Microsoft Aquires Github, Are You Worried?

I have been following the reaction to Microsoft's acquisition of Github with some interest. On the one hand there has been concern that Microsoft is only venturing into the open source market to shut it down and on the other there seems to be a bit of a shrug of the shoulders with a "it was going to happen at some point why not by Microsoft".

But really, should the development community be worried about this?

I do not think that much will change in the near future so I would not say that I am particularly worried but I do think that it is worth keeping an eye on and making sure that what code you do decide to store in Github will not meet with Microsoft disapproval which for most of us should be fine.

I am aware that there are very strong opinions out there when Microsoft is discussed and not all of these can be addressed in a short article such as this so please see this as an observation on the reactions to the acquisition rather than an opinion of Microsoft and their positioning and corporate strategy.

I would like to try to explain my opinion by quickly tackling the two man areas of concern that I have seen expressed in the last day. These are Microsofts anti open source stance and what their approach will be to repositories that do not "fit" their company ethos or public image.

I think it is interesting that some of the concerns revolve around the type of source code that is kept in Github repositories and how that will sit with Microsoft's ethos in business and social spheres. There is code that is targeted at undermining Microsoft's ability to make money and there is code that helps breach security systems undetected which is kept in Github repositories, there is also code that can be used for very questionable image manipulation that some may argue has no place in open source. The concern, for some, is that Microsoft will start to insist on removing these repositories, enforcing policy that goes against the foundation of what Github offers for the collaborative developer but when you look at Github they have already been "policing" code and document stores for a while. This is something they have been very transparent and proactive about so I do not feel this is a real concern to an organisation or collaboration that is storing code in a Github repository. I also do not think that Microsoft will over night start removing code that they feel is inappropriate. They are a huge user of Github storing source code and documentation some of which may not even be in their own best interest, I think they will be far more measured about this.

The argument that Microsoft is anti open source is an old one with good foundations but that, I think, is the old Microsoft that had to do what it could to get where it is, things are different now. As a developer I have found for many years that Microsoft is very open with its technical documentation, the more you can find out the more you can use, I understand that this is a commercial decision but fifteen years ago it was great to be able to find out how to code directly from Microsoft without having to join any subscriptions or memberships unlike some companies I could mention, yes, in those days you had to buy the software but from then on everything was open, it enabled developers to do so much. In that sense Microsoft has been very open for some time and with recent developments such as Visual Studio Code they are also making ground in providing more open source environments than before. I do not believe they will have invested $7.5bn in a company to shut off the foundation of their popularity.

So all in all, there are going to be a great deal more arguments for and against the acquisition of Github by Microsoft or any other large organisation such as Google or Amazon but for me the major areas of concern that have been raised by the developer base do to worry me.