Microsoft Won’t Mess Up GitHub, Executive Says

Microsoft was once so hostile to open-source software that former CEO Steve Ballmer called it a “cancer.” That history worries open-source developers who rely on GitHub, which Microsoft is buying. But the Microsoft executive who will take the reins of GitHub when the deal is completed says developers shouldn’t worry.

Under CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has embraced open-source software, says incoming GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. “Microsoft is like a recovering alcoholic: It was against open source, but is now taking steps to amend its behavior and show that it has really changed,” he said  in an onstage interview at The Information’s annual Subscriber Summit in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Box CEO Aaron Levie told the summit that he hoped Box could take advantage of the “massive” growth potential in the cloud file-sharing and collaboration market by staying independent.