More than 28 million developers already collaborate on GitHub, and it is home to more than 85 million code repositories used by people in nearly every country. From the largest corporations to the smallest startups, GitHub is the destination for developers to learn, share and work together to create software. It’s a destination for Microsoft too. We are the most active organization on GitHub, with more than 2 million “commits,” or updates, made to projects.
If you’ve been reading my blog for the last few years you’ll know that I’m rather bullish on what Satya Nadella has been doing within Microsoft. Today’s Microsoft is one that embraces open source, contributes heavily to it, allows developers to use any language and platform, etc.
The news that they’ve agreed to acquire GitHub later this year is not surprising at all. I’ve tried to find public evidence where I’ve stated that Microsoft should buy GitHub but for the life of me I cannot find it. I would go so far as to say that Microsoft was the best possible exit for GitHub.
Given some of the negativity I’ve seen around this news, it is my guess that MSFT is going to go out of its way to make sure the community knows they will be good stewards of GitHub. So prepare to see them invest rather heavily on the platform, features, team, and community-related initiatives. Which are all very good things.
Keep watching, I think we’re going to be seeing a Microsoft that none of us would have ever thought possible just a few short years ago.
