Microsoft acquires Github – does it make sense?

Microsoft have to reach the future generations of coders and GitHub is a common denominator for coders. This shows that Microsoft believes in developers, and AI, for the long-term. This is visionary and I love the forward-looking aspect of development.

What will Microsoft get?

– VS Code
– TypeScript
– Electron
– GitHub

This is crucial, since it puts Microsoft running through the veins of modern development, for now and the future. Microsoft are meeting developers where they are.

This is also very forward thinking. I was mentoring at an AI Hackathon this weekend, and I noted that the teens weren’t using Visual Studio for AI. They were using JavaScript and tensorflow JS. All of the teens all had a GitHub account and they were happily checking code in and out. They were very proud of having repositories full of code since they felt that it was proof of their coding abilities.

Microsoft is the largest user of Github so it is largely invested in it already. It’s not just self-protection, however, it goes well with the best IDE ever: Visual Studio. I am excited about the opportunities that it brings for Microsoft and developers.

What will happen next?

Who knows, but here is my take. It’s a more subtle New, One Microsoft because they do seem to be leaving GitHub to run independently, rather than Microsofting it. LinkedIn accounts were not merged into Live IDs or Office365 accounts. I think that Github will take the same road. Nat Friedman will be CEO, so it looks like GitHub will run independently as normal. Why change something that works? That isn’t solving a problem.

To summarise, yes, it absolutely makes sense. Microsoft are looking at future generations as well as existing requirements. That’s true leadership, and it is a new Microsoft.

More reading:

• Press release: https://news.microsoft.com/?p=406917
• Satya Nadella’s Blog Post: https://blogs.microsoft.com/?p=52553832
• Chris Wanstrath’s Blog Post: https://blog.github.com/2018-06-04-github-microsoft/