Microsoft GitHub Acquisition: Thoughts of a Full-time Open Source Developer

Now that you know this about me, it’s easier for you understand why I am writing this post, and maybe why I think my opinion matters. Below is a copy-paste from the Twitter thread that I created on this topic:

1️⃣ @Microsoft is about to acquire @GitHub. A lot of folks are skeptical. But I have a different view. Many of you know I am building a course on https://t.co/Dam4TeERKD for that, I've seen firsthand, how 🆚@Code repo is one of the best #OpenSource repos out there#thread ⬇️

— Ahmad Awais (@MrAhmadAwais) June 4, 2018

1⃣ @Microsoft is about to acquire @GitHub. A lot of folks are skeptical. But I have a different view. Many of you know I am building a course on VSCode.pro for that, I’ve seen firsthand, how 🆚@Code repo is one of the best #OpenSource repos out there

2⃣— Once I created a GitHub issue at 🆚@Code repo for markdown and I was impressed by how vscodebot auto-assigned @MattBierner (who works on Markdown of VSCode) to the issue and then @tonybrix from MarkedJS helped me out. It was best GitHub automation WITH results ever! 💯

3️⃣— Don’t “@” me coz I know about @Microsoft’s history with #OpenSource. I am a full-time open sourcerer and I can’t sit here quiet instead of supporting what looks like the new @Microsoft — @SatyaNadella’s moving the company from @Windows dependant to in-house @Linux dev

4⃣— Every other day I find/meet people working at @Microsoft using Linux/Mac based devices — even bought by the company for them. Guess what? 1,000 MSFT Employees pushing open source code on GitHub. This is a BIG 🆕 change. Taking it lightly in 2018 would be tomfoolery.

5⃣— I’ve been most inspired by teams behind 🆚@Code (@auchenberg 👋) and @Azure — I think that @JeffSand has built an incredible team of @AzureAdvocates folks like @ashleymcnamara @sarah_edo @jawache @burkeholland @simona_cotin @_clarkio @John_Papa @holtbt @film_girl @TommyLee

6⃣—I’m a big fan of “Dev Experience” (DX) that’s why I pay $200 for a font I use in 🆚Code & have built 💯s of #OpenSource dev-tooling github.com/ahmadawais—Teams at @Azure are doing a lot to make DX better for the cloud → @AzureFunctions + @Code integration is impressive!

7️⃣— GitHub’s been struggling to find a new CEO for a year. What if?
It’s my primary code hosting company. It’s helped me go full-time open source with the support from awesome dev community/companies. Safe to say that @GitHub has made #OpenSource better 👏

8️⃣— @Microsoft has done a lot for #OpenSource in the last 4 years with @SatyaNadella.

🆚 @Code’s love.
💻 @Linux Subsystem on @Windows.
🎯 Draft.sh for @kubernetesio didn’t have a Windows version and still offers @MacHomebrew as the go-to way of installing it!

9️⃣—@GitHub is not exactly a cash-cow. @Microsoft has put money where their mouth is — out of 1.5 Million organizations on GitHub MSFT has most GitHub contributors to its repos, it’s the biggest company with over 1000 employees contributing code to GitHub →proof of good faith!

🔟— I think @Microsoft is changing for good. The intent here’s to connect with developers and not offend them by disrupting a good company. MSFT won’t change a lot but this acquisition might make GitHub a lot better. Also, MSFT will jump into ROR. It’s high time for #OpenSource.

Peace! ✌