Hell freezes over....

[Dr Mordrid]

But will they encourage cross platform development by Windows developers, or will Windows evolve into a premium Linux port....dragging them along?

https://www.extremetech.com/computin...nux-foundation

Hell freezes over as Microsoft joins the Linux Foundation

Fifteen years ago, Steve Ballmer memorably declared Linux was a cancer. Now, Microsoft announced it was joining the Linux Foundation. Thats not a completely unprecedented move, given that Microsoft has been getting steadily chummier with open source software over the last few years. Theres a Linux Bash shell integrated into Windows 10s Anniversary Update, after all. But joining the organization responsible for maintaining Linux and for funding various open source projects? Thats a true 180 from where the company used to be.

Microsoft also launched a beta of SQL Server for Linux, while Google just joined the .NET Foundation, PC World reports. Microsoft is releasing a version of Visual Studio for the Mac, although this is based on Xamarin, not a straight port of Visual Studio. Samsung has a preview version of Visual Studio for Tizen, which will allow .NET applications to be built for Samsungs non-Android hardware. If you wanted to blow someones mind from 2010, try telling them that Microsoft will help build Linux, Samsung wants VS support for Tizen, and Google has added .NET after spending so much time and effort investing in Java.

Microsofts move to embrace Linux is undoubtedly driven by changing macroeconomic conditions around the PC business. For decades, as the dominant server and consumer operating system, Microsoft had very little reason to play nice with others or work to emphasize interoperability. The explosion of the mobile market and the companys complete failure to penetrate it has left it little option but to seek other types of collaboration and cross-platform support. Building products that work seamlessly across both Linux and Windows is one way for Redmond to ensure it remains relevant across the data center and server markets.

Microsoft is hitting all the right notes in terms of aligning its developer business with an ecosystem much broader than Windows, IDC Program Director Al Hilwa told PC World. Joining the Linux Foundation is a natural progression of this strategy and one that might still generate a double take if it wasnt for all the actions the company has already taken in terms of supporting Linux in Azure and with SQL Server.
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[Belwarrior]

Something I would never have foresee or believe a few years ago

[VJ]

In 2010-2011, Microsoft was ranked 17th as kernel contributor: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04...contributions/ . It later dropped again in the ranking as those contributions were to support Hyper-V, but they did it.

Recently, they released the bash shell for Windows as well: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/about

It seems Microsoft is not that closed off as they used to be, their Windows IOT ( https://developer.microsoft.com/pl-p...iot/getstarted ), e.g. on Raspberry Pi is gaining popularity.

I for one would not be surprised if they move from a software supplier to a service supplier, where they will charge for services (e.g. onedrive, office, ...). In my view, the Windows platform could even become free, as they want to provide users with a platform to access their paid services. But if a user would be able to access those paid services from Linux, no problem: a paid user is a paid user.

[Jammrock]

[Usual disclosure: I work for Microsoft but these opinions are my own.]

Not a huge shock for me. Microsoft has been a top Linux contributor for several years. Mostly Hyper-V stuff, but a few other things as well.

There are also two internal Linux distros used in Azure. There's a long story as to why, but it boils down to not reinventing the wheel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Linux_distributions

There are a ton of MSFT apps on Android, iOS, and Mac, and I wouldn't be surprised if some Linux ports are upcoming. Plus SQL Server 2016 for Linux coming out, and OSS versions of .NET and PowerShell for Linux.

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/powershell-is-open-sourced-and-is-available-on-linux/

https://dotnet.github.io

One of the big statements that the new CEO has made frequently is the Microsoft loves Linux. The products and actions by the uppers has shown this to be a very real statement.

But I think VJ hit the nail on the head. It's boiling down to opening our services to everyone, regardless of what platform they use. A sale is a sale, and a lot of our services are subscription based, which is essentially a scheduled sale in exchange for unrestricted updates and additional services.

But if Consumer X uses Windows at work, Mac and Home, and Android on mobile, then sticking with MSFT services wouldn't make sense if everything was locked down to the Windows platform. This would not only cause people to look elsewhere for key services, but it would increase competition in those key services.

So MSFT built Office for everything (except Linux/FreeBSD, but it can be used on the web and I'm pretty sure the stand alone product is in the works). And Azure is open to just about everything. And our products are showing up on just about all the platforms. As long as it makes business sense, of course.

There's been a lot of talk about Windows becoming a Linux port. I don't see that happening any time soon, if ever. Windows Licensing is a huge cash cow for Microsoft, and Windows does a lot of things a lot easier than Linux. Especially in the Enterprise. And with IoT, Containers, and Nano server builds now out we have products with resource and security footprints to match Linux, but with the full blown Windows management suite available to control them. And that makes Windows a fierce competitor in all the markets and improves the argument against switching to *nix based servers (which has traditionally been resource usage and security footprint, which Windows can now match).

Anyway, glad to see the open mindedness of upper management. Even if some of the reasons have to do with the bottom line...