Microsoft GitHub the monopoly and potatoes substitutes

Last night, Bloomberg announced that Microsoft has acquired GitHub, and the company is expected to go public later today.
What could Microsoft gain from this acquisition?
First, let's talk about the big blue elephant called Azure. We wouldn't be surprised if Redmond uses GitHub to compete with AWS. With millions of developers under its belt, Microsoft could make that a reality.
Microsoft could also bundle GitHub with its offerings into a single package. So we could see a GitHub account bundled with Visual Studio Professional/Enterprise.
The acquisition of GitHub, as we mentioned in a previous post, is a very good PR move for Microsoft. Using a brand name that was at the core of open source development is a very good strategy for a company that is desperately trying to retire its "embrace, extend, and delete" legacy.
But let's get to the hard part: Over the years, GitHub has established itself as a near-monopoly.
So Microsoft’s acquisition of the company has spooked some developers, many of whom are considering turning to rival services. Competition is good, although monopolies are rare. It will be interesting to see how GitLab and BitBucket handle the crisis.
But is Microsoft a monopoly? If you claim it is, forget about its market share. The reality is much simpler.
In a nutshell:
The company’s entire product line is based on “intellectual property rights.” And the most outrageous thing is that they are charging us, the taxpayer, with the cost of enforcing the rights.
Let’s look at an example. Imagine you want to get into the potato business. You buy a potato and plant it. You invest your time and energy to multiply the potato and build a huge farm. When it’s time to harvest, you can sell your potatoes in direct competition with the person who sold you the first potato.
Now imagine that you want to sell Windows instead of potatoes: you buy a copy of Windows, copy it N times, and start selling them. Just like the example above with the potatoes. …. They’ll put you in jail!
So, as you can see, it’s a crime to compete with Microsoft on the same products. You’d have to invent your own “potato” if you wanted to compete with such a company, but you’d still be selling a substitute for their products. So Redmond is buying up the substitutes space, and that certainly adds some monopoly bonuses to the company’s coffers.
Now imagine a world where there’s only one supplier of products. That’s exactly what’s happening right now with closed-source software. This is where open-source software is trying to establish itself as the only area where competition on the same product is allowed.
From this perspective, Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub is a defeat for the free software community and another victory for Redmond.