Microsoft joins the Linux foundation as a platinum member

Microsoft has officially joined the Linux foundation as a platinum member. Microsoft and the Open Source community have traditionally been rivals, but the announcement is the latest in a series of steps that Microsoft has taken to embrace Linux.

If you may remember 15 years ago, Steve Ballmer had called Linux " cancer that contaminates other software with hippie GPL rubbish." The IT environment has changed, and it is a new world for Microsoft. Microsoft sees open source as a value addition for the new products and services it provides to its customers now. The initiative is being led by Satya Nadella, as a measure to win business technology battles.

Microsoft has slowly started adopting open source, making it one of the top organisation with the most open source contributors on Github. Over the past few years, Microsoft has built Canonical’s Ubuntu distribution into Windows 10, brought SQL Server to Linux, made the core parts of its .NET platform open sourced and partnered with Red Hat, SUSE and others.

"Microsoft has grown and matured in its use of and contributions to open source technology," said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of The Linux Foundation. "The company has become an enthusiastic supporter of Linux and of open source and a very active member of many important projects. Membership is an important step for Microsoft, but also for the open source community at large, which stands to benefit from the company’s expanding range of contributions."

The cloud services offered by Microsoft are in a large part responsible for this transformation. Customers have been demanding for SQL Server 2016 on Linux, and Microsoft obliged. Users were already running SQL servers on Linux, but with integration, it was possible to support machine learning and advanced analytics on the platform. Ballmer said he loved the announcement and congratulated Nadella on the move. The threat from Linux is behind Microsoft now. The move directly took on Oracle, which long dominated the market.

At the Microsoft Build conference 2016, Microsoft catered to developers, by announcing plans for integrating Linux subsystems into the Windows kernel. This was also a cloud-oriented move, allowing developers to work on the Azure platform. The measure makes Windows a great tool for cross-platform development. Microsoft is also building its own Linux-based operating system. Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) is a cross-platform modular Linux-based OS for controlling the hardware on which cloud services are delivered.

The steps are not meant to compete with Linux, but instead, it's an effort to provide customers with the tools they need. Microsoft had organised a conference called Openness Days in an effort to push cloud services to governments and enterprises, in partnership with the Telangana government. A part of the conference was Open Hack, India's first-ever Open Source on Azure hackathon.

Earlier this year, Microsoft again emphasised its commitment to Linux by making Skype available on Linux and Chrome. Microsoft also open sourced Chakra, the JavaScript engine in Edge. The .NET compiler Roslyn is also open sourced, and available on multiple platforms, including the Mac.

Source: The Linux Foundation

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