In a press statement, CEO Satya Nadella said this deal would "strengthen [Microsoft's] commitment to developer freedom, openness and innovation." While some tech professionals are excited about the resources and opportunity the acquisition brings, others worry that Microsoft, often cited in the past as an "enemy" of open source, may change what they know and love about GitHub.
To find out what this pending acquisition means for developers, we asked a panel of Forbes Technology Council members to weigh in with their predictions.
1. An Open Source Identity Crisis
Since the Halloween Documents leaked in the late '90s, Microsoft has been seen as an enemy of open source. Meanwhile, GitHub is the largest open source community in the world. Will the community continue to trust GitHub? Will competitors like Google feel comfortable hosting proprietary code on GitHub post-acquisition? Those genuinely concerned with privacy should consider alternatives like GitLab. - Anthony Delgado, Disrupt
2. Developer Flight
It's a move for Microsoft to try to gain back some footing against Google and Apple, who enlisted armies of third-party developers, primarily on mobile with the App Store and Play Store. Some developers are worried that the platform will gravitate towards Microsoft-centric influence (like preference towards .NET projects) and have started migrating to other platforms like Gitlab and BitBucket. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
3. A 'Full Kitchen' For Developers
One of the biggest drawbacks of Github is the lack of continous integration/continuous delivery and DevOps back end. Developers can write beautiful recipes but deployment remains a challenge. With Microsoft's strength in platform solutions, GitHub can potentially see a much richer support from code-to-deploy. - Winnie Cheng, Io-Tahoe LLC
4. Access to More Resources, Knowledge And Opportunities
It's an amazing opportunity to tap into more resources and knowledgeable talent out there through Microsoft. Plus, it may even provide more opportunities to get in front of a tech leader with a solution that they might be interested in backing it. - Chalmers Brown, Due
5. More Marketing Of Microsoft's Azure Cloud
Microsoft is focused on increasing its cloud presence and has determined that the best way to do that is through developers. Microsoft has always had a presence in the developer market but realized that many of those developers now are on GitHub. Hopefully, this means developers won't see their experience change, but they will surely be marketed a lot more of Microsoft's Azure Cloud services. - Anand Sampat, Datmo
6. Proof Of Microsoft's Investment In Open-Source And The Cloud
Microsoft is trying to win over developers to work on open-source software by making it easy for them to use Azure. By acquiring GitHub, they can offer more, with more runway and help it succeed in the long-run. There has been a shift to the cloud, and Microsoft is well aware of this. Microsoft is now a big player of open-source and they’re proving that they are really invested. - Sanjay Malhotra, Clearbridge Mobile
7. Very Little Change To The GitHub Platform
We all know Microsoft had been mostly against open source code, but I believe the culture at Microsoft has been changing for good for a few years now. LinkedIn is an example where Microsoft kept their word for letting it run mostly autonomously. So, other than having access to Microsoft's vast pool of resources, I don't expect much to change for GitHub, and consequently for developers. - Vikram Joshi, pulsd
8. Loss Of Openness And Platform Agnosticism
GitHub was about being open and collaboration and was agnostic to the platform or any vendor. I fear we'll lose the openness and much of the development community. - Teresa Spangler, PlazaBridge Group
9. Fully Integrated Cloud-Based Software Development
Microsoft now has three key components: Azure cloud computing, visual studio code -- which is basically a mature browser-based code editor -- and now the largest cloud-based code repository along with its 28 million (based on June data) users. MS can empower software developers to do everything they need in the cloud. Take their work anywhere and collaborate from any location and discuss on Skype if needed. - Salim Madjd, AsthmaMD
