Chris, Nat and Satya's Calldeck Regarding Microsoft and GitHub

[Shank]

Slide 12:

> GitHub will retain its developer-first ethos, operate independently and remain an open platform

> Nat Friedman will become the CEO of GitHub

As far as acquisition news goes, this is pretty good news. I think the one thing I was hoping for was autonomous operation from GitHub, and we're getting that. Nat created Xamarin & by extension a large swathe of the Mono project -- which means that his heart is certainly aligned in the right spot. He sounds like an excellent CEO grab, and it wouldn't surprise me if this is more of the deal than it's being portrayed as. GitHub has needed a CEO for a while, and Nat at the helm is a great person for that.

I'm optimistic that, as long as GitHub remains an independent business unit (ala Heroku at Salesforce), then it'll actually be a good thing. Let's hope it stays that way.

[jacquesm]

If there is one thing that I've learned from watching tech acquisitions up close for way too many years then it is that you should not put too much stock into words spoke by execs of companies around or immediately after an acquisition.

[ckastner]

Slide 10: Microsoft <hearts> Open Source.

It's really amazing how much Microsoft has changed (to the positive) since Ballmer stepped down as CEO.

[ekianjo]

> Slide 10: Microsoft <hearts> Open Source.

you do realize that's just PR talk right? Most of their money-making products and services are far from being open source, so let's tone down the grandiloquent claims a little.

[frou_dh]

I've read countless positive comments about "new Microsoft" on HN/Reddit/etc for multiple years at this point.

Even if it's true, I humbly ask that we move beyond the fawning.

[some_account]

Comments like these leave me no hope for the future. Even with a history like Microsofts, people are quick to forgive instead of learning from mistakes.

I didn't even think PR works on people but it does and it's sad to see it.

[zwischenzug]

Lock-in is now sought at the cloud layer.

[shmerl]

If they changed so much, let them reverse their claim that APIs are copyrightable, stop patent shakedowns (like on Android and etc.) and start supporting major FOSS cross platform initiatives like Vulkan. Until then I'll retain my skepticism about how much they have really changed.

[blauditore]

Huh, wasn't it Ballmer who coined the famous "developers, developers, developers"?

[GuB-42]

They haven't changed to the positive, they have switched to other evils. They took Google's evil (all that spying), and a bit of Apple's evil (disposable hardware, Windows S walled garden).

[baybal2]

>Slide 10: Microsoft <hearts> Open Source.

>It's really amazing how much Microsoft has changed (to the positive) since Ballmer stepped down as CEO.

Protip: this is a lie

[cyxxon]

Also interesting: the laptop in the slides is a MacBook, not a laptop running Windows. It might look like a generic aluminium device, but see the window decorations...

[manigandham]

Plenty of people in Microsoft use open-source tech running on Apple hardware. It's not rare or unexpected anymore in this current decade.

[ConfusedDog]

Pardon my ignorance. What is a calldeck? I couldn't find a good result on Google. It is like a sales deck?

[mrleiter]

If a company has an investor call, they sometimes supply the investors with a deck to follow the call - a calldeck.

[JakeWesorick]

slides for a meeting where everyone is talking on the phone

[narvind]

Mr. Nadella's version of "developers developers" is top notch. I was scared we will get something like: https://giphy.com/gifs/michael-strahan-enTimXqzmVXR6

[dblooman]

Guess Atom is getting the axe then

[koolba]

Atom has been leagues behind VS Code for a quite a while. Even with an acquisition I don’t see it ever winning that fight. Too much baggage in the underlying architecture.

[anamoulous]

Yup, Microsoft bought Github for 7.5B to shoot Atom into the sun.

[thelastidiot]

It just benefits large companies, not small ones. Now Microsoft is able to slam a deal with Github in the offer (which every company is using) to sell Azure. Brilliant!

[ksec]

My thoughts also, something to dethrone AWS. Azure is actually doing surprisingly well in Big Enterprise. But in the seas of Small Medium Coprs and Dev houses they have little to Zero penetration.

[cakes]

I wonder if this is the actual final death of TFS (Server) at this point as they could now move Github into that offering space for enterprises

[sharathr]

In an effort to show commitment to existing developer communities, all images of computers in the slide-deck have been changed to Apple Macs...lol

[jacquesm]

The degree of gullibility in these threads is unexpected. You'd think the hacker community would be vaccinated against PR by now but it seems to work just fine.

Next up: "Our incredible journey".

When it all comes crashing down, don't say you weren't warned.

[pshc]

If you release a hip IDE with a free tier and open source half of a booby trapped ecosystem, all is forgiven (?)

[foobarbazetc]

Yup. The level of koolaid drinking going on here is insane.

This is not a good thing in any way. None.

If it saved GitHub from bankruptcy or something then fine, but acquisitions like this rarely work out.

[jblow]

I don’t get it either.

[walterbell]

Imagine Microsoft implementing AI “Code ID” for screening Github code uploads for intellectual property violations, if this becomes EU law in 2020, https://blog.github.com/2018-03-14-eu-proposal-upload-filter...

  $ git push ...
  remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (2/2), completed with 2 local objects.
  remote: error: GH013: Your push could infringe someone's copyright.
  remote: If you believe this is a false positive (e.g., it's yours, open
  remote: source, not copyrightable, subject to exceptions) contact us:
  remote: https://github.com/contact
  remote: We're sorry for interrupting your work, but automated copyright
  remote: filters are mandated by the EU's Article 13.
  To github.com/vollmera/atom.git
 ! [remote rejected] patch-1 -> patch-1 (push declined due to article 13 filters)

[falcon620]

The thought that Satya Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992 and then steadily climbed his way to the top would be a better, more moral person than the "old guard" is kind of funny.

He's just younger and less out of touch than Gates (and particularly Balmer).

[hatred]

What was Github's current valuation? It seems that the last round valued them at $2b in 2015. Around ~3x multiple on the last round (~7.5b$). Hopefully, the employees are all happy!

[skierscott]

On iOS this isn’t functional. I can’t advance past the first slide.

[spiderPig]

Works for me, swipe left/right

[inetknght]

Can't view with javascript disabled. !@#$ that.

[aerovistae]

Not to be rude, but honestly can you view anything with JavaScript disabled anymore? I don’t exactly blame the website.

[dingo_bat]

It'd be a little hard to show a PPT without some js viewer.

[bo1024]

I generally agree with you. But just so you know, in this case if you enable a few scripts, a download button appears and you can read the file in libreoffice or whatever you use.

[developerdanny]

How can you expect a webapp to work with javascript disabled?

[falcon620]

Wow, that looks like crap on a retina/hidpi screen.

[gojomo]

Where’s the slide for “Totally clobbers coverage of any Apple announcements from WWDC today”?