Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's master plan is about to be put to a $7.5 billion test

The Nadella-led Microsoft has spent the past several years trying to improve its image and show the world that it's a kinder, gentler company; one more willing to play nicely with others. Now, with the fourth largest acquisition in Microsoft's 43-year history, Nadella's makeover will be put to the test as he tries to convince the GitHub community that they can trust Microsoft with such an important asset. 

Indeed, some, like long-time coder Jacques Mattheij, are concerned that despite Nadella's public commitment to open source, Microsoft hasn't really changed its stripes and will use GitHub only to its own advantage. 

"I'm sure you'll be able to tell I'm a cranky old guy by looking up the dates to some of these references, but 'new boss, same as the old boss' applies as far as I'm concerned. Yes, the new boss is a nicer guy but it's the same corporate entity," Mattheij wrote in a blog entry after news of the acquisition was first reported.

Others have more immediate concerns: Microsoft doesn't have the best track record when it comes to making the most of their acquisitions. The Nokia buy turned into a total fiasco, and many users believe Microsoft mismanaged Skype since its acquisition. Now, developers are concerned that Microsoft will interfere with all the things they like about GitHub.

"What I really love about this is that M$ [sic] realize the product's users are tightly wound to the brand's identity, and are hostile to M$'s. They know they're buying a 'lifestyle brand' and that they have to keep it hip and unencumbered by a corporate behemoth or it'll become worthless," writes user peterwwillis in a Hacker News comment.

Yet another criticism is more abstract. GitHub hosts the source code for millions of pieces of software, from personal passion projects all the way up to Facebook-created app frontend development tools. Having a $781 billion company in ultimate control of all that software is making some uneasy.

"I think what bothers me about this announcement is that _anyone_ owns Github; that is, a tech giant with a lot of influence in the software world owning the largest repository of code in history. Something feels wrong about it. I'd be as uncomfortable with it if Google or Facebook or Apple owned it," writes Hacker News user dclowd9901. 

Developers are doing something about it

In response to the acquisition, at least some developers are rushing to move from GitHub to its competitors. Venture-backed startup GitLab and $15 billion Aussie software giant Atlassian both released charts on Monday showing a surge of developers moving to their respective code-hosting services in the hours following word of the acquisition. SourceForge, too, says it saw a bump. 

Indeed, GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij tells Business Insider that his company has seen 100,000 code repositories moved from GitHub since Bloomberg reported the imminent announcement of the deal on Sunday. In general, GitLab says that it's seen about 10 times as much upload activity than normal over the same span. 

Sijbrandij says that for "a lot of people, this is a wake up call." While both companies are built on the open source Git technology - hence the similar names - GitLab offers a free open source version of its software, and GitHub does not. In that sense, Sijbrandij says that GitHub is a little hypocritical: It supports open source, but doesn't offer any back.

Those competitors aren't being shy about shading Microsoft over the deal, either. In particular, GitLab has gotten the Twitter hashtag #MovingtoGitLab going, encouraging users to tell their stories of ditching GitHub. 

"We compete with Microsoft across many products, and have been very successful with a unique bottoms-up business model. We invest heavily in R&D to build great products that customers choose to use instead of being forced to," Atlassian exec Jens Schumacher tells Business Insider. 

Still, GitLab, at least, isn't writing GitHub off entirely. While Sijbrandij believes that GitLab offers developers a superior tool kit, he acknowledges that Microsoft is always a powerful competitor.

"For sure, we're not underestimating it," says Sijbrandij.

The good news for Microsoft

When Business Insider spoke with outgoing GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath earlier on Monday, he said that the success of the $26.2 billion LinkedIn acquisition, and the $2.5 billion buy of Minecraft creator Mojang, gave him optimism that Microsoft has gotten its act together with regards to big-ticket mergers. 

The good news for Microsoft is that several people in Silicon Valley also share Wanstrath's outlook. There's no doubt that there are still many pessimists out there - but it's a sign of the times that Microsoft has its boosters, too. 

"Since this decision involves our - and that also means Microsoft's - livelihood and the open-source ecosystem as a whole, I'm sure that Microsoft won't f--k this up, and it will remain the GitHub we all know and love," writes Resi Respati on the Practical Dev blog.

"Hot take: What people do not account for is that the GitHub they love would of had to make changes to become profitable. You and the community were getting a very expensive service for free. That would not have continued forever. Microsoft is potentially the best outcome," writes popular InfoSec Twitter account SwiftOnSecurity.

And for Microsoft's part, there seems to be an understanding that there's an uphill battle to be fought to win over the hearts and minds of a significant portion of the community. In a very immediate sense, Microsoft is already willing to commit to never force GitHub users into using Microsoft technology.

"Skepticism is totally understandable, but we're on the right path," outgoing GitHub CEO and future Microsoft Technical Fellow Chris Wanstrath told Business Insider.