to
be an enabler anymore.

------
waydowntogo
It looks like they were expecting everything but mass panic.

Well developers aren't skype's users.

------
fagnerbrack
Can somebody change the title to "GitHub is joining Microsoft and a former
GNOME developer will become the new CEO" or something like that? "Hello,
Github" doesn't say anything...

~~~
recharged96
title should be:

"SCM/CM is not free as in beer"

Really want git? Hire a CM mgr/team to manage your code. Been that way before
2010 (yes, it did suck). Doesn't matter if it's done in-house or out-house.

------
galeforcewinds
[https://twitter.com/githubclippy/status/1003630360008253441](https://twitter.com/githubclippy/status/1003630360008253441)

------
Iv
I wonder if MS went all the way to pay people to comment and vote on HN
stories and comment. It would make a lot of sense for them to do. I wonder if
HN has any protection against this?

------
funwie
Congratulations to Microsoft.

I’ve heard it all after this acquisition was announced. Microsoft is evil,
Microsoft will never change, Microsoft is that and this, Microsoft will
destroy GitHub.

There are people who see a monster when they hear Microsoft but I bet ask them
how they’ve been hurt by Microsoft and nothing will come up.

Is our bias towards Microsoft stoping us from seeing the great work they’ve
done in embracing Linux and open source software. Tell me it’s not a big
change, and departure from the old Microsoft.

------
0x03
I think my main concern going forward would be a diaspora of open source
projects.

One of the neat things about Github is that a ton of open-source projects can
be found there. Regardless of how Github operates going forward for individual
users, I would be surprised if projects like Facebook's React or Google's
Angular remained on a platform controlled by Microsoft.

Those are only two examples in a sea of OSS projects, so maybe the impact will
be smaller than I think.

------
michaelmior
> The Octocat is out of the bag

Why didn't I see that coming? Brilliant.

------
partycoder
The main platform where open source takes place is now owned by a company that
thought of open source as a form of cancer, vocally talked against it in a
disrespectful manner for no reason, promoted fear/uncertainty/doubt campaigns,
and even to this day continues to troll companies with patents.

That is not a great place to be in.

Personally, I think everyone should just move their projects somewhere else
before Microsoft starts forcibly herding developers their way.

~~~
pknopf
> thought of open source as a form of cancer, vocally talked against it

Not that I deny it, because can you point me to some examples of this?

~~~
partycoder
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06/02/ballmer_linux_is_a_cancer/)

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO said: "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in
an intellectual property sense to everything it touches"

That is a direct attack to open source licensing and open source software.

Microsoft had to take that back after they were beaten in the market and lost
popularity among developers.

Now it's plan B: govern open source projects and infrastructure and put them
to the service of Microsoft interests. One way of doing that could be simply
mismanaging them and setting them for failure.

~~~
dboon
That article is written using very inflammatory language -- I am very wary to
take it at face value, because an author using this kind of language is very
unlikely to deeply analyze what Ballmer actually said. Furthermore, this was
said two decades ago. Take it with a grain of salt.

~~~
partycoder
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguis...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish)

Some brief history refresher:

\- Apple + Microsoft "collaborating" on Macintosh software = Windows

\- IBM + Microsoft "collaborating" on OS/2 = the NT kernel, Windows NT

\- Sybase + Microsoft "collaborating" on Sybase SQL server = MS SQL Server

\- Sun + Microsoft "embracing" Java = .NET Framework

"Take it with a grain of salt".

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
You were downvoted... What in the hell is wrong with HN users? Are they all
children? These events are well within living memory for a lot of us.

~~~
partycoder
A lot of people do not have a perspective on how greedy Microsoft was.

Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world today, not by gathering
in circles and singing happy songs. The guy was a monopolist.

They wanted everyone to use Microsoft Windows, code in Visual Studio, do their
office work in Office, browse the web in Internet Explorer, have a Microsoft
e-mail, chat using Microsoft services, and you get the idea.

And a lot of that was possible by having Windows preinstalled in new
computers, and bundling software with Windows, like Internet Explorer. You
could argue Apple is similar, but I do not think Apple is interested in a
monopoly of the size of that planned by Microsoft.

------
smsm42
This all sounds good and nice. The question is how much real power he has in
Microsoft hierarchy? I mean, if some Microsoft VP decides to violate any of
the promises Nat Friedman makes, what would be his options (besides the
obvious one of resigning)? How much power he has if Microsoft decides to
change direction and force GitHub to do something they didn't want to do?

------
thelastidiot
Who wants their pull request comments to be used as metadata for Microsoft to
benefit from knowing what each software developer under the sun is working on
at any time? Didn't we just face the same abuse of leverage personal data from
facebook? I will privilege my communication either private or professional by
refraining to use both github and facebook.

~~~
balls187
I never really lumped Microsoft in the "abuse your personal data" space.

Abuse their market position, yes, abuse TOS to screw companies out of money,
yes, but abuse privacy, unsure that's fair.

------
HugoDaniel
Just copy paste from here:

"Please remove all data you have on me. I do not consent with your privacy
policy. I don't give permission for your organization to use any kind of
information you have about me."

[https://github.com/contact/privacy](https://github.com/contact/privacy)

------
dh-g
Nat Friedman as CEO has mostly placated my knee jerk reaction of RUN! Really
happy with how this is going so far.

------
goofballlogic
I do hope that this works. One major concern I have is being badly burned by
using Xamarin when it was a couple of years (4?) old. I hope they don't do
that to github. Xamarin wasn't very elegant back then when those guys started
it - it was a horrid hack. That makes me worried.

------
dagaci
This might be interesting, the audio of the conference call with Nadella,
Friedman, Wanstrath, & CFO [https://edge.media-
server.com/m6/p/eudfciq3](https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/eudfciq3)

------
ChankeyPathak
In case you're looking for alternatives, this thread might be of some help:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17241487](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17241487)

------
chillingeffect
The emphasis I've seen on "still be able to code in your choice of language,"
leads me to think there will be some caveat to doing so. E.g. they'll put the
windows ad spyware into peoples' code repositories like sourceforge or
something else...

------
foo101
Done in true GitHub style with the source code of this post at
[https://github.com/natfriedman/hello](https://github.com/natfriedman/hello)
rendered with GitHub pages. :-)

------
jenscow
Great news for open source.

Perhaps now all the companies in the MS silo are going to learn how OSS is
something that can be taken seriously.

I've worked in enterprise where using open source tends to be frowned upon.
This was mostly due to the FUD from Microsoft.

------
Nullabillity
Bye, GitHub.

~~~
nitrix
GitHub is dead, long live GitHub.

------
jadedhacker
Heh, the United States of Github got invaded and occupied.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/githubs-oval-
office-2013-9](http://www.businessinsider.com/githubs-oval-office-2013-9)

------
naiveai
Wow, a bunch of words, with no real promises worth a damn. I'm so impressed.

------
gazarullz
I really like what Microsoft did in the past 2-3 years on the open source side
and I keep my fingers crossed hopin they will do a good job with github too :)

------
cutler
Repeat after me: L-I-N-U-X P-A-T-E-N-T R-A-C-K-E-T

------
waydowntogo
Btw If Microsoft would mean that seriously (supporting open source) the new
owner would be some foundation (something like mozilla).

~~~
oaiey
7 billion dollars? And how should they explain that to the shareholders. What
they will hopefully do: run it like it but do not make it official.

~~~
waydowntogo
Honestly I'm thinking they'll have to explain why they bought empty box for $
7bln.

------
trhway
its good as it will spur a bunch of new GitHubs and innovation in that space.
It is like a business case validation for investors. For example like Cruise
acquisition spurred more self-driving startups. The times have changes and it
isn't 90ies anymore when MS could buy/develop some soft and extinguish all
competition in the related area.

------
satai
How is MS expected to make money on this?

~~~
oaiey
I think they shrink it a bit down and cut administrative overhead (synergy)
and some engineering (eg atom (buuh)). The later they can also reorganize.

For them it just does not need to lose too much money.

~~~
satai
They spent 7GUSD+ on it. It is dozens of years of GitHub revenue...

~~~
oaiey
The investment .. forget that. That does not need to refinance itself
(unofficially)

------
BigChiefSmokem
GitLab servers are very, very slow today.

~~~
leg100
Today? Rest assured, they have been very, oh very slow, for a long time. Their
Twitter status feed and post mortem dialogue ad infinitum is proof enougb.
GitHub has nothing to worry about just yet.

~~~
pritambaral
> they have been very, oh very slow, for a long time.

From a regular ($DAYJOB) GitLab.com user: this is hyperbole. GitLab.com is
slower than GitHub.com, in general, but not "very, oh very" slow.

------
viseztrance
I'm using another service for my private repos, as github's pricing structure
for a single dev is seriously uncompetitive.

I wanted to move my public / open source repos for a long time. Now I finally
I have the opportunity to do so without getting into discussions at an
interview on why am I not using github.

For people such as myself, I don't know what Microsoft / Github can do or say
to convince otherwise.

~~~
dangrossman
> pricing structure for a single dev is seriously uncompetitive

$7/month is a burden? What's it competing with except a fancy coffee or two?

~~~
viseztrance
Remember, these costs add up quite easy. Why bother if I can get the same
features for free?

But it really depends on how you view it. I felt I got better value by
supporting an open source project I like on patreon (Godot) than spending my
money on this subscription.

~~~
dangrossman
> Remember, these costs add up quite easy.

Some single developers are perhaps a bit spoiled. Other professions need
offices, stores, work trucks, thousands of dollars in physical tools that
they'll need to maintain and replace as they wear out. We need a computer and
have the _option_ of a $7/month subscription to perpetually-updated
professional tools. $7/month doesn't cover the printer paper most
professionals go through in a month. Software developers need a computer and
that's about it, and some apparently find $7/month "uncompetitive" because
that fee didn't come with sufficient feel-good about charitable giving or
something. All the software and professional services I subscribe to as a
single developer don't add up to the cost of maintaining and fueling the van
my A/C repair guy shows up in, so I have to disagree that they add up quite
easy.

------
oculusthrift
Are there actually people dumb enough to think microsoft employees will be
browsing their private repos?

~~~
prewett
This was the company that would (allegedly) start acquisition talks and then
after they learned what they needed during due diligence they would back out
of the deal and create a competing product. (Unfortunately, I don't know the
words to search for any articles.) So, while I, personally don't think they
would, I also wouldn't take the risk. FB employees looked at people's private
details; if you can, someone will do it at some time.

------
kenshinji
Please please keep GitHub a neutral place for hosting code, resource and
everything as always.

------
g-b-r
I hope this will slow down git's adoption and push more people towards
Mercurial

------
hitekker
> I’m not asking for your trust, but I’m committed to earning it.

A choice line. Let’s see if he means it.

------
pkfrank
While the submitted link resolves:
[https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/](https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/)

This doesn't: [https://natfriedman.github.io/](https://natfriedman.github.io/)

Might be worth redirecting...

~~~
pknopf
> [https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/](https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/)

Wait, is that a one-off custom landing page? Something that normal users can't
do?

I don't see a "hello" repo in his list of repositories:
[https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/](https://natfriedman.github.io/hello/)

Can private repos have publicly accessible pages?

~~~
Shank
I think it’s the gh-pages branch on a private repository.

If you look at Nat’s account right now [0], he doesn’t even have the telltale
“GitHub Staff” badge, probably because his hiring is contingent upon the deal
closing.

So he’s definitely not an admin at the system level, which just makes him a
normal account.

[https://github.com/natfriedman](https://github.com/natfriedman)

Edit: I’m on a roll today. No, I’m mistaken — it’s not gh-pages. This is the
repo:
[https://github.com/natfriedman/hello](https://github.com/natfriedman/hello)

By all measures I don’t see how this is a pages repo at all.

------
jmainusch
Though the idea of it makes my skin crawl, I am cautiously optimistic.

------
TomK32
ha! my github user id is way smaller than his. noob.
[https://caius.github.io/github_id/](https://caius.github.io/github_id/)

------
mailjenil
I am not asking for you trust, I am committed to earning it.

That’s some badass line.

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danielovichdk
Looking forward to this. Great story and good for all developers.

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iddqd
I wonder if they timed this announcement with the Apple keynote.

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xtat
Nat's a good guy- built stuff with him back in the 90s

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martinald
Congrats Nat! Best of luck for this future endeavor :).

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i386
I’m happy it’s Nat.

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bpanon
Very well said. I predict this will work out.

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ta2354235ff
I'll now use Github like I'd rub salt into my slashed wrists from dealing with
Microsoft's bullshit over the years.

They can burn in hell.

------
swayvil
What does M$ bring to the table other than a giant pile of money?

How does this giant pile of money serve the users of github?

~~~
luckydata
Other than being the biggest developer-focused company in the world? Having an
extremely complete set of developer tools that can integrate with github? A
cloud computing service to deploy apps?

I guess nothing, it brings nothing to the table.

~~~
swayvil
I think that Microsoft is money-focused, not developer-focused.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the mass of open-source developers vastly
outweighs Microsoft.

These "developer tools" are the property of Microsoft. Which suggests an
obvious and worrying path in Github's future. Tell me that I'm wrong.

Everybody and his dog has a cloud computing service these days.

~~~
luckydata
Do you think Github wasn't "money focused"? I'm sure you felt mighty smart
making that comment, but businesses are by default focused on making money.
HOW you make the money varies, but the final goal doesn't.

------
merinowool
Can you promise that Microsoft employees will not browse and otherwise process
private repositories?

~~~
oaiey
They have some dozen different kind of SaaS platforms (think of Office, Azure,
...).

When they do that in an ill-defined way, they are done.

And with "done" I mean the whole company. The financial lose would be
dramatic.

------
aculver
Honestly, can you think of a smarter move on the part of Microsoft than making
Nat Friedman (a veteran of the Open Source community) CEO of Github? I
completely trust this guy to do as good a job as can be done of guiding Github
forward as a product and a platform, now that the venture capitalists are no
longer in the picture.

~~~
stblack
I just checked. Nat Friedman hasn't made a public commit on Github since
August 2015. And if you care to look deeper, since 2010, not much at all.

[https://github.com/natfriedman](https://github.com/natfriedman)

~~~
jameshart
You have no idea who Nat Friedman is, do you?

------
Fiahil
He seems nice.

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moonstruck
Make Github Great Again!

------
xmr2saturn
nice

------
mariogintili
developing when you were six? fuck off

~~~
stunthamsterio
Why not? I was programming on a Commodore Plus/4 at the age of five. I got my
teeth into this industry by hand typing from magazine articles programs that
done nothing more then making the sound of bird tweets, but it taught me A:
the basics of how a programming language works, and B: how to debug to get
around the inevitable typo in the magazine.

------
brian-armstrong
Hopefully MS can reign in Github's ridiculous remote work policy. Github's
product velocity has been effectively zero for the past few years, and remote
work is likely part of why.

------
thesz
I guess he started with wrong note.

He is developer since six - since 1983. This means his family was wealthy one.
He also survived two years of Microsoft.

Now even sceptical and lazy me thinks I have to move out of github. ;)

~~~
Voloskaya
His family was wealthy, and he worked at Microsoft for two years, so you have
to move out from GitHub?

What are you even trying to say?

~~~
thesz
He is not representative of most developers, first (wealthy and corporate-
politics resistant), and tries to present himself as one, second (how he
introduced himself).

This means Github will be handled by non-developer who tries to pretend to be
a developer. This means he lies, conspicuously or not. In both cases I cannot
see him as smart enough and self-aware enough.

Given that, I think github will be mishandled and I also think I would be
better off somewhere else.

~~~
Voloskaya
Nat Friedman is not a developer? Did you do the most basic google research
before bashing him?

If Nat is not a developer, then not a lot of people are, this has to be one of
the stupidest comments I have read.

~~~
thesz
Yes, I did my research and verified it just now (looked at his github). I was
not and am not impressed.

~~~
Voloskaya
Ah I see. You want a CEO that also has a developer role at the same time. You
are one of those that think running a company is a BS job and anyone could
actually do it, so in your would it would make sense to take someone that was
shipping code during the last sprint and just give him the CEO role of a 1
thousand, 300M$ revenue company.

In my world that would be completely stupid and reckless. Nat was coding full-
time just a few years ago and move to leadership roles recently, so that's
exactly what we need to run GitHub: someone that actually knows how to handle
large organisation, and someone who knows what being a developer means so he
can make sure GitHub is going in the right direction.

I don't even know why I am arguing with you though, you are clearly just doing
some level condescending gate keeping, so it's not like anything I say has any
impact.

Have fun being toxic.

------
bitL
"Hey everyone, I am Nat. I joined the dark side, now I am being rewarded for
it as a future CEO, woohoo! I hope you are as happy as I am! See ya later!"

Many of us were given a choice to join MS but didn't.

~~~
jpeg_hero
I like that there are still hardline cold warriors out there from the '90's.

I was there too, but the war is over. Come in from the cold.

~~~
bitL
Come on, I still see the deformations in our industry caused by MS, Oracle and
similar companies and nothing of the bad deeds was undone (nobody is going to
resurrect progressive businesses/ideas they killed off). Instead we have Bill
playing a philanthrope and getting admiration by outsiders and Satya being the
jobesque face of "new MS", with Windows 10 fun. I worked for their main
competitor and another company that was eaten alive by MS, and they tried to
poach me as well.

------
annyui
I'm happy that at least Google doesn't own GitHub. Microsoft seems like the
best company to buy GitHub out of all the major tech companies.

