Microsoft Takes Platinum Membership in Linux Foundation

In a move that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, #Microsoft today announced it is becoming a Platinum member of the #LinuxFoundation. As a Platinum member, Microsoft will provide $500,000 a year to the Linux Foundation and pledges to support the group's open-source and Linux efforts. Microsoft has been moving incrementally toward embracing #Linux and open source over the last eight years, though the interaction with the Linux community initially was somewhat hostile. Back in 2001, Steve Ballmer, then CEO of Microsoft, famously said that Linux is cancer. In 2007, Microsoft alleged that open-source software, including Linux, infringes on 235 of Microsoft's patents. "This is a good day. There was a time when the software industry in general was defined by rivalry and a zero-sum game mentality," Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, told eWEEK. "The biggest thing that open source and Linux has proven over the last 25 years is that sharing works, and you can better yourself and others at the same time." Zemlin traced Microsoft’s journey to embrace open source back to 2008, when the company joined the Apache Software Foundation. In 2009, Microsoft became one of the largest contributors to Linux, by way of its code for enabling Hyper-V virtualization support. Subsequently, Microsoft has open-sourced multiple efforts, including .NET and, earlier this year, PowerShell. "Tens of thousands of lines of code have been open-sourced by Microsoft," Zemlin said. In Zemlin's view, Microsoft has clearly demonstrated it is a meaningful player in the open-source movement. Microsoft employs more software developers than any other single company, he said, and it's his hope the company will have a big, positive impact on the Linux Foundation community. The Linux Foundation itself has expanded in recent years to be about more than just Linux. It has launched multiple Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects including the Hyperledger Project for bitcoin and the Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) for internet security, among other endeavors. Zemlin commented that Microsoft already has been participating in multiple Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects including CII, node.js Foundation, OpenAPI and the OpenDaylight Project for software-defined networking (SDN).

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