133
linuxxx
6y

My views on the github/MS thingy.

I've had to explain in at least 20+ rants that some people might have legitimate reasons/opinions for disagreeing with this deal. I find it quite bad that I even have to say this but that aside for this rant.

Microsoft is a commercial company which does a lot for open source, that's a fact.

In my case, I mostly look at the part of Microsoft in regard to how they treat users and user privacy as this, in my opinion, shows for a great deal how trustworthy a company is.

It's publicly known that Microsoft joined the prism surveillance program in 2007 which in my opinion also meant selling out all users.
Next to that, through at least windows 10 it has done quite intrusive user tracking which I also see as a betrayal to its users.

I could go on and on about cases but I've made my point on at least microsoft.

As for github selling itself to Microsoft, this most likely means that it'll also be integrated within the prism network. That's my main point of concern as to why I disagree of this deal and have lost my trust in github for selling to a company which, imo, has absolutely no respect for its users' privacy and has ethics I entirely disagree with.

I still haven't formed an opinion on the rest of arguments out there as, due to a medical thing, I'm hardly able to focus right now.

You might agree or disagree, that's your very right and that's perfectly fine. Just don't say that I haven't come with an actual argument/opinion as for why I disagree with this deal.

Comments
  • 5
    I'm moving to self-hosted GitLab. Is that safe?
  • 1
    @fuck2code Hey, could still be sharing data, who knows. Better off asking.
  • 4
    @linuxxx Many *might* have points.

    But they wont stop bitching and crying to actually make them.

    Also, the main thing pissing me off about this whole weekend: thousands if not even hundreds of thousands of devs are moving or are going to move their code from GH to GL. They're not crying about it every 10 minutes on an app. They're just moving their code and getting on with their lives.

    The typical post is "Waaah microshit bought GitHub. Rip everyone waaaah!!!" This is getting old.
  • 3
    @sigfried well whether they had a choice or not (they didn't), they could (it would be a terrible business decision but talking about an available choice, not business) have quit. I remember that Lavabit had the choice of fucking over all users or quitting and they fucking quit.
  • 3
    @Stuxnet Just felt to express my opinion as it's shot down at nearly every post without any proper arguments.
  • 0
    Was the reason of selling not that GitHub was losing money? And after (I believe) 9 months, only Microsoft was willing to buy the platform?
  • 4
    @samm

    Yeah, that’s also my main concern: monopole.

    Just like Stallman said: Extreme capitalism is bad, just as extreme communism.
  • 0
    You have valid points and I do believe that GitHub (yes auto correct I did mean Guthib....) is going down hill. But not neccessarily because of MS themselves but because a huge amount of peole will switch to private Git- or other version control alternative. That will rip apart the community and easy world wide cohabitation.
  • 3
    @Floydian ok.
  • 2
    @vlatkozelka Re-read the mass surveillance part, if that doesn't bother you then I guess that unlawful mass spying on law abiding citizens is normal and okay nowadays...
  • 2
    @Floydian No. That's corporate cronyism (corruption).
    Very very very different.

    Corruption of any kind is poison to capitalism.
  • 2
    @-vim- Ew. No communism. Ever.
    I think what you're looking for is public-funded services (police, fire, etc.) and charity.

    Everyone should profit from (and to the extent of) their efforts and from mutually beneficial arrangements between consenting individuals, if present. Never from someone else, especially against their will.

    Capitalism (and free-market) is the former.
    Communism is only ever the latter (and is often difficult to distinguish from thievery).
  • 0
    @linuxxx what about gitlab being hosted on Microsoft servers? Couldn't you make the same argument about Microsoft sharing your server data(gitlab's data) with government? Sure, the chances are lower, but do you want to take chances when it's concerning your privacy?

    I'm not trying to say that your arguments are invalid. Actually my arguments are barely on the same topic as yours, I'm just interested in your views about github => gitlab migration thing.
  • 2
    @sSam Whether they're hosted on Google or Amazon aws or Microsoft doesn't matter much, they're all integrated within the biggest surveillance engine in the world.

    It's about who owns the company for me and if that's a party which is known to be integrated within a surveillance network, I'm fucking out.
  • 1
    @linuxxx you don’t happen to know if there’s a list of companies in PRISM do you?
  • 0
    @A-C-E Yeah, literally duckduckgo/google image it haha. That list is outdated though but it's something
  • 1
    @linuxxx I was trying to find that comment so I could delete it cuz the slides are literally on Wikipedia *fail*
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