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Comment by slg

8 years ago

Microsoft is basically the corporate version of the ship of Theseus at this point. The have a lot of questionable stuff in their history, but the leadership and the culture at large has shifted drastically since those days. At a certain point it is worth reevaluating one's opinions and question whether it is still worth hanging on to those old grudges.

I can certainly understand why people might be skeptical of GitHub being purchased by any of the big players in tech. But I don't see how Microsoft is really a worse buyer than any of the other potential bidders.

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slg

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TheCabin  8 years ago

Yeah, I am not saying I would trust any other big competitor more than Microsoft.

However, I am still not convinced that Microsoft really changed as much as many people like to believe. I think it is obvious that they lost the fight against open-standards in many domains. Linux on Smartphones would be one example. Now they have two options, either to embrace these technologies or lose market. The question is: How genuine is their enthusiasm and are they really acting in the interest of open-standards? Do they still have strategies to hurt open alternatives to their own products in the long run?

  • ergomarky  8 years ago

    I think the shift from a traditional sales focus to one on subscriptions and "The Cloud" is a pretty monumental change. Losing traditional sales markets like selling phones really hastened that change. I don't think you're looking for proof that they're genuinely enthusiastic, because imo desperation is the rawest form of genuine enthusiasm. It's whether or not they're altruistic in this particular field, and that has yet to be seen.

    • TheCabin  8 years ago

      I don't think you have to be altruistic to have genuine enthusiasm -- some companies have fantastic plans to support open-source as well as their business plans. But I agree with the first point you are making.

      1 reply →

  • s2g  8 years ago

    and yet the response to anything by microsoft is reminders of EEE, while google gets praised for blatantly awful abuses of power.

    • jorams  8 years ago

      > google gets praised for blatantly awful abuses of power

      Do you have some examples of that? The first things that come to mind are AMP and related announcements, which were not received particularly positively here on HN.

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