A few years back, the mere idea of Microsoft (Microsoft of all companies!) buying GitHub[1], the leading open-source development hosting company, would have been seen as nuts. Today, Microsoft is buying GitHub for a cool $7.5-billion[2] in stock. Not a bad price for a company's that never seen a dime of net revenue.
But, Microsoft isn't buying GitHub for revenue. It's buying it because as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella put it: "Microsoft is a developer-first company, and by joining forces with GitHub we strengthen our commitment to developer freedom, openness, and innovation."
People agree that GitHub is the most popular open-source version control code repository in the world. No other company or group comes close. As of March 2018, GitHub had over 28 million users and 85 million code repositories[3].
Sacha Labourey, CEO of CloudBees[4], the enterprise Jenkins[5] continuous integration site "can't think of a better destination for GitHub than 'The New Microsoft.' The New Microsoft totally gets developers. GitHub has built an amazing social network for developers who are likely not going to be in a hurry to leave this buzzing hive anytime soon for some temporary FUD."
FUD? Former Microsoft CEO Steve "Linux is a cancer[6]" Ballmer may have quit his job in 2014 to be replaced by Satya "Microsoft loves Linux[7]" Nadella, but many open-source developers and supporters still hate Microsoft.
Roy Schestowitz, editor of the anti-Microsoft and software patent site, TechRights[8] tweeted, "Microsoft is a saboteur[9] whose sabotage relies on lies about 'love.'" He also claims "Git hosts other than #github[10] getting 10 times the usual load (surge) as people