Microsoft buys GitHub

[Tom Donaldson]

I agree that this risk is easily managed.  Transitioning away from github, if ever needed, will likely be easier than transitioning from volute as we are now.

Tom


From: <interop-bounces at ivoa.net> on behalf of Tim Jenness <tjenness at lsst.org>
Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 8:43 AM
To: Dave Morris <dave.morris at metagrid.co.uk>
Cc: "interop at ivoa.net" <interop at ivoa.net>
Subject: Re: Microsoft buys GitHub

I don’t think we need to panic just yet. We can easily mirror git repos to gitlab (git was designed for this). I’d suggest we stick to the GitHub experiment for now, whilst being aware of the alternatives. If all the astronomy packages on GitHub start disappearing then that is time to consider the question again.

There is also a discussion on IVOA Slack on this topic.

—
Tim Jenness


On Jun 4, 2018, at 9:13 PM, Dave Morris <dave.morris at metagrid.co.uk<mailto:dave.morris at metagrid.co.uk>> wrote:
Ok, I'll admit it. Markus Demleitner was right, GitHub might not be the safe place I thought it was.
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/microsoft-snaps-up-github-for-7-5-billion/
If I'd have know this was coming I probably wouldn't have been so keen to move our code to GitHub right now.
Existing projects in GitHub are not going to migrate away en-mass just because the commercial entity that owns it changes. However, it might be sensible for projects thinking of joining GitHub to be a bit more cautious and see how things pan out before they migrate.
The hard question is to guess where GitHub will be in 10 years time. Turns out that GitHub was in a vulnerable position, and selling to Microsoft may give them the resources they need.
    "GitHub needed a buyer, and there aren't too many options."
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/everyone-complaining-about-microsoft-buying-github-needs-to-offer-a-better-solution/
On the other hand, there must be a reason why Microsoft thought GitHub was worth 7.5 billion. The most rational explanation I've seen so far is they plan on using it as a gateway to sell Azure services.
    "Looks like Microsoft is planning to be the Adobe of the dev/cloud world"
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/microsoft-snaps-up-github-for-7-5-billion/?comments=1&post=35441781
    "Microsoft wants to sell you Azure services."
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/everyone-complaining-about-microsoft-buying-github-needs-to-offer-a-better-solution/?comments=1&post=35446503
10 years ago would any of us have predicted this ?
    "There's a Linux subsystem in Windows, and MS is embracing a VCS created by Mr. Torvalds."
    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/everyone-complaining-about-microsoft-buying-github-needs-to-offer-a-better-solution/?comments=1&post=35446497
What next ?
Dave
--------
Dave Morris
Research Software Engineer
Wide Field Astronomy Unit
Institute for Astronomy
University of Edinburgh
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