can Microsoft possibly begin charging for access to git downloads of source code ?

i think ubuntu has worked furiously to convert many projects to be git projects (often but not always stored on github). many other distros use these projects that ubuntu (and google) have access to freely alter. infact even to compile git itself there are possibly 'ardous' dependencies (some/older distros cannot compile git)

so is this a great donation by microsoft to fund servers to store code for the world? or a possible "tax" to access the code you maybe wrote or helped test?

Two decades of opensource.
I will keep them in good memory.

...thoughts:
migrate everything to gitlab.
and hope to god that they're really better.

I'm actively trying not to have thoughts on this.

$7.9 B ain't pocket change. They'd have to have an upside to this somehow. It will have to be somewhat from ad's and maybe some use of code?? It may become a greater target for malware because MS owns it.

Anyone is free to build a replacement.

I know it seems like someone turned on the Infinite Improbability Drive, but in this case the advice is the same as always. Just wrap a towel around your head, and don't panic.

I think the stockholders are going to have a fit once they realize MS spent $7.5B for a software repository. MS did not have to purchase GitHub in order to contribute to it, and eventually someone will ask, "How will we make money from this?"

"Hate it or ignore it, you can't like it"

What ^he said.
Remember the fiasco that was sf over the last few years. Lost a heap of good will, now the new owners are facing a long fight to get back.

They will never change, wait until their real motives behind contributing to Linux comes to the surface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrac...and_extinguish

I'm relieved that, as a humble user, well, as a user, I've had no need to use Github.

As an aside, this old link that I've kept around for years because it is just so true seems relevant: https://www.dwheeler.com/innovation/microsoft.html

The problem is I just finally created a github account several days ago now I wish I would have waited a little.... Microsoft must have something up their sleeve... think about it. Destroy(github) = most open source software knocked back several steps. Interestingly SourceForge(starting today) has a pop up with Maybe somebody is playing the market?

i migrated my stuff to gitlab.com yesterday, it's really easy - there was a youtube video, and honest to god it was all done by the time the 5min video was done.
and i have 20+ repositories on github.

i still wonder if gitlab is really such a good alternative...

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for me there's no discussion about what microsoft's motives here are.
it's all too clear.

i am only interested in the future of coscientious FOSS developers, and what github themselves have to say about the takeover? maybe sth like this: "Our butts are sore and hurting, but we gritted our teeth and took it 'cause the money's just too good."

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PS: this was a headline on mainstream news yesterday; interesting.

I left this site ages ago, but I came back just cause I heard the news.

I think I'm pretty much just agreeing with what madeingermany said -sob-

Can someone enlighten me about the *biz* side of things though, cause I don't understand it - does MS now own all the code ON Github? ...and can make commercial products with it, or do whatever they want to with it? Whoever uploaded it, uploaded it under GPL, so that license still holds, right?
...in that case, I don't see their motivation...?

Buying Github doesn't give Microsoft ownership of the things hosted there, any more than buying Hotmail gave them ownership of users' emails. Less so in fact, since most (all?) of what's hosted on Github is explicitly licenced and ownership not transferred by those licences.

This is the first I've heard of the aquisition and, now I've checked the date on the opening post and had a few minutes to absorb the idea, it doesn't seem so strange. Lamentable, but not strange. My guess is this is largely a long-term PR exercise: MS was once seen as a big player in programming, now they want to hold on to that image by being seen as big in open-source development. When MS want to look big in an area, they either copy or buy (one of) the market leader(s). The problems will come if, or when, they try to do Github their way and end up making a mess of it.

I keep thinking that eventually, one day, Microsoft might manage to turn themselves around and become a well-behaved sofware company. I hold the hope but not my breath, but maybe they'll find some clues at Github.