GitHub & Microsoft - It's OK

Microsoft buys GitHub, and most of the press has been pretty positive, even from those you might not expect.

But, of course there’s the usual herp-derp comments, and a big spike in moving repos to Gitlab

Most of those repositories will be inconsequential single-user repos, but it is still so much wasted effort. If your knee-jerk reaction is to immediately stop doing real work, and move your code somewhere else, you haven’t been paying attention. The world has moved on.

Back in 2014 I wrote Keep an Open Mind:

I get frustrated because these people aren’t paying attention to what Microsoft has been doing. They have come a very long way since the 2002 Bill Gates email setting security as the top priority. It’s a big ship to turn, and it took time. Their overall security model and practices are far better than they were, and stability is no longer an issue. Their business strategy is very different now too.

But poor engineers continue to view Microsoft through the lens of their 1990s experience. They refuse to countenance a Microsoft solution, even when it is the most appropriate one for the problem at hand. They’re doing themselves and their customers a disservice.

My belief hasn’t changed. Keep an open mind, watch what’s going on, don’t get stuck in the past. Stop panicking about things that don’t matter any more, get back to writing code, or running your business.