Microsoft has joined The Linux Foundation as a platinum member at its Connect(); 2016 developer event at New York City in United States to better collaborate with the open source community and also welcomed Google to the independent .NET Foundation.
Membership is a big step for Microsoft, but it’s perhaps bigger news for OSS, says @jzemlin https://t.co/Ru8quwFDiD (pic via @Microsoft) pic.twitter.com/rQeNNKj0au
— The Linux Foundation (@linuxfoundation) November 16, 2016
The move will benefit customers through increased collaboration and innovation among a diverse ecosystem.
Today, Microsoft has become an active member of the open source community from cloud computing to networking to gaming. This surprise move of the company will help to provide open, flexible & intelligent tools and cloud services to any developer to create intelligent cloud and mobile apps of their choice and also benefit the open source community.
Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President, Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Group, 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.”
Microsoft is already an active member in many Linux Foundation projects viz.
To create open-source environment, Microsoft has
- Open-sourced PowerShell, Visual Studio Code and Edge’s JavaScript engine.
- Tied-up with Canonical to get Ubuntu in Windows 10.
- Released the open source .NET Core 1.0
- Acquired Xamarin to help in mobile- app development.
- Also open sourced Xamarin’s SDKs and developer tools.
- Brought SQL Server to Linux.
- In addition, Microsoft works with companies like Red Hat, SUSE and others to support their solutions in its products.
Microsoft is also a chief open source contributor on GitHub.
Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of The Linux Foundation , said
“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.”
The Linux Foundation is the non-profit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration. It provides tools, training, and events to scale any open-source project.
