# Survey: Impact of Microsoft acquirement of GitHub



## natnaree (Jul 2, 2018)

Dear contributors,

I am Natnaree Asavaseri and currently undertaking a research internship at Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. As a part of my research, I am analyzing the impact of Microsoft's acquirement of GitHub. 

I would like to conduct a survey to understand how developers perceive the Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub, especially from contributors of Linux distributions and BSD families. So please consider voicing your opinion by allowing us up to 5 minutes to complete our short survey. 

https://goo.gl/forms/lbIL5qsinDRQyTaK2

We would like to remind you that participation in this survey is completely voluntary and your identity is hidden for anonymity. Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Natnaree
NAIST, Japan


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## ShelLuser (Jul 2, 2018)

Don't take this the wrong way but that questionnaire has some serious flaws in it. And since you claim to be a student studying all this I figured I'd respond in hopes to help improvement.

So for starters: in both the Google form as well as your message here you clearly state that you're trying to cater to contributors for Linux distributions and BSD families. Kudo's to you expanding your field (seriously). _However..._  Why is the first question: "_Which roles describe your main activities within Linux distributions_"?

Why do you even assume that I'm using Linux at all? Now all of a sudden I get the impression that the BSD environments were an afterthought, maybe to try and get a few more extra votes in? But it doesn't do well for my perception, now I'm starting to wonder why I even bother? (no offense).

Another problem I have: "The GitHub platform is superior to similar platforms". Yet you never ask if the user is actually using any other platforms. So even if I say that it does you have no way to correlate that data. At the very least try to find out what the user is comparing GitHub _against_.

Then you're asking us if we think the takeover will be beneficial or detriment. But why can't I answer that I think it won't have any significant impact at all? I mean... FreeBSD doesn't even use GitHub. Yes, it has a repository but that's merely a spin off from the Subversion repository; set up to cater to Git users but it has no significant leading role within the FreeBSD hierarchy. Yet on a scale from 1 - 5 I cannot give a neutral answer, all I can do is skip the answer. That's another serious flaw in your line of questioning I think.

Other than that the whole thing looks fine enough. Good luck with the study!


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## ralphbsz (Jul 2, 2018)

I'm sorry, but your survey is broken, and is going to give you ridiculous results.

To begin with: all questions are required, even the ones for which an answer is not possible, for example because none of the proposed answers matches my opinion or the situation.  So I'll have to select something wrong.

Language problem: The word "acquirement" is not commonly used to described an acquisition.  I'm not sure it is even an English word.

First page: "Are you a fan of GitHub?", you have to click either yes or no.  That question is way too black and white.  I have used GitHub, I don't particularly like or dislike it, it is a somewhat convenient tool, but there are many other similar tools around.  I'm neither a fan nor an anti-fan of GitHub.  It's like asking me: In your toolbox, you have a  screwdriver and a hammer.  Are you a fan of hammer?

Same page: GitHub appeals because ...  What does it mean to "appeal"?  What does the number of users have to do with appeal?  This question needs way more explanation.

Second page, last question: There is one too many negatives in "None of the distributions ... have never used". 

Same page: You talk a lot about distributions.  I mostly don't contribute to distributions.  I contribute to the Linux kernel, which is used by all Linux distributions.  I have also worked with RedHat, Suse, and various *BSDs, none of which have ever used GitHub.  You seem to think that GitHub is the central repository of all things Linux and BSD, and that is completely wrong.  Mostly, it is one of several repositories for a variety of projects that happen to be deployed on various FOSS operating systems, and it is also the repository for a few minor FOSS distributions.

Pages 3 and 4 don't exist; we go directly from page 2 to 5.  That might be intentional; perhaps you only show pages 3 and 4 to people who selected certain answers.

Page 5: The first two question are about moving the distribution "to" GitHub, while on page 2 you talked about moving distributions away from GitHub.  Which one do you mean?  I can read your questions literally, but I think you actually mean moving the distributions "away from" GitHub on page 5, that makes more sense.

Page 5, you ask about other personal experiences with GitHub, and then list "contribute to other projects on GitHub or have personal projects on GitHub", and "have never used GitHub".  You forgot the most common experience, which is to use GitHub to read documentation and source code, and download code from it, without contributing any.  And then you have to click at least one of them, but you can click both, which is laughable: It makes no sense to select "I have never used GitHub" yet "I contribute to other projects".

After filling out the survey, I did not submit it, since my responses would actually just skew your results, since they describe the actual interactions of a real developer with GitHub.


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## ShelLuser (Jul 2, 2018)

Nicely spotted ralphbsz.

I never paid attention to the page numbering but you're right: you go from page 2 to page 4 and then from page 4 to page 6.

So I just took the test a second time (time of writing, didn't submit) and I kid you not: I think the author is changing and editing the whole thing (now, time of writing). Because I see items which weren't there before and which make NO sense anymore. For starters the new blue headers.

(edit) But...  I also suspect that one question might trigger a jump to a specific page, though I'm not too sure and I can't be bothered to try 

This is NOT the right way to conduct a professional survey, that's for sure


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## drhowarddrfine (Jul 2, 2018)

There are a number of threads started today by new users of this forum and I find that very curious.


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## natnaree (Aug 7, 2018)

Dear contributors,

I am happy to announce that we are ready to release preliminary results of the "Developer Perception to Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub" survey. These results can be accessed at "https://naist-se.github.io/study-of-microsofts-github-acquisition/". Again thank you for your participation and please feel free to share or discuss these results.

Natnaree
NAIST, Japan


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## PacketMan (Aug 10, 2018)

What is Microsoft?


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## nactusberrilli (Aug 10, 2018)

natnaree said:


> As a part of my research, I am analyzing the impact of Microsoft's acquirement of GitHub.


Answer is simple: look at Skype.
1. Highly centralized
2. Highly monitored
3. User data shared with third-parties and data-brokers.

A good idea (p2p communication) turned into loads of corporate *poopoo! *Now ask yourself: what do you think they'll do to GITHub? The only thing they know how to do: either dump it or turn it into more *shhh--iness. *



PacketMan said:


> What is Microsoft?


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