Comment by golf1052 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by golf1052 | Hacker News Reader

I don't really understand this post. I'm a supporter of open source and free software and I can also understand wanting to avoid vendor lock-in. However I don't understand how this is Microsoft's fault for building closed source tooling. I'm upset with Microsoft's hypocritical stance on .NET and C# being open source without all tooling being open source as well but when it comes to useful tooling like Codespaces, Pylance, or the Java debugger in VSCode I don't see why Microsoft should be blamed them being closed source. Microsoft came into the Java and Python space and made tooling that is being accepted by developers.

The author does touch on why companies like Microsoft are able to succeed against open source software. It's because they have the money to pay their own developers to make good software.

Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft but not under DevDiv or Azure.

It is an App Store monopoly problem. Take Google Android as a counterpart.

Android Open Source Project = VS Code (MIT codebase(

Android at Samsung and dozens other = VS Code with Microsoft EULA

Enforced Play Store in vendor phones = VS Code Extension Market Place (not accessible to any other competition)

Google offering dominant services = Microsoft Language Packages (both proprietary => user lock in)

Google abusing it (eg by marketing, subscriptions, ...) = Microsoft abusing it

So what is explained in that article is how you run a monopoly on an open source project. Julia and the DevDiv is doing that. That is understandable (she has to make money to get her bonus) but not good for the rest of us.

Disclaimer: .NET fanboy

A major material difference is that unlike phone world wherein a duopoly controls the market and supply chain is also similarly locked. We have a very functional ecosystem of competing products. I can choose to use IntelliJ, Eclipse, Vim, Emacs ... without completely disrupting my life.

Tomorrow Intellij may decide to launch paid LSPs for Java/Go/... and MS is already using same components for VSCode and Visual Studio. Or author of GitLens can port his plugin to Intellij or Eclipse

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