GitHub is no longer independent at Microsoft after CEO resignation

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Concerns about GitHub’s future under CoreAI

  • Many expect GitHub to “get worse”: more AI integration, less attention to core hosting, review, and issue workflows.
  • Fear that GitHub’s main role becomes an internal AI asset: a massive training corpus and data honeypot for Microsoft models rather than a developer-first product.
  • Some worry about more outages and random breakages as org pressure to ship AI features accelerates.

AI‑first strategy and “agent factory” vision

  • The move into Microsoft’s CoreAI org is read as a clear signal that GitHub is now an AI‑product with a code-hosting side business, not the other way around.
  • The “agent factory” rhetoric is widely mocked as buzzword-heavy and disconnected from what developers actually need from GitHub.
  • A minority notes upside: placement in CoreAI likely secures investment and alignment with Azure / platform strategy; Copilot itself is seen by some as genuinely useful.

Security, privacy, and licensing worries

  • Strong backlash over LLMs trained on public code (including copyleft) and alleged use of private repos; some call this “plagiarizing stolen code”.
  • Security/audit implications are debated: some auditors already resist GitHub usage, especially under US cloud jurisdiction (Cloud Act concerns).
  • Others counter that audits vary, some are “theater,” and GitHub claims not to train on private repositories, but trust is low.

Developer experience and product quality

  • Many feel GitHub and VS Code changelogs have shifted from core improvements to mostly AI features.
  • Complaints about GitHub Actions: flakiness, key actions going into minimal maintenance, and YAML-based CI seen as fragile and under-designed.
  • UI/UX regressions (slow React rewrites, intrusive Copilot prompts, missing basics like IPv6) are cited as signs of post‑acquisition decay.

Alternatives and migration

  • Significant interest in GitLab, Forgejo/Codeberg, Gitea, self‑hosted forges, and newer players like Tangled or jujutsu-based services.
  • Tradeoffs noted: GitLab perceived as powerful but heavy and pricey; Forgejo/Gitea lighter but less polished; social/discoverability and third‑party integrations still anchor many to GitHub.

Views on Microsoft and inevitability

  • Long historical distrust of Microsoft resurfaces: repeated references to “embrace, extend, extinguish,” product enshittification, and lock‑in via Azure and tooling.
  • Some argue this outcome was inevitable once GitHub was sold; others point out Microsoft also brought real improvements (Actions, free private repos) before the current AI tilt.