Microsoft, the software giant, has joined the Linux Foundation as a Platinum member. This announcement was made at Microsoft’s Connect developer event in New York on Wednesday. The move is Microsoft’s attempt to work closely with the open source community, which has been the main focus in many of its developer-focused events recently.
Additionally, beating Google and Facebook, Microsoft is also the leading open source contributor on GitHub. The software giant will be joining Cisco, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Huawei, IBM, Intel, NEC, Oracle, Qualcomm, and Samsung on The Linux Foundation as a Platinum member.
This is a huge turnaround on Microsoft’s part, which was initially totally against the open source model of Linux. And now it is paying $500,000 per annum to become a platinum member of the same group. The Verge points out former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had once called Linux cancer.
Ballmer in 2001 had said in an interview, “Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.”
The executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise Group, Scott Guthrie, said: “As a cloud platform company we aim to help developers achieve more using the platforms and languages they know. The Linux Foundation is home not only to Linux, but many of the community’s most innovative open source projects. We are excited to join The Linux Foundation and partner with the community to help developers capitalize on the shift to intelligent cloud and mobile experiences.”
The Linux Foundation announced, “Microsoft has steadily increased its engagement in open source projects and communities.” It is also “a leading open source contributor on GitHub” now, and had earlier released the open source.”
The executive director of the Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin, said in the press statement. “Microsoft has grown and matured in its use of and contributions to open source technology. 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.”
Microsoft has also partnered with Canonical to bring Ubuntu, (an open source software platform that runs everywhere from the smartphone to the cloud) to Windows 10.
