Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by purpleidea 2066 days ago
The main problematic thing about this is that it can be used as a way for Microsoft to push their beliefs and agendas. It further centralizes git even more.

For example (extreme case to make a point), imagine if the questions were like:

1) Which is the most reliable git platform? (a) github (b) gitlab (c) gitweb

2) Which is the best license for new code? (a) MIT (b) GPLv3 (c) ALv2

3) Which is better for coding? (a) spaces (b) tabs (c) both

The point is that Microsoft shouldn't be the central authority for git things. Lets make the internet, the web, and development in general more decentralized.

4 comments

Taking a look at the sample questions provided (questions and correct answers):

Q4: Which licensing statement best describes a project to be truly open source?

* it is recommended to choose a license because without it, the default copyright laws apply

(technically correct but yeah)

Q5: Which statements are true about GitHub Marketplace?

* a digital catalog with hundreds of software listings from independent software vendors

* a place where apps and actions can be found to improve your workflow

(marketing/ad)

Github recommended that you choose a license even before MS acquisition
Sure, but it's a poor choice for the one statement that "best describes a project to be truly open source"
Yeah that's weird, it's incomplete basically. As if the question were 'what's potentially more open source, licence or no licence?'
It didn't had "the BEST license"
Q4 seems to be ensuring that people are informed that source visible and open source are not the same thing. If you don't understand copyright, it's easy to think that you can just publish code without a license and have it be usable by everyone for any reason.
> it is recommended to choose a license because without it, the default copyright laws apply

I think this is something even the FSF will tell people.

I am so hoping ForgeFed to become widely available and adopted, maybe not by Github but by many other code forge implementations out there, knitting decentralized development together using the fabric of the Fediverse.

https://forgefed.peers.community/

4) Which is the best editor for writing code? (a) VS Code (b) VS (c) Notepad (d) Wordpad
Emphasis on "can be"; nobody's stopping the competition for coming up with similar schemes, and while they have the biggest market / mindshare when it comes to git / open source hosting, they are definitely not the only one and the alternatives are great.

I can see how it's a bit like indoctrination though, but as another thread mentions, the AWS certification isn't that different; the first certification you can achieve there is pretty much learning the marketing message and talking points from AWS and cloud computing as a whole.

> I can see how it's a bit like indoctrination though, but as another thread mentions, the AWS certification isn't that different; the first certification you can achieve there is pretty much learning the marketing message and talking points from AWS and cloud computing as a whole.

In other words, AWS certifications suck too. I don't see how that excuses MS or GH.