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The US understands the threat of foreign tech companies/apps gathering data on US citizens and manipulating their behaviour and is looking to ban TikTok.

Dear @EU_Commission, here’s an incomplete list of foreign tech companies/apps gathering data on EU citizens and manipulating their behaviour:

- Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.)
- Alphabet, Inc. (Google, YouTube, etc.)
- Twitter, Inc.
- Microsoft (Windows, etc.)
- Snap, Inc.

Thoughts?

#SiliconValley #BigTech #us #eu

@aral @EU_Commission

#Github is an important one that's missing on the #Microsoft entry.

Looks so deceptively open to the naive eye, but is a huge trap of walled garden lock-in, esp. with all the stuff that's being added right now to this all-pervasive platform.

#FreeYourCode or otherwise #GiveUpGithub I'd say to all the many governmental institutions in the #EU that are considering it in their - well-meant - efforts to move towards #FOSS. Before the next problem is at your doorstep.

@zlatko @aral @EU_Commission

Exactly. On the full front of Software Development. Dunno what's in that future, but if I'd speculate I see regular git workflows going extinct (for devs using their platform that is).

In that future, if you're even working offline, you'd get some blob with a full-blown dev environment and the code sitting somewhere hidden within, not directly accessible as files, only to surface magically in your VSCode.

@smallcircles @aral @EU_Commission

And most of the code is written by copilot.

@smallcircles @aral @EU_Commission and you're just a mechanical turk for pull request reviews, fixing typos the bots make.

@zlatko @aral @EU_Commission

Thank you, future overlord, for your wise insights 🙏 😛

@zlatko @aral @EU_Commission

(Yes, I tricked the screenshot. Original prompt was: "Can you write a brief blog about a futuristic version of GitHub that eliminates the need for a local git workflow and setting up infrastructure, that focuses on boosting productivity and collaboration among remote teams and all stakeholders in the development process? List the most important innovations as bullet points" .. luckily ChatGPT wasn't as good at imagining the future GH yet)

@smallcircles @zlatko @aral @EU_Commission I have only been writing software for most of my lifetime, so what do I know?

Well, retaining local git (or version control) workflow with an editor which you control is of very high importance. Don't let some BigCorp webbed-site take that away from you and then rent it back at an exorbitant cost. Automated code analysis is good to locate bugs before they happen, but don't let Microsoft become an intermediary in doing that.

Microsoft always wants to be the bridge troll between the developer and their deployment. This is the whole "developers developers developers" thing. Don't allow yourself to become a slave to them, as previous generations did. Because that path does not lead to a good place even though every step of it may seem "convenient" at the time.

@smallcircles @aral @EU_Commission no-cheat version also says that GitHub is the future: