Why I Don’t Like That Microsoft Has Acquired GitHub

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft has acquired Github (see this Bloomberg article for more details). I don’t like that they have done it, let me explain.

Microsoft is a huge company and has merged or acquired so many companies (see this Wikipedia list for a list of them all) that it’s just stupid for one company to own that many other companies.

Right now there are 5 big companies: Apple, Microsoft, Google, Disney and Facebook. I bet Facebook one day is either going to be acquired by one of the other big companies, or they will acquire a big company. Once that happens it’s down to the big 4. I don’t want what happens in The Circle to be a reality (one big company owning everything).

Since I don’t want Microsoft to own everything I do, I’m moving all my open-source stuff from Github to Bitbucket. This transition will be happening over the next week or so.

I encourage anyone who has stuff on Github to move it off, don’t put it on Gitlab since so many other people are doing that, find an alternative so stuff is spread out and not owned by one (or two) companies. Find an alternative at alternativeTo.

--

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed it, please consider sharing a link to this post on your website or social media.

I don't hide any content behind paywalls. If you're in a stable financial position, I invite you to treat me to a refreshing beverage via PayPal or Ko-fi (both PayPal and Stripe are supported). For additional details, including accepted currencies, please see my support page. Alternatively, you can show your support by using affiliate links or making a donation to one of my favourite charities.