--Jim Allchin, Microsoft's Platform Group Vice President
"Bad artists copy. Great artists steal," Pablo Picasso said. That actually inspired Apple's co-founder, who apparently knew he hadn't created much (his co-founder did much of the technical work).
"Microsoft has a reputation for taking other people's work, rebranding that work as Microsoft's own."Microsoft is similar. We recently mentioned how Bill Gates only 'succeeded' because of his mom's connections at IBM (she was a high-society scion, not some modest teacher). The real achievers are forgotten if not prematurely dead.
Microsoft has a reputation for taking other people's work, rebranding that work as Microsoft's own. The list of examples is seemingly endless. Several days ago, owing to negative press, Microsoft was finally forced to admit it had done so yet again. This affected GitHub repositories, which ought to be a cautionary tale to anybody who still participates in GitHub. Below we make a record of articles in roughly chronological or at least logical order:
Beigi interviewed in December, and then never heard anything back from the company for nearly six months until he received a 24-hour heads up that Microsoft was launching winget last week. “When I finally saw the announcement and the GitHub repositories, I was shocked? Upset? I wasn’t even sure what I was looking at,” says Beigi.
Beigi claims the “core mechanics, terminology, the manifest format and structure, even the package repository’s folder structure” of Microsoft’s winget are all heavily inspired by AppGet. Microsoft only briefly mentions AppGet once in its announcement, in a throwaway line that lists other Windows package managers.
“What was copied with no credit is the foundation of the project. How it actually works,” explains Beigi in a separate Reddit post. “And I don’t mean the general concept of package / app managers... WinGet works pretty much identical to the way AppGet works.”
TLDR; I’m no longer going to be developing AppGet. The client and backend services will go into maintenance mode immediately until August 1st, 2020, at which point they’ll be shut down permanently.
A week ago, Microsoft announced a new Windows Package Manager (winget) at Build 2020. It was one of the few unexpected reveals during the virtual developer conference. However, one developer now says Microsoft copied his technology and integrated it into Windows.
Keivan Beigi, who created a package manager called AppGet, says Microsoft showed a lot of interest in the tool last year. He says the company spoke to him and was interested in AppGet. Later, the company ghosted Beigi and he did not hear from Microsoft again.
Fast forward to Build, and Windows Package Manager arrives (winget) looking suspiciously like AppGet. Beigi says he was shocked to see winget copied so much from his solution.
Keivan Beigi, developer of AppGet, has described how Microsoft nearly hired him to work on the open-source Windows package manager as an official feature, then went quiet for six months before announcing WinGet, which Beigi says is "very inspired by AppGet".
Microsoft unveiled WinGet at its Build virtual event earlier this month. At the time, Senior program manager Demitrius Nelon said: "What about insert any other package manager here? We think they are great... We have already talked with a few of the well-known package manager teams. Chocolatey has a vibrant community with a massive collection of applications, and a rich history supporting both open-source and enterprise customers. Scoop provides a convenient way to allow software to be installed without the UAC popups. Ninite keeps an eye on updates for all the apps it installed. There are many others like AppGet, Npackd and the PowerShell-based OneGet package manager-manager."
AppGet got a mention here, but only as a footnote. Beigi's account gives a different perspective. He says he was approached in July 2019 by a "high-level manager at Microsoft" from the Windows app deployment team. The manager thanked him for building AppGet and making "life so much easier" for Windows developers and asked to meet Beigi to "get feedback on how we can make your life easier building AppGet".
Last week, Microsoft released its new Windows Package Manager, called WinGet. But as it turns out, they stole it: Keivan Beigi, the creator of a popular package manager called AppGet, describes how Microsoft wooed him last year and discussed employing him, only to later ghost him and release WinGet, which he says is basically identical to AppGet.
Microsoft's Andrew Clinick, a group program manager in the Windows team who is involved with the development of the WinGet package manager, has tried to make good with the open-source community by publishing an acknowledgement of what was borrowed from the existing AppGet project.
A preview of WinGet was released by Microsoft during the recent virtual Build event, prompting the developer of AppGet, Keivan Beigi, to post about how he was approached by Microsoft in July 2019, supposedly to offer him help with development. He said he was questioned by the vendor in detail about his package management ideas, invited to apply for a job with Microsoft to work on an official version of AppGet, and then heard nothing until the moment before WinGet was launched.
Microsoft is crediting a developer after he accused the company of copying the core mechanics of its new Windows Package Manager. AppGet developer Keivan Beigi provided a detailed account of Microsoft reaching out with interest about his package manager, inviting him for interviews, and then ghosting him for months before unveiling its own package manager that he felt was inspired by his work.
Beigi claimed the “core mechanics, terminology, the manifest format and structure, even the package repository’s folder structure” of Microsoft’s Windows Package Manager (winget) are all heavily inspired by AppGet. Microsoft only briefly mentioned AppGet once in its announcement, in a throwaway line that lists other Windows package managers. A variety of Windows package managers exist, and are used to automate the process of installing and updating apps.
Back at Build 2020 last month, Microsoft introduced a new Windows Package Manager (Winget) for Windows 10. The new tool allows developers to easily download services to help app development. However, the new open source solution found controversy after the creator of a similar tool argued Microsoft has stolen his idea.
Microsoft has now admitted it should have credited Keivan Beigi for his work in getting WinGet off the ground. However, the company stopped short of apologizing to the Canadian developer.
Windows Package Manager presents a way for developers to access tools that are not available to them from the Microsoft Store. If you want to know how to use WinGet with PowerShell or GUI, check out our tutorial here.
Last week, Beigi, who built the open-source AppGet package manager for Windows, accused Microsoft of copying his work for WinGet without acknowledging his product's influence.
Beigi says Microsoft copied large parts of AppGet to deliver WinGet, the Windows package manager announced at Microsoft Build 2020. Last week, he detailed his discussions with a senior manager at Microsoft named Andrew who approached him in July 2019 with an invitation to meet and discuss "how we can make your life easier building AppGet".
Microsoft has belatedly credited the Canadian developer of AppGet as the inspiration for its WinGet package manager for Windows 10, after mentioning the original app only in passing during a recent launch event.
Microsoft launched a preview of WinGet at the Build developer conference in May, and after saying it had talked with the ” well-known package manager teams” behind Chocolatey, Scoop and Ninite, the company mentioned there were also “many other” apps including “AppGet, Npackd and the PowerShell based OneGet package manager-manager”.
Following the launch, developer Keivan Beigi, of Vancouver, Canada, said he would be discontinuing the development of AppGet, a package manager for Windows he has said he developed in response to frustrations with existing tools such as Chocolatey.