Please don't ruin something that works fine by adding unnecessary crap. The only thing Microsoft has to do, is to take a good look at GitLab so they know what they absolutely NOT should do.
What, make good money building loads of features people actually need? To me it feels like GitHub has stood nearly still the past 5 years. I didn't even consider GitHub when choosing a solution for our business and 5 years ago I thought GitHub was the greatest open core business in the world.
Whatever they did with that huge investment, it wasn't building value. The investors probably got their money back and then some when Microsoft bought it though..
Hey efiecho, Community Advocate from GitLab here! I'm sorry to hear that you are not a fan of our actions and/or decisions.
Can you please dive into specifics a little bit and explain what parts of GitLab could be improved and what are some high-level things that you don't particularly like?
I should probably have been more specific in my critique, as it sounds like I think GitLab has major problems. It's just regarding the web interface.
On every other Git repository manager, we can browse source code, view replies to both issues and merge requests without Javascript enabled. But not on GitLab. I don't expect anything advanced to work without Javascript, but these simple operations definitely should and I think it's very bad design to have this requirement. The result of this Javascript overuse is that GitLab is both slower and a bigger pain to use than the alternatives. Use Javascript in small amounts were it make sense for functionality, not just for showing text, pictures or other simple things.
There, my two cents. So, what I meant was that Microsoft should look at GitLab and NOT copy the web interface. GitHub has a nice web interface, with Javascript in acceptable amounts and where it make sense, even the language details bar works without.
Whatever they did with that huge investment, it wasn't building value. The investors probably got their money back and then some when Microsoft bought it though..