Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

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One's an advertising company and the other is a software company. One is not seen as being reliable and ruthless in shutting down companies to harvest talent, whereas the other has a record of long-term support for its own products and appears to be putting forth a good faith effort in supporting FOSS.

I choose the latter of two evils, which is Microsoft. MS isn't stupid, and they know that futzing with Github would mean generations of developers never trusting them with anything again. That's not to say that Microsoft won't do the wrong thing, but a lot of people see them as less likely to do the wrong thing than Google, and I happen to agree with them.

EDIT: My first statement is oversimplistic. What I meant by that is Google is mostly interested in advertising and selling data, but Microsoft's business isn't build around advertising(i.e. Bing Ads doesn't appear to be critical to Microsoft's success). Granted, Microsoft is known for selling "data", but I don't see how much of that they would gain from GitHub.

> MS isn't stupid, and they know that futzing with Github would mean generations of developers never trusting them with anything again.

Have you forgotten about how Microsoft destroyed Nokia? MS bought Nokia in 2014, and then sold it in 2016 for pennies on the dollar for what it paid in 2014 [1] [2]. Meanwhile MS completely wiped out Nokia's brand and technology to push Windows Mobile down everyone's throat.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/18/nokia-phones-are-back-after-...

[2] 5 pennies on the dollar to be exact.

I'm not saying it never happens. Although Nokia doesn't surprise me because nobody has cared about Nokia for some time now. Microsoft was basically beating a dead horse. Yeah, they could have resurrected it, but Microsoft had less to lose by destroying Nokia than it does by destroying Github. (although this is really my gut talking without solid figures)

> Yeah, they could have resurrected it, but Microsoft had less to lose by destroying Nokia than it does by destroying Github.

I'm not sure that's true, since MS has already lost the developer space. Nokia was a play for revenue because MS's investment in Windows phone was in the billions already when MS bought Nokia, and that was back when people still actually liked Windows Phone.

It's possible that MS could have built a github clone, and that wouldn't have cost them $7.5B to build, but what MS really bought here is the brand, and the good will that comes with it. If github goes down the tubes, it will be like hotmail / nokia... etc.

> MS has already lost the developer space

What? There are many companies of 10 thousand employees and more that are built from the ground up on Microsoft developer products and services.

Personally, I loved Windows Mobile. I have a Lumia in my pocket right now. And before that, I had a 900.

Microsoft tried and failed to bring a credible 3rd alternative against Android/iOS duopoly. Could they have done differently? Yes. With the current leadership, I think they may have not hesitated to push meego, if only as a 4th alternative. But Windows Mobile was great software, Nokia had great hardware, and they still failed, so I'm not sure it would have changed much. (I know my opinion will is not popular here, but I just don't believe purchasing Nokia for billions just to kill one linux platform passes Occam's Razor)

I still hope Microsoft or someone else tries again to launch a 3rd platform, because I don't exactly feel comfortable with duopolies or monopolies.

Nokia's partnership with Microsoft for Windows Phone began 2 years before Microsoft bought them. If Windows Mobile is what destroyed Nokia, then Nokia had an active hand in that. Nokia isn't a victim, they chose their path.

MS have their own ad platform: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_Ads

Thanks for the correction! :) I wouldn't have known, but then again, I do block ads on my own computer. I've never knowingly seen Bing ads on other people's computers, though I must have seen them.

Looking up revenue pie charts suggests that the amount Microsoft makes from Bing ads is miniscule in contrast to Google and Adsense. In fact, it looks like Google would have serious trouble if Adsense became unprofitable, whereas Microsoft could probably walk away from Bing Ads.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-apple-and-google-whe... (note the date of this article is February 2, 2012)

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