This was after seeing those ridiculous PRs where microsoft engineers patiently deconstructed AI slop PRs they were forced to deal with on the open source repos they maintained.
When he was gone a few months later and github was folded into microsoft's org chart the writing was firmly on the wall.
He was never truly independent though. The org structure was such that the GitHub CEO reported up through a Microsoft VP and Satya. He was never really a CEO after the acquisition, it was in name only.
Also of note is that the Microsoft org chart always showed GitHub in that structure while the org chart available to GitHub stopped at their CEO. Its not that they were finally rolled into Microsoft's org chart so much as they lifted the veil and stopped pretending.
I never said he was "truly independent" nor meant to imply it.
Nonetheless it looks like he was both willing and able to push back on a good deal of the AI stupidity raining down from above and then he was removed and then, well, this...
You said he was independent, I didn't include "truly" intending to make a distinction there. How could one be an independent CEO while reporting to a VP who reports to another CEO?
I don't personally know him and wouldn't begin to assume on what, or how, he pushed back. Though Microsoft had AI in the GitHub org well before the leadership change - the AI leader now in charge of GitHub was previously in charge of an AI org that was moved over in the org chart to dotted line report as embedded employees, or whatever they would have been called.
When I saw his interview: https://thenewstack.io/github-ceo-on-why-well-still-need-hum... i thought "oh, there is some semblance of sanity at Microsoft".
This was after seeing those ridiculous PRs where microsoft engineers patiently deconstructed AI slop PRs they were forced to deal with on the open source repos they maintained.
When he was gone a few months later and github was folded into microsoft's org chart the writing was firmly on the wall.