You obviously have never worked at Microsoft, for Microsoft, or been acquired by Microsoft. I have experienced all of those on separate occasions. I thought of writing up a explanation, but then I realised anything I wrote would very easily be tracked back to me, so I've decided not to. It's not worth the risk. My 5-year estimate is NOT
a magic number, it's based on several experiences. I will add here that working *for* them (as an FTE) was actually fine, but what they do to companies they buy is generally negative.
You probably aren't aware
of this. Note that that was a little over a year ago.
The failure of Codeplex should be making you look upon the GitHub acquisition with a raised eyebrow; amazing it isn't.
People don't just use GitHub as "just an online git repo" -- person can run one of those themselves (
git init isn't hard, throw in some horrible HostGator web hosting and bam, you've got yourself an online git repo) -- they use for it's UI, its Issues (bug/feature tracker), source code commentary, pull request methodology, and tons of other stuff. I use it both personally and professionally, but this current ordeal has most companies who rely on GH starting to look at alternatives, including designing/running their own internally. It's not going over particularly well.
Remember what happened with Sourceforge for a couple years, after being bought out? Look for DevShare if you aren't familiar.
Microsoft does not have a generally positive track record when it comes to running and offering mostly-free public online services.
Microsoft is not buying GitHub "because it's what their programmers/engineers use". They're buying it because it has something they want to own and take over, no matter what the ramifications. Back in the 90s, with ST:TNG and all, people drew an analogy between them and the Borg. It's actually truer than people think, but it happens at a much slower pace than that of the fictional race.
What people also overlook (I have no idea *how* someone can overlook this) is the fact that employees who have been with the bought company get worn out due to the new red tape and politics, and leave -- so suddenly you have good engineers who know how to manage/maintain something (probably helped architect/design it) departing, and all their knowledge goes with them (no amount of documentation can replace that of human experience).
My comment stands. Five years.