Bitcoin Core developers along with the other crypto enthusiasts have reacted negatively to the announcement that Microsoft ( the NASDAQ : MSFT ) has reached an agreement to take over a software development platform GitHub. They are now calling to abandon GitHub in favor of an independent platform.
The move comes despite that in the past GitHub reiterated its will to remain autonomous, even planning to enter the IPO in 2017. But the company has been without a CEO ever since its co-founder Chris Wanstrath left his post in August 2017 and has not turned a profit ever since its creation a decade ago. So the timing of the takeover is coming in handy for the financial stability of the company, and less do for the users.
“Yes. No real hurry, but I expect this is the beginning of a long painful road of gh toward obsolence, possibly ending the same way as codeplex did.”- Bitcoin Core developer Vladimir van der Laan commented on Twitter, answering the question on a possible GitHub used exodus. He clarified his position further: “many bitcoin core contributors already preferred moving to independently hosted infrastructure in the long run”.
The main alternative appears to be a long term rival of GitHub, the GitLab repository as its #movingtogitlab hashtag is gaining popularity among the Twitter users.
GitHub takeover
On Monday, June 4, world’s leading software developer Microsoft announced that it had agreed to purchase the GitHub web service. The deal will take place in the format of transfer of shares - shareholders of GitHub will receive Microsoft shares for $ 7.5 billion.
Microsoft promised to retain GitHub as a developer-first ethos and continue to operate independently by providing an open platform for all developers in all industries.
“Developers will continue to be able to use the programming languages, tools and operating systems of their choice for their projects — and will still be able to deploy their code to any operating system, any cloud and any device” - Microsoft stated in their announcement.
By Nadya Astam