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After going through the stages of Acceptance of Change – Microsoft is acquiring GitHub – Devs are now making nerdy memes about it

by Felix Omondi
github

Open-source die-hards must have been crashed when news first broke out that Microsoft is in talks to acquire GitHub. The largest code repository, which has grown to be quite popular among developers and other big companies hosting their entire projects, documentation, and code.

Even big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple and even Microsoft use GitHub. For the record, Microsoft is now the top contributor to GitHub; the company has some 1,000 employees actively pushing out codes into the repository. So the move by Microsoft to acquire the platform should not come as a big surprise. Though it is interesting to note the company had a competing depository Codeplex, but Microsoft decided to kill it, and have its developers (devs) contribute to GitHub.

It is reported that there are over 85 million repositories hosted on the platform, with about 28 million devs actively contributing to it.

It is now no longer a ‘bar rumor’ Microsoft came out and confirmed it is paying up $7.5 billion in stock for GitHub, in a deal that will be closed by the end of this year. This deal is as good as wrapped up! So devs still hoping this is not happening, you better get on board first; though your concerns are warranted. Microsoft has not be known to be a firm believer in open-source, which has been the backbone of GitHub.

The company also has a history of destroying companies it has acquired; you only need to look at Nokia and Skype. These companies were big and flourishing, but once they were bought by Microsoft, it was all down-hill from there.

There are reports that GitLab, a competitor of GitHub, has seen 10 times increase in the amount of devs contribution to its repositories. That could be an early sign of a mass exodus of devs from GitHub to alternatives.

Microsoft is well aware the open-source community does not trust them when it comes to remaining loyal to open-source. “When it comes to our commitment to open source, judge us by the actions we have taken in the recent past, our actions today, and in the future,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO.

On the flip side, the fact that Microsoft will be in control of the platform, it may raise trust level for the platform for big corporations and businesses. Simply because, a lot of businesses already use Microsoft other products, and trust the company to keep their projects secure and source control.

The company has indeed lately been pushing out open source technology in the form of PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, and the Microsoft Edge JavaScript engine (all open source). The company also partnered with Canonical and brought Ubuntu to Windows 10 and also acquired Xamarin for developing mobile apps.

Be that as it may, devs (though some have shown signs of leaving GitHub for alternatives like GitLab among others) have gone through all the stages of acceptance shock > denial > anger > bargaining > depression > Testing > Acceptance.

They are now making memes about the whole ordeal. Below are some of the memes that stood out for us:

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