I used to think GitHub Codespaces would help popularise Gitpod but now realize it is the other way around. Gitpod is currently permitted to exist in the Visual Studio Code ecosystem to popularise GitHub Codespaces, and Microsoft can step in at any moment to create legal crises that strategically divide the market from a business perspective because, like Apple and their AppStore: it is their ecosystem that they control and they are in absolute control.

In this blog post, we explore the ecosystem of open-source forks, revisit the story so far with how Microsoft has been transforming from products to services, go deep into why the Visual Studio Code ecosystem is designed to fracture, and the legal implications of this design then discuss future problems faced by the software development ecosystem if our industry continues as-is on the current path…

  • eluvatar@programming.dev
    31·
    8 months ago

    I think when it becomes a problem it won’t be hard for the community to build their own extensions that can be used anywhere. It doesn’t hurt right now so that work hasn’t been done yet.

    • jeffhykin@lemm.ee
      3·
      8 months ago

      Will it ever hurt though? Its designed to make GitPod just feel uncomfortable while making VS Code feels good.